In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. The widespread use of sampling in popular music originated with the birth of electronic dance music, hip hop music and industrial music in the late 1970s to early 1980s. This is typically done with a sampler, which can be a piece of hardware or a computer program. Sampling is also possible with tape loops or with vinyl records on a phonograph.

Often "samples" consist of one part of a song, such as a break, used in another, for instance the use of the drum introduction from Led Zeppelin's "When the Levee Breaks" in songs by the Beastie Boys, Dr. Dre, Eminem, Mike Oldfield, Rob Dougan, Coldcut, Depeche Mode and Erasure, and the guitar riffs from Foreigner's "Hot Blooded" in Tone Lōc's "Funky Cold Medina". "Samples" in this sense occur often in industrial music, often using spoken words from movies and TV shows, as well as electronic music (which developed out of the musique concrète style of electroacoustic music, based almost entirely on samples and sample-like parts), hip hop, developed from DJs repeating the breaks from songs, and contemporary R&B, but are becoming more common in other music as well.