musical influences...

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Am I the only one that gets pissed off when big mainstream bands ethier copy or repaetly refer to underground/little known or obscure bands as a huge infulence? Its as if they cant come up with anything new so they have to rip off other groups ideas/styles. Idk why but it just makes my blood boil, anyone else have similar feelings on this?

I don't really care. To me there is a clear difference between pop music and art music, although there is overlap. Since pop music is commercial, pop bands tend to take the original sounds and techniques of more artistic bands and fit them to the pop song format. I don't listen to much pop music, but I think that's just how it works. It's sort of the same thing that happens in the art music world, where experimental artists provide the ideas that more traditional artists steal to use in progressive but not radical ways.

Even the most genious musicians steal other people's work. Sometimes it's called a rip-off, sometimes an hommage. Even in the classical world...see how many times you can find composers quoting Beethoven....Mahler 1 (whish is also quoted all the time), Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique, Shostakovich 5...

heh heh
i always just chuckle at those big popular terrible bands and all of their ignorant followers

speaking of which, what are yousguys' favorite bands?

mine include Tool (which i guess is somewhat popular and quite well known but still super creative, unique talented and flawless at songwriting nonetheless) APC (because i frikkin' love maynard's voice and Josh Freese's drumming) Nine Inch Nails (a very sincere composer full of true raw emotion that i wish i had and very good at intuitive songwriting) and Radiohead, because their music is much more interesting and weird then most other popular bands...if not all... i also look a lot like johnny greenwood... i mean a lot like him...

I also like Radiohead (Kid A my favorite), Tool (and Lateralus is my favorite), and Nine Inch Nails (Year Zero might actually be my favorite of his). I listen to lots of music, because it's my obsession basically (I make music as well, and I got passionate about that only several months ago, and I plan on going far with it). I've always listened to rock music, but it's only a part of what I like. My favorite rock bands are Sonic Youth, Mono (a Japanese instrumental band, and I've seen them live twice, the first time being one of the most significant events in my life so far), and Can (if they count as rock, because they're "krautrock"). I also love The Velvet Underground, Les Rallizes Denudes, Dinosaur Jr, Mogwai, and Godspeed You Black Emperor. I also really love the "noise" musician Merzbow. I love the jazz musicians John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, and Miles Davis. In classical music, Beethoven is immortal. And I love the modern composers Rhys Chatham, Glenn Branca, and Charlemagne Palestine. There's a lot of other stuff that I like too. For example, heavy metal such as Pelican, Agalloch, Enslaved, Emperor; the prog rock band King Crimson; hip-hop group Public Enemy; the avant-garde pop of Scott Walker; the weird Captain Beefheart.

I always want to talk about music.

mmm, radiohead, tool, APC.

I've been obsessed with the Killers for the last year. They were really popular when I was living in France, less here.

I'm a conservatory student, so classical music is really my domain. As stated, Beethoven is "immoratal." His music is the only compelling proof of a god that i've ever seen. Shostakovich is amazing.

As far as jazz, goes, taboo as it is, I love swing stuff, and earlier. Nothing like a good skanky blues tune. Sidney Bechet. If my soul played soprano sax (which it never would), it would sound like Bechet.

I know what you mean.

My favroite bands/groups/musicains are: brian eno, capn beefheart, david bowie, emerson lake and palmer, james brown, frank zappa, gary numan, gentle giant, jefferson airplane, king crimson, mahavishnu orchestra, miles davis, my bloody valentine, sonic youth, pink floyd, and television. I lisiten to much more, but these are my favs.

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That's a good list. We've probably approached listening to music in similar ways. Especially because, although I listen to some different stuff now, aside from a couple artists (james brown, gary numan, television) and adding some classical music, that's an accurate list of what I listened to in high school!

What are your favorite albums by Sonic Youth, Miles Davis, or Frank Zappa, since they have so many?

Do you listen to The Velvet Underground?

It's annoying when it's very blatant and they have literally no ideas of their own, but everything is ripped off from somewhere at this point, so you have to get used to it.

Thats exactly what I meant! Thats also why most of the groups I like are from the 60's-70's, in my opinion, orgionality in music is dead.

I think every artist borrows to a certain extent. It's impossible not to have your inspirations. Do you think those "original" bands didn't also rip off some elements of other bands?

Besides, I often don't like the band that's getting "ripped off." Often I will like a band, then hear people say that the band just ripped off some other band, so then I listen to that original band and don't like it and don't think that the two bands sound very alike. Often I'll find that the more successful band is much more appealing to my ears--often I'll find the vocalist to be better at singing or to have a more unique voice, I'll find the production values far higher, the lyrics easier to relate to, the songs to be better. An "original" artist can come up with an original sound but fail to make any really great SONGS, and if another artist comes along, takes a similar sound but combines it with more mainstream stylings, makes it easier-to-get-into--then I don't have a problem with it. No matter how many people tell me Joy Division is great and She Wants Revenge sucks, I'll still prefer She Wants Revenge by far.

Another factor is sometimes two bands come up with the same sound and aren't aware of each other, like in the case of Slipknot and Mushroomhead. Mushroomhead came before, and were offered a major record deal that they refused because they didn't want to change their music and sell out. Slipknot came along with a similar act and did sign the record deal, and got really big due to the increased budget, production values, and advertising that came with it. Since then you can't go to any Mushroomhead-related site without someone bringing up Slipknot, and despite having more popularity nowadays, every time Mushroomhead gets interviewed they're always asked about Slipknot. In my view the whole thing's stupid because they didn't even know about each other, they're both great bands, and they're not even completely similar, and I think it's best to just think of them as separate and to stop constantly comparing them.

It's nothing new. Popular music has always functioned that way. New ideas get tested in the small communities of die-hard music-lovers, i.e. "subcultures", i.e. "the underground". The ideas that prove to be popular get copied and adapted to reach a larger market. This adaptation typically involves making the music sound more familiar and less controversial. If you follow any trend backwards chronologically, you'll start with some awful, boring radio bands and end up with some innovative bands that most people don't know about.