Who thinks their music is original?

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The Leveller
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Re: Who thinks their music is original?

Post by The Leveller » Sun Feb 20, 2011 6:14 pm

dirigibles?
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Rinsemeister
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Re: Who thinks their music is original?

Post by Rinsemeister » Mon Feb 21, 2011 12:03 am

Late to the party...............

But, yeah, my music is original and I'm willing to take the flack!

This is one toon.....http://soundcloud.com/mr-zed/where-do-we-go-when-we-die

and I've got others.

Whoopedoo!

Here's another...http://soundcloud.com/mr-zed/when-the-machine-breaks

Never been done before???

And another....http://soundcloud.com/mr-zed/miles-away

Well not before I did it...

And then.....

aizo
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Re: Who thinks their music is original?

Post by aizo » Mon Feb 21, 2011 4:36 am

My musical is original. It sucks like no other.

:cry:
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Fanu
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Re: Who thinks their music is original?

Post by Fanu » Mon Feb 21, 2011 6:58 am

I'd dare say I'm doing something original :)

http://www.fanumusic.com if you wanna check it out

aizo
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Re: Who thinks their music is original?

Post by aizo » Mon Feb 21, 2011 3:38 pm

Fanu wrote:I'd dare say I'm doing something original :)

http://www.fanumusic.com if you wanna check it out
My fucking god that shit was nice man.....I love your tracks

I wish i could get my songs to sound as good as that. My songs sound too rigid!
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simonlb
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Re: Who thinks their music is original?

Post by simonlb » Tue Feb 22, 2011 11:14 am

I don't worry too much about trying to search for a "new sound" or make something that's never been heard before, I just try to make good music that I'm happy with that isn't a blatant rip-off of my influences, I figure the more I do it the more I'll find my own style. No point in trying to force that, I'd rather expend my energy just making music.

Depends what you want... it can be taken to the extreme, I saw a feature on 2000 And One on Residentadvisor who was basically saying he's just making tech house for people to dance to do and doesn't care if it's nothing revolutionary. IMO his music is as boring and uninspiring as it gets but if that's what he wants to do then who am I to argue? :)

kev herb
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Re: Who thinks their music is original?

Post by kev herb » Tue Feb 22, 2011 11:25 am

All music has similarities to others but because you made it it is original. All finger prints look like finger prints but they are still all different. Bit of a yoda style comment there! :lol:
Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia- Fear of long words

Forge.
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Re: Who thinks their music is original?

Post by Forge. » Wed Feb 23, 2011 1:50 am

Angstrom wrote:If you are very original it doesn't translate into a general success. Being "ahead of your time" is pretty bad, and usually just means very little positive response and/or derision. Usually a new genre is broken by the followers, ten or twenty years after the originator dies in poverty/madness. If you are lucky they'll make a tv program about you and pronounce your name half-right.
Can be true, especially of the classic Van Gogh view of the tortured artist who dies alone undiscovered, but I wouldn't say it's necessarily the majority of cases.... Kurt Cobain (among many others) went the other way and couldn't handle the success... which begs the question, is "success" really the marker that everyone should aim for? Or, actually probably what i mean is we need to be clear in our minds what our idea of success is.

But there are I think far more original people who were ahead of the time and then went on to have long and happy careers - and I would say that it's actually more often the case, because there's a kind of 'natural selection' if you like, where most of the artists we know about usually had to spend a good decade working as nobodies before they got known. In fact if you think of almost any of the "legends" of music, usually they had quite a few years doing it rough before they got any measure of success.

But look at someone like Tom Waits. He's been going for a very long time now, and you could definitely call him original.... although even then only to a degree, if you listen to Howlin Wolf it's easy to see he was at least one of Waits' influences....

And likewise, Portishead sounded like one of the most original bands ever in the early 90s, but if you've seen Eraserhead, then you could almost say their entire catalogue seems like it was spawned from the woman in the radiator: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qrl3n2ZtK2E

James Stinson from Drexciya famously talked about how they completely isolated themselves to deliberately avoid any unwanted influences. Their music was definitely original, especially at the time as the whole techno thing was still fairly new, but there is still a basic framework that it follows in common with other techno acts.....

I personally think total originality is a pointless thing to aim for. It's a love of other people's music that should fan the flames in my humble opinion... the last thing I'd want to do is shut myself off from that.... I would say everything I've ever done has roots somewhere in my influences..

Angstrom
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Re: Who thinks their music is original?

Post by Angstrom » Wed Feb 23, 2011 2:12 am

I guess the degree of originality is the crucial thing.

