is your band really that original?

[jomahu]

...yes yes we all know that no music is truly original and blah blah blah.
but y'know sometimes, you see/hear a band and automatically you think, "they sound exactly like [insert band here]."
i often wonder if these bands know what they're doing, or if they truly believe that they sound totally original.

and then, of course, i wonder about my own band...'cause altho' we've never been accused of being a rip-off of others, we often get criticized that we're not 'doing it right.' genre-wise, i mean...we're not reggae enough, or afro-beat enough, or whatever.

what d'you think about your band, or others you may have seen/heard?

[the_fonz]

of course my band is original
you can't write a song called "Kickass Smegma Jam #2" and not be original

[Musiclogic]

well, that depends on what you call original, Zappa wrote tunes with stupid names 40 years ago, He was original, everything since has just been a dilluted wannabe scenario

[the_fonz]

Originally Posted by Musiclogic

well, that depends on what you call original, Zappa wrote tunes with stupid names 40 years ago, He was original, everything since has just been a dilluted wannabe scenario

haha, zappa
i never really "got" zappa
everybody else liked him and it's like i sorta missed the whole point

[j.a.e.r.i.p]

to be honest i've never heard anybody who i hear and say "that sounds like my band". but i think that if i've never heard them, i'm sure as hell not ripping them off

[cutthroatmolloy]

im sure there are plenty of bands that sound similar to us.

our pirate theme has been done before.

we're completely unoriginal

[Otso]

The need to do something different than what has been done before has lead to wonderful things, such as atonality.

[anesthetist]

i think this is certainly a problem in the states, atleast among the mainstream pop/rock bands that pop up.

[The BurgerMeister]

Originally Posted by Otso

The need to do something different than what has been done before has lead to wonderful things, such as atonality.

hilarious.

that being said, some of my favorite music is by the "atonal" composers (like schoenberg, stravinsky, penderecki, cage, crumb, berg, partch....).

still a great post, though. good one, Otso!

[Freddels]

About 99% of the time that I hear an "original" band they sound like just about every other "original" band. Nothing distinctive about them. Just giving a tune a different name, different lyrics, doesn't get it done for originality.

[Winemule]

"Originality" is overblown, I think. The issue for my band is having an identifiable "sound." We have three lead singers, all different, and while we play "rootsy" music, we have a lot of different roots: Blues, country, rock'n'roll, gospel, psychedelia...sometimes I wish our sound wasn't quite so diverse! Lately we've taken to calling it "Urban Americana." When you don't fit a category, just gotta invent your own!

[Jeff Martinez]

I like to think my band is original, only because I'm not aware of anyone else doing "new-age dance-metal". All the bands that influence us are missing one or more elements that we have. Rammstein is missing the New-Age aspect. Enigma is missing the chunky guitars. Etc, etc...

[jomahu]

Originally Posted by Winemule

"Originality" is overblown, I think. The issue for my band is having an identifiable "sound." We have three lead singers, all different, and while we play "rootsy" music, we have a lot of different roots: Blues, country, rock'n'roll, gospel, psychedelia...sometimes I wish our sound wasn't quite so diverse! Lately we've taken to calling it "Urban Americana." When you don't fit a category, just gotta invent your own!

i hear that. we came up with two extremely arrogant 'genres' of our own:
progressive groove
new world soul (which became our album title)

for most people, we just call it 'world music.'

i like the term 'urban americana.'

[Jeff Martinez]

Originally Posted by Freddels

About 99% of the time that I hear an "original" band they sound like just about every other "original" band. Nothing distinctive about them. Just giving a tune a different name, different lyrics, doesn't get it done for originality.

I think it's similar to "Alternative" music. There was a time when and "alternative" radio station played music that was an "alternative" to the main stream. Now it's just a sub-genre of rock music. It means nothing anymore.

[Afrokid]

nothings really original now adays ..

[QORC]

Originally Posted by jomahu

...yes yes we all know that no music is truly original and blah blah blah.
but y'know sometimes, you see/hear a band and automatically you think, "they sound exactly like [insert band here]."
i often wonder if these bands know what they're doing, or if they truly believe that they sound totally original.

and then, of course, i wonder about my own band...'cause altho' we've never been accused of being a rip-off of others, we often get criticized that we're not 'doing it right.' genre-wise, i mean...we're not reggae enough, or afro-beat enough, or whatever.

what d'you think about your band, or others you may have seen/heard?

what IS really original anymore anyway? Hasn't virtually every possible wrinkle on "rock" been done during the last 50 years?

basically, yes.

It's not about really being original (I mean, how often does a Devo come along?), but about trends that wax and wane and hitting it at the right moment.

[Phalex]

I play in a cover band! Yes, we are that original. We've taken copying other peoples stuff to dizzying new heights! Even the name of the band was lifted from someone else. The Logo too. We have taken non originality further than any one has ever taken it previously and somewhere along the way it became distinctively ours.

[Drucocu]

yes, we are!
the magazines allready created a new genre, because of us!
new wave of folk metal
we were the first band mixing up melodic death metal with folky tunes (NO keyboards, only "real" instruments: violin, flutes, pipes, hurdy-gurdy and so on)
hehe, its the opposite, magazines allready started writing: (put in new bandname) sound like (put in my bandname)...

:-D

guess that's why we just got a record deal with nuclear blast records last week!!!!

[ElectrAcoustic]

I don't believe that everything that can be done has been done musically but to a certain extent, it's somewhat true.. real originality in music happens very, very rarely. Maybe if you grew up completely isolated or if you're John Coltrane or Zappa or someone on that level of genius.. Otherwise, chances are someone else has taken style x and mixed it with style y and added a z edge.. you just never heard of them..

[OtterOnBass]

There's still plenty of ground to cover. Sounds and combinations of sounds are nearly infinite. It's making them musical and close enough to what the listener has already heard so that he can enjoy it that's difficult.