The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #152971 Message #3579650
Posted By: GUEST,leeneia
28-Nov-13 - 12:12 PM
Thread Name: Performances: Why do they all sound the same?
Subject: RE: Why do they all sound the same?
There used to be famous song writers. Cole Porter, Johnny Mercer, Hoagie Carmichael. Then the Beatles came along and said, "Why don't we write our own stuff, cut out the middleman, and keep more money for ourselves?" They did, and it worked for them.
Now every young musician wants to do the same. In fact, you probably haven't got garage cred unless you've written your own songs. (Imitating earlier writers isn't imitating, it's having 'influences.') Trouble is, few of the new players have the talent, insight and creativity to write something truly good. So they produce the same uninspired stuff over and over.
If anybody makes a new recording of a piece someone else wrote, that's called 'covering' it. Covers are to be spoken of with an ironic tone and a brief lowering of the eyelids, to convey quiet disdain.
Hmmm... I guess I shouldn't say 'a piece someone else wrote,' because many bands today have so little musical knowledge that they can't write their music down. Their music flows electronically from instrument to digital, and then they sell the digital.
So if you step up to a keyboard, and nobody has ever showed you 2/4, 6/8, 5/4; if you don't know what a dot does and have never mastered the rest; or if you have never learned to recognize major, minor and harmonic minor, is it any surprise that your hands fall into familiar patterns and you produce the same kind of thing every time?