The Perils of Inspiration in the 21st Century
A good composer does not imitate; he steals.--Igor Stravinsky
The reality is that all composers and songwriters operate in a system riddled with traps, and this quote easily becomes bait. In pop music the trap used to be equal temperament and functional harmony--the system that created the possibility that George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord" could easily sound like "He's So Fine" or that Stairway to Heaven sounded like Spirit's Taurus. It is a framework that everything uses. It's the OS of Music.
It is obvious that the difference between poor Blues musicians influencing poor rock musicians in the 60s is now driven by the potential of huge unmerited awards courtesy of the Copyright Act. The sources usually never got paid.
To my ears, the Gaye track was more Ska than plain R&B, and it's impossible to fathom that there's any real Ska influence in Thicke's music on a cultural -genetic level. What it indicates is that we now operate on nostalgia easily accessible through the search engine, not on a chemistry or alchