The Delegates

Break-in is a novelty/comedic record style in which a narrator (often a mock reporter) delivers a skit or "news bulletin" that is repeatedly interrupted by very short, instantly recognizable snippets of current hit records. The song clips are placed so their lyrics "answer" the narrator’s questions, creating a rapid-fire Q&A collage. Pioneered in the United States by Bill Buchanan and Dickie Goodman in the mid-1950s, break-in records used razor-blade tape edits to stitch together spoken-word setups with licensed or often very brief, unlicensed hooks from the charts. The result is a humorous, highly topical montage that both parodies pop culture and showcases technical cut-and-paste ingenuity. The technique foreshadowed sample-based pop and hip hop by treating commercially released records as raw material. Although legally contentious in its early years, the format proved remarkably influential on later sample collages, plunderphonics, and turntablist approaches.