[Discussion] How original do we need to be?

On 1/2/2020 at 8:41 AM, Monarcheon said:

...but we need to be original enough to...

Let me stop you right there Sir or Madam.

You don't need to be original at all! Look at almost everything else out there.

I think the whole point of even talking about originality is to make some kind of stupid self-imposed challenge that forces you to do something that may or may not be "original." Remember, just because something is original, doesn't mean it's not also insane or stupid. Which may be a good thing, who knows? So next time you're working hard on that Cello triple concerto, how about you count all the yellow cars on a parking lot for your next chord change? Or throw some dice at a moving target blindfolded and only count those that fail to fall where you can easily find them! The options are literally endless!

!.

4 minutes ago, SSC said:

You don't need to be original at all! Look at almost everything else out there

On an artistic level? Agree for the most part. On a commercial level? Then I don't, at least to an extent. Audiences are fickle. 

Just now, Monarcheon said:

On a commercial level?

What? I mean, if you're concerned with making the moneys, then copying successful stuff is where the money IS. It necessarily requires you to be unoriginal, as otherwise it's a bad investment of your time if what you're doing is uncertain to be liked by enough people to generate enough money to justify doing it to make enough money to justify keep doing it in the future so you can continue to do the thing you're meant to be doing and also be original at the same time keeping in mind that in the end you should be earning enough to make up on your investment of time.

That's pretty much the extent I was talking about. You have bands like Tool, old Taylor Swift, and They Might Be Giants who have their, according to lots of audiences, own sound. Then you get people who abandon Taylor when she switches to the mainstream because it doesn't have that old style. Imagine if Tool did that.

New artists get screwed over for sounding too generic. Artists get sued now for their similar sounding musical aspects. Gentleman by Psy was criticized for sounding too much and not enough like Gangnam Style. 

20 minutes ago, Monarcheon said:

Gentleman by Psy was criticized for sounding too much and not enough like Gangnam Style. 

I love it when music I like is not enough like other music but too much like other music! It's the best!

Just now, SSC said:

I love it when music I like is not enough like other music but too much like other music! It's the best!

 

You really think I meant this opinion came from one person?

1 minute ago, Monarcheon said:

You really think I meant this opinion came from one person?

You can't seriously take the vast majority of people seriously when it comes to anything art at all whatsoever. It's just a bunch of garbage, the surefire way to do things is just copy what's trending and ignore everything else. Move on when there's something new trending. Everything else is post-facto posturing by people who might as well say all music after February 5, 1753 is hot garbage.