How original are you?

[Stackabones]

"Reality can't be copyrighted."

 

"Art is a conversation between and among artists, not a patent office."

 

"I want to make manifest what artists have done from the beginning of time--feed off one another's work and, in so doing, remake it, refashion it, fashion something new."

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-shields/in-writing-art-and-music_b_592462.html'>link

 

 

Do you pay the copyright registration mafia with your protection money? Are you part of a grand tradition by doing so or not?

 

How original are you? Do you own your originality?

[Lee Knight]

How original am I?

 

Not very.

[Stackabones]

[Oswlek]

I have registered a copyrights, but only because it is so inexpensive to do so. Considering how few people listen to my songs (even in light of this site, youtube, reverbnation) I wouldn't bother if it were more costly.

 

As for my originality, I haven't a clue. Songs come to me and I tinker with them until I've found them. Some feel "new" but a significant number of them have blatant influences.

[Matximus]

Originality... meh. I don't think it's all that important, really.

 

Stick with what's worked before - that's my MO. Although, you know, change it up enough to avoid outright theft....

 

Registering copyrights? Waste of time unless you make your living off music or are desperately trying to. Otherwise relax. Nobody anywhere gives a frig about what you are doing enough to bother stealing it...and even if they did, it's not worth money anyway. Accept this truth and it shall set you free...

[Silent Heart]

Why is completely original music just worthless, academic navel gazing 99.99% of the time? Because the blues-based pop/rock song is far and away the best vehicle for delivering entertainment in musical form, at least to our Western ears. Am I off base?

 

I think an interesting question is: how likely is there is to be a currently unknown, completely different approach to music that is as effective as the blues-based pop/rock song? It seems very unlikely to me, given that so much has been tried in the last 100 years. Any other opinions?

[tbry]

They broke the mold after me...nobody sings like me, nobody strums crappy chords like me...nobody phrases the words like me...nobody is the same.

 

I am an original...

 

I am... The most interesting man in the world

[Riffman15]

being original is generally somthing I strive for, although there is somthing to be said for just playing in a conventional style that people can more easily comprehend and relate to.

 

My song delirium below i felt was pretty original in that it signaled a shift in my playing in which I tried to meld my classical guitar style into my electric playing. This song never really caught on with our fans though. I could get some sense that people appreciated the art of it though. My other songs probably represent a more accessible version of this style I've developed.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6mYnBKhWg8

[neanderpaul]

Sometimes I crush originality in my grip. I.E.

 

Sometimes I shoot straight.

 

[rockinrobby]

I'm "reasonably" original... None of us are really original. I'm as original as I can be.

 

My upcoming hits;

 

1. I wanna hold your glands

 

2. Love love my doo

 

And 3. We're Corporal Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band

 

I hope you support them when they are released. Thank you very much and we hope we passed the audition.

[Chicken Monkey]

Any originality I display is purely coincidental.

 

I do try to come up with a fairly novel turn of phrase to express my well-worn sentiments, tho.

[Writer]

I am almost as original as a Dr. Pepper...

 

[YOUTUBE]gQPN3UKQM-U&feature=related[/YOUTUBE]

[Eclepto Funk]

i'm so {censored}ing original i haven't been born yet

 

mother

 

f er

 

or something

[eddieboston2]

Most songs aren't worth copyrighting. If somebody steals them, at least that means they listened to them. Take my songs... please!

[blue2blue]

I'm more genuine than I am original.

 

 

In the late 90s I sounded fresh -- you should pardon that woefully stale expression -- possibly -- because I was caught up in applying postmodern techniques from hip hop, dub and trip hop influences to my roots oriented songwriting.

 

I had a lot of fun with that but I'm afraid it was more mash up than creation or true originality. (An example from '97. Probably one of my most DL'd tracks, in part because it was a Song of the Day at the old Mp3.com back in '99 when that site was first heating up.)

 

But at least I didn't sound like everyone else.

 

For a while.

 

I have to tell you, I felt like someone had pulled a bar stool out from under me the first time I heard a funky hip hop blues from G Love. It was a cross-polinization that was pretty well destined to happen. But I'd almost started to feel like I'd carved out my little niche... for 15 minutes, anyhow.

[Cliftonb]

 

Why is completely original music just worthless, academic navel gazing 99.99% of the time? Because the blues-based pop/rock song is far and away the best vehicle for delivering entertainment in musical form, at least to our Western ears. Am I off base? I think an interesting question is: how likely is there is to be a currently unknown, completely different approach to music that is as effective as the blues-based pop/rock song? It seems very unlikely to me, given that so much has been tried in the last 100 years. Any other opinions?

 

 

I think it's not just possible, but very likely. Within the fringes of Modern and Contemporary classical and avant-garde/experimental music lies some of the most fertile ground for musical innovation that exists. That and and a lot of non-Western stuff. There are people taking this "difficult" music and turning it into something resembling popularly accessible music.

 

Actually, there are some artist who are very close to that even now.

[chriscarnucci]

I guess in some ways I'm some what original. The songs I write are my own creation, though themes and phrases have probably been in other songs before at some time in history.

 

What I hope comes out more in my songs is me being creative!

But mostly I write songs because I just really, really enjoy doing it.

[LeonardScaper]

the blues-based pop/rock song is far and away the best vehicle for delivering entertainment in musical form, at least to our Western ears. Am I off base?

 

Nope.....at least not in my humble opinion.

 

As far as my stuff goes.........originality is about all I have going for me.

[Mark L]

Dunno, really

[Elias Graves]

We construct our edifice upon the ruins of those before.

 

EG

[rhino55]

I tend to see the concept of originality as a marketing tool. I tend to look for honesty in other peoples songs and expect nothing else out of my own.

 

The way I tend to judge an artist's honesty is generally as follows

 

lyrical content

production

personality off stage

personality on stage

[Oswlek]

I'm more genuine than I am original.

 

I wish I had written that.

[Lee Knight]

I'm not sure how to go about originality. I tend to like music that's combines influences in various amounts.

 

"Oh... cool, there's a bit of Willie Dixon/Chuck Berry and Orbital mixed together!!"

 

Is that original? If that fits the definition of originality, then I think I do alright. I love to combine disparate elements into something that appears quite normal. Like it belongs, it doesn't really seem to be original at all. Except you've maybe never heard those elements together before.

 

That's my aim at least.

[blue2blue]

I wish I had written that.

You still can.

 

[Temple of Light]

I can honestly say that my most current work, does not remind me of anything I have ever heard before, and that none of my conscious influences are showing evidently through. For what it's worth...