Poll: Is there any originality in Pop music?

This is partly inspired by my music selection for the day, a Phil Collins Greatest Hits disc.� Phil Collins has been just behind every major shift in pop music since Genesis released _Invisible Touch_.� When the world wants synth pop bands, Phil Collins delivers.� When the world wants soulful white male singers, Phil Collins delivers.� When the world want pop duets, Phil Collins delivers.� When the only real radio songs come from Disney animation, Phil Collins delivers.� When the world wants religious music, Phil Collins delivers.

No matter what is happening on the cutting edge of music, Phil Collins is just behind it.� It's like he waits to see if the fad will hold before deciding to contribute.� He's the B.J. Thomas of the 80's and 90's.

This thought process led to an intense desire to throttle Phil Collins. :-)

How many opportunists are recording?� Is anyone doing anything original?

Now there is a can-o-worms. How original is original anyway. Rock and Roll, which is the genesis of what we call popular music, was itself spawned by blues. (which is oversimplified I know, but I'll leave it to someone else to do a doctoral dissertation on where gospel, bluegrass, country, cajun, skiffle and others fit in the who spawned who sense) Suffice to say the an arguement could be made that there hasn't been anything original since Muddy Waters' Sun Record recordings in the early '50s. Or some other arbitrary date.

To answer your questions, in general, the closest thing to complete originality will come from� younger artists, or at least from people who are just starting out. Most of these peple will do nothing but add their own twist to what went on before but one or two may find something that is a new direction. But until someone figures out something that sounds as "right" to the ear as I-IV-V-I I don't think there can be anything truely new.

Well, when you get right down to it... nothing is original... it's all derived from something....

Music from chanting... chanting from talking.... blah blah blah.

Right. As long as you are talking Western music. That was my point really, as long as we are talking the western tonal system what really is original. Now if our ears could ever wrap themselves around the quarter-tone tonality of East Indian music maybe we could invent something truely new.

Well, I played gamelan for several years... does that count?
;)

I miss it a lot, actually.... it was one of the best experiences of my life... even played in a couple of wayang kulit performances.
*le sigh*
Some day, I will find a local group to join.

Well, there *is* a lot more variety to the western tonal system, but most of it isn't used in pop music.� I'm sure people could come up with something more original without using quarter tones...how about some flat two or augmented sixth chords?� Sequences?� Deceptive cadences?� ;)

it all stems from your heart beat

is indie pop. :)

But I thought you liked Fountains of Wayne?

exactly.

So being on an indie label automatically makes pop music better?� That sounds kind of ridiculous to me.� It's certainly true that that independent music allows for more artistic freedom, and hence can lead to more original work, but such is not always the case.� There are certainly derivative, bandwagon-jumping indie artists, and more original artists signed to major labels.

no no.
having nothing to do with labels.

It's a genre....

"indie" used to mean "independant"

Now it's a type of music..... "indie pop" is, like, FoW, The Maggies, School for the Dead...... others....

I think I'd heard that before, yet I really don't know what, exactly, defines "indie music" as a genre.� Of your examples, the only one I'm familiar with is FoW.

And if "indie" is a genre now, then what is actual independent music called?

And if "indie" is a genre now, then what is actual independent music called?

obscure?

Ya know, I'm really not sure...

But there is some music that didn't fit into any established genre... so it became known as "indie pop"... mostly because, I think, the bands were all independant at the time.

Now some aren't... yet still fit the genre.

Go figure.

Another that would, perhaps, fit that genre is Guster.

ClearChannel country music is evil. It draws from and reinforces a certain worldview that makes me very uncomfortable. Just as an example: people at work used to crank up "Have You Forgotten" whenever I walked by, knowing I am a Quaker, and hoping to upset me. Buh.

heehee!
Quakers are funny.

;)

ClearChannel country music is evil.

Yep. We want  all hail zippo!'s new country song instead. Word.

*loves you*

Hear, hear. Let's take over. Mobs of neuropersons marching aroung yelling "goooooovie! GOOOOVIE!!" I can see it now. :D

oooh. i want. :D

oh yeah. That's what I see in my mind's eye: gooovie on stage - the stuffed moose bethinspirit as a mascot somewhat off stage observing the scene - and all the neurokids in the mosh pit.

dwd.

I hardly consider Down With Disease to be a country song....

;)

well, since "Yerushalayim Shel Zahav" ("Jerusalem of Gold) is spliced in, it could qualify as a country song. Wrong Country, but still...

Don't forget, lots of music falls under the heading 'pop'. My girlfriend listens to ABBA, and they're called pop by all their listeners. Sounds more like disco to me personally...

*grumbles*

Anywho, most music is just an expansion of previous songs. Whoever suggested the quater tonal system is right. Maybe combine that with some good aspects of western. A new style is born!

-Alex

Indeed, the term "pop music" tends to be used so differently by different people that the question becomes difficult to answer.� That there is no such thing as truly original music is another good point.� That said, I do think there are a lot of people (both artists and music industry executives) who just jump on the bandwagon of what's popular at the time, and I have less respect for people who do that than for people who are slightly more unique, and who do what they want to do more than what the trends tell them they should do.� Bandwagon-jumping can be good business (although there's always SOME kind of risk involved, since trends are wont to change), but it doesn't�often produce the best music.

Pop is such an all-encompassing genre.� In several chain stores, Pop/Rock is the catchall for anything that's not ovbiously rap, country, or gospel.

I have to jump to ABBA's defense.� They're not really disco.� They had some disco songs, but to classify their entire amassed works as disco isn't fair.� Either to ABBA or to legitimate disco artists.� Hot Chocolate was disco, Donna Summer was disco... in that light, ABBA is pop.

I'm having so much fun reading this that I can't decide when and where to post. :-)
Which artists would you consider original? This doesn't have to stay genrefied, and isn't specifically locked within a certain time reference.
I've seen a lot of posts saying that nothing is original, but I have some trouble with that. Being influenced by someone doesn't mean you're copying them. Was Nirvana original, or just another version of The Doors, The Beatles, and Buddy Holly? Does it go back any farther?

BTW, I am not saying all of ABBA's music sounds like disco. They have a unique blend of genres. That was a slip of my fingers typing in that part. ABBA becuase of the blend, however, it falls under the heading 'pop'.