I'm no student of the man but Tom Waits sounded like Howlin' Wolf singing Bukowski, not the most commercial of aims but it was certainly based on something already part recognizable. Howlin' wolf and Screaming Jay Hawkins were a big influence on a few 'underground' people at the time - Captain Beefheart being another notable example. He fitted into a west coast avante-garde jazz-rock poet sensibility and circuit.
How much credit for originality is given to Tom? 30% seems a generous amount. Even 30% original is like drinking straight whiskey to most people though, unpalatably strong. Lucky for Tom he toughed it out.

Portishead, when I heard them with their scratchy retro breaks and trip-hop low-tempo bristol sound, I immediately knew it was a hit act. It was like hearing something you knew you wanted without knowing it. It was new but it was also synthesis of what everyone was trying to do at the time. Was Portishead a giant leap away from what Tricky or Massive were doing? Not really, but it was just different enough that people said : ah yeah, you brought me my %10 originality. I like my dance music, but my ecstasy is really wearing off now, and I am just too suburban and white to really get into hip-hop. so thanks for bringin' it. ;)

However, if they had arrived with atonal clanging and a woman singing Stalinist operettas translated into backwards esperanto over a 250bpm steeldrum backing ... then the audience might have said "erm, we aren't currently prepared for this sound"

because I think : The audience must be only one or two steps behind the performer, so that the surprise the act brings is a pleasant one. If the audience are 200,000 steps behind the performer then it is just too much ground for the listener to cover before they can begin to enjoy the work. Too far, too fast, too original.

It takes time to appreciate originality.
That's why the 1980s are much better this time around.

LoopStationZebra
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Re: Who thinks their music is original?

Post by LoopStationZebra » Wed Feb 23, 2011 2:34 am

I can't find it, but somewhere I've got a magazine article in which Peter Gabriel says something to the effective of 'I've stolen every good idea I've ever had, then made it my own'.

:)
I came for the :lol:
But stayed for the :x

dick nixon
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Re: Who thinks their music is original?

Post by dick nixon » Wed Feb 23, 2011 3:55 am

I think we're original. Everyone comes up with something different when they try to tell us what we sound like, and we don't really sound like any of those things, so that's got to mean something.

Stabris.com

Forge.
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Re: Who thinks their music is original?

Post by Forge. » Wed Feb 23, 2011 4:40 am

Angstrom wrote:.....
However, if they had arrived with atonal clanging and a woman singing Stalinist operettas translated into backwards esperanto over a 250bpm steeldrum backing ... then the audience might have said "erm, we aren't currently prepared for this sound"
....
but then there is definitely an audience for things that way out, it's just usually in art galleries or festivals - far from the majority of course, but then there is definitely enough interest the world over for someone to consider themselves "successful" - in fact I know some sound/multimedia artists who are constantly touring around the world and being paid for 'sound art' which is quite often pretty abstract...... and there seems to be enough demand to keep people in work around the world....

Again, I guess it comes down to our ideas of success.... 'sound art' is not original either... stockhausen (et al) did stuff like that a long time ago now...

Actually I think the whole concept of originality is largely moot. In the same way the Dalai Lama said there should really be 6 billion religions because there are 6 billion people, ultimately, even if you do a cover of another artist, it is still your version of it. You can try and do it identical to the original in which case the amount of your contribution is minimal, but then there is Joe Cocker's "With a little help from my friends" which is practically a different song..... ultimately anyone doing their own thing is original, just in varying degrees.

3phase
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Re: Who thinks their music is original?

Post by 3phase » Wed Feb 23, 2011 7:11 am

abletontrainer.com wrote:ultimately anyone doing their own thing is original, just in varying degrees.
ultimatly anyone playing with theire own poo is original..
mac book 2,16 ghz 4(3)gb ram, Os 10.62, fireface 400,

Forge.
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Re: Who thinks their music is original?

Post by Forge. » Wed Feb 23, 2011 8:51 am

3phase wrote:
abletontrainer.com wrote:ultimately anyone doing their own thing is original, just in varying degrees.
ultimatly anyone playing with theire own poo is original..
absolutely.

and your poo is even more original 3phase :P

The Leveller
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Re: Who thinks their music is original?

Post by The Leveller » Wed Feb 23, 2011 9:39 am

I like the '10% originality' idea.

I see that. Yes, your music has to fit with the trend du jour, but give it a 10% original twist and you are on your way.

I suppose ti is frustrating as an amateur if you are continuously compared to someone else, don't you sound like so and so if you're aim is to bhe seen as fresh and new and original, at least to some degree.

Disagree on the 80s, the 80s revival has been going on every year since 1990 and frankly, it is as shit now as it was then, its just that the kids are so young now they forget how uncool the whole thing was.

On the other hand....the 80s are a massive influence on my music becasue thats when I grew up. simples.

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