The word ORIGINAL is described (partially) in the dictionary as being...
"that from which a copy is made"
"independent and creative in thought or action"
"not secondary, derivative, or imitative" and most interestingly...
"an eccentric person"
Here's some food for thought. There is very little that any of us do in music that hasn't been done before. There's not much that can really be called original yet many of us continue to use the term to describe the stuff we like. I've heard a lot of bands out there say "We don't sound like anyone else." . Really. Well in the interest of challenging our notions about what we do, let me ask who else was in the category. Maybe a more accurate statement would be " We don't sound exactly like any of the three alternative bands who currently have a video in the top ten". Fair enough. I'm not proposing that musicians shouldn't play what they want to, however being original means the one who comes up with the idea. A lot of what I hear is cool enough but the music just doesn't seem special in any way. So on the topic of originality I have bad news, more bad news and at last some good news.
First the bad news. The music we make is made up of some very basic building blocks. You've got 12 notes, a guitar, a drum kit, 4/4 time, the 7th chord and so on. You can see that that's not very many blocks considering the history of music. Hasn't the instrumentation in a rock band been the same since Chuck Berry and Elvis began? Didn't Black Sabbath, Metallica and Soundgarden all use the same minor pentatonic scale? Of course, the flat 5th is in the public domain.
A little more bad news is that history I alluded to. In ???? Mozart wrote his first symphony and he had at his disposal the same 12 notes we use today. No distortion boxes but the same 12 notes. Think of all the people who've had their hands on these building blocks. Everybody from Bach to Gershwin to Little Richard to Jimi Hendrix sat down with those same blocks and OK let me make something. Even among people who play my instrument the bass, I feel a little overwhelmed sometimes at the giant steps that have been taken in it's development.
Most of the stories of true innovation have some of the same elements. The innovator gets laughed at or ridiculed in the beginning. Then achieves some success. Then everyone is on the wagon. The "band" wagon that is. Face it most people have a box around their mind that tends to filter out outside information and keep what's inside bouncing around. And the more you hear something the more true it is right? Well make up your own mind but I'm just saying that in an environment where people are prone to resist an original idea and are bombarded with information constantly, the first step is to get their attention. And if you are experiencing some ridicule then you've broken down that barrier. Not exactly what you had in mind? Well it's a start.
Am I advocating that we should all go out and suck? No. I'm advocating truth and art. I'm advocating not pretending to be original. I'm saying that digging deep down and finding the music that's really you, is as original as it gets. I'm advocating being ourselves. And for what it's worth I think just finding that music, is its own reward.
So until we meet again to dig into the musical Ladmo bag, see ya and have fun.
eatsmespinich
