Oooh, I had this crysis too. ...I'm not sure who's quote it is, but some big musician once said that there's only four original songs in whole music history and all the others are inspired. Obviously this is exaggeration of him, but in a sense he's right.

Everyone had their influences. You need to have them to know what music is at all. Otherwise you could call any noise a "music". Even those most ground breaking artists have them. I heard Skrillexe's Scary Monsters were massively influenced by Noisia. I'm sure guys from Noisia have their inspiration too. And so on... When people say "music evolves", this is what they mean by that. This image of producer sitting in the dark, when out of a sudden big yellow shining lightbulb appears above his head and he spits out next world-famous music genere, that's just plain wrong. It's a sweet image, because we'd all love to be that guy at certain point, but it doesn't work that way at all.

...and it's not just about music. Steve Jobs once said (can't find the video, damn...) that the best innovators always feel a bit shameful when someone praises their work, as they always know they just put different pieces together. It's called "lone inventor" myth. Even people like Einstein, Newton or Edison didn't come up with their work alone. They had coworkers and inspirations too. And that's what I think is important here.

I believe it's vital to listen to at least a bunch of different music styles. Trying to combine your influences makes your style. I don't think there's same in that.

Oooh, I had this crysis too. ...I'm not sure who's quote it is, but some big musician once said that there's only four original songs in whole music history and all the others are inspired. Obviously this is exaggeration of him, but in a sense he's right.

Everyone had their influences. You need to have them to know what music is at all. Otherwise you could call any noise a "music". Even those most ground breaking artists have them. I heard Skrillexe's Scary Monsters were massively influenced by Noisia. I'm sure guys from Noisia have their inspiration too. And so on... When people say "music evolves", this is what they mean by that. This image of producer sitting in the dark, when out of a sudden big yellow shining lightbulb appears above his head and he spits out next world-famous music genere, that's just plain wrong. It's a sweet image, because we'd all love to be that guy at certain point, but it doesn't work that way at all.

...and it's not just about music. Steve Jobs once said (can't find the video, damn...) that the best innovators always feel a bit shameful when someone praises their work, as they always know they just put different pieces together. It's called "lone inventor" myth. Even people like Einstein, Newton or Edison didn't come up with their work alone. They had coworkers and inspirations too. And that's what I think is important here.

I believe it's vital to listen to at least a bunch of different music styles. Trying to combine your influences makes your style. I don't think there's same in that.

Spot on FarleyCZ.  I remember jobs said something about "I didn't do anything special. I just took all the pieces that existed and put them together." 

This is a curious issue to me.  As Mussar says, the lone inventor myth is fatalistic.  So then, why do "creative types" have such a fatalistic POV?  What is it that makes us so hard on ourselves?

The idea of creating "original art" when your understanding of art is based entirely upon the art that you have been subjected to throughout your life - unless you've been living in a cave and just learning through trial and error - is a fatalistic and self-defeating one.

Exactly this. It's actually very liberating to realize. You can shamelessly copy stuff from others, and you don't have to feel bad about it, as long as you know that it's just a part of your creative process, not a way to pretend to be someone you're not. This is how I interpret the phrase "immature poets imitate; mature poets steal".

That being said, avoid plagiarism.

At best an armchair psychologist, but I would attribute such comments to the impostor syndrome: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome

Wow. Didn't know there's a name for that. Strangely close (read: spot on) to how I tend to feel right before falling into severe depression.

its good to be inspired by someone else's work, inspiration = music making, everyone looks at everyone else's work, its totally fine and normal

but just dont copy and rip off the sounds

you can 'steal' and emulate as long as you have your own spin on it, you can get away with it, but people will know

its hard to be unique though

but you gotta develop your own unique signature sound to really stand out i think, so you do have to 'steal' in a way but make it your own sound

Quote from: FarleyCZ on March 20, 2016, 04:03:18 pm

Yeah, this is the million dollar question. I saw freaking (real) Hans Zimmer posting somewhere that he sometimes has trouble to even indentify himself as a real musician. I mean ... excuse me?

To be fair, he's not a musician in the sense that he writes songs. If you look into his composition process, he is actually much more of a producer - and not specifically in the sense that we are, but that plays a role. There's a story of how the score for Superman was composed where Zimmer walks over to a piano, plays two notes in a particular rhythm, then looks to his team of orchestrators and says "go write a score." He's the creative vision and oversees the production process, but he's a computer programmer with little to no knowledge of music theory (which explains his focus on the frequency response of sounds).

Hans Zimmer has low music theory knowledge? Man wtf he makes awesome music I thought he knew everything about music theory

I have to agree with Mussar a bit. He does surround himself with a ton of talent. John Powell, Steve Jablonsky, Henry Jackman... all of these got where they are thanks to participating in Hans Zimmer scores. I'm not sold on the idea of him having no musical knowledge though. He admitted he has trouble writting notes, he really is more on the producer mindset, but that doesn't make him less of a musician imho.

EDIT: Ha! Found it! These are his exact words:

I never studied music, but I'm basically unemployable in any other field. I've never had a real job. And most days I question if I am a "Real Composer"...

If that ain't a perfect living and breathing example of that impostor syndrome and "lone inventor" myth, I don't know what is.