A bit much?
There’s a fine line between inadvertently paying homage to the musicians you respect and blatantly (even though perhaps unknowingly) ripping off their ideas. Unless you don’t listen to music at all, you probably cannot help but let other people’s ideas seep into your gray matter and have some sort of influence over your originality.
The question is whether or not what you’re doing sounds too much like someone else, to the point where it’s really not you anymore. Can you walk the thin line and still be yourself?
Are you being derivative or a ripoff?
Periphery - my latest musical infatuation
This hits home for me right now, as I’m currently experiencing this problem while writing music for my new metal project. As it is I sometimes tend to wear my musical influences on my sleeve a little bit, and the problem I’m having currently is that I find myself comparing what I’m writing to other bands’ material – and I’m not satisfied. My latest discovery is a progressive metal/screamo/electronica band called Periphery. (I plan on writing about them more in the near future.) If you haven’t checked them out yet I highly recommend it. They are the most original metal band I’ve heard in a very long time, so much so that I haven’t stopped listening to their CD for several weeks. They are the culmination of all of the styles of music I love and have flirted with for 20+ years.
At the risk of sounding like a schmuck who can’t write original music, I will tell you that as I am writing material for my project I’m finding myself either not happy with what I’m doing because it’s not “Periphery” enough, or I’m writing something that’s really cool but I’m afraid it sounds too much like Periphery. That’s a bit of an over-exaggeration, but it’s dangerous because I’m not intentionally trying to sound like Periphery or any of the other bands that I love (Opeth, Meshuggah, Dream Theater, etc). “Riff creep” is inevitable as these are the bands I listen to the most.
Opeth's Mikael Åkerfeldt
Should I care? Or perhaps it’s better to ask, “How much should I care?” I mean, honestly, if I write a chord progression that happens to be similar to such-and-such song by another artist, is that a ripoff? How many blues and jazz songs have been written using the same exact chords? How many guitar players (try to) sound just like John Petrucci, or Stevie Ray Vaughan, or Wes Montgomery? Comparisons are inevitable, especially in the metal genre, so at what point do I stop worrying so much and just write what I write and be content with writing a great song?
I’m not really concerned with getting signed to a label, and I’m probably a bit too old (and married) to be going on tour for a year, so what am I worried about? I know my lyrical content will be vastly different than any other band, and I know I will have enough of my own originality (I’ve been playing for too long to not be original in some capacity) in each song that it won’t sound like it was a carbon copy of someone else. I mean, in a sense it’s all been done before, right?
I think the bottom line is that in order to be completely true to myself and my music, I need to let things flow. If that means I write a riff that “sounds like xxxx” then so be it. It almost sounds like an oxymoron to say that to be completely true I have to acknowledge that I might not be completely original, but I think so long as my intentions are pure and I’m just out to write the best music I can, a little influence seepage is okay.
What do you guys think?
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I love this topic. And as is sometimes the case, I engaged it so heavily that it turned into a worthy post for my own blog. So stop by! I’m including due credit and link back to your post for getting the ball rolling.
jp
Stratoblogster recently posted: Jessica Jezzy Lewis – UK Strat-o-Sister
Awesome response, JP. Here is a link to your post just in case people want to see it – http://www.stratoblogster.com/2010/07/derivative-music-or-blatant-rip-off.html. I really appreciate you taking the time to read and comment. I especially love your Angus Young mention. It reminds me of when Colbert interviewed Rush and asked them – because they are known for writing very long songs – if they were ever influenced by the beginning of their songs by the time they got to finish writing the end of the same song.
Blog posts like this are cathartic for me, as not only am I wondering about whether this particular song will sound blatant, but also at what point I should stop second guessing myself and just let the music flow along its natural course. It’s only one song, after all…
Hahaaa! I saw Colbert’s Rush show too! Priceless!
Neil Peart was on Bill Maher. Very cool & unflappable!
Stratoblogster recently posted: Jessica Jezzy Lewis – UK Strat-o-Sister
Interesting Josh, when I was going through a creative period my stuff sounded like whomever I was into at the time.
I don’t think you should worry, for pretty much all the reasons you give – nothing is original anyway, you are a bit too old and married to get your music out on tour – but most importantly if you are enjoying it, then it’s all good.
I decided maybe 10 years ago that nobody is interested in my original stuff, it wasn’t that good anyway, so I concentrated creating arrangements of covers. There is a creative aspect to arrangements so there is still me in what I play. I reckon the average listener only wants to hear stuff they already know. It’s the whole “familiarity” aspect of the human condition – fortunately all listeners aren’t average, otherwise there’d be a lot of people writing new stuff just for themselves…
As for your audience, the listeners who are prepared to hear new stuff, well, they’d be into the stuff that you might consider to be a derivative of, so they already love it. Can’t lose!
JAW
JAW recently posted: Naudo’s guitar up for sale-
Thanks, JAW. I’m not worried, per se; I simply love to think and write about the emotional and psychological aspects of being a musician just as much as the actual music side (playing, theory). There’s a lot more to guitar than gear reviews, in my humble opinion.
When it all comes down to it, music is for ourselves. But we would be remiss if we just became xerox copies of our heroes… that’s just being a cover band in essence.
I decided maybe 10 years ago that nobody is interested in my original stuff, it wasn’t that good anyway, so I concentrated creating arrangements of covers. There is a creative aspect to arrangements so there is still me in what I play. I reckon the average listener only wants to hear stuff they already know. It’s the whole “familiarity” aspect of the human condition – fortunately all listeners aren’t average, otherwise there’d be a lot of people writing new stuff just for themselves…
+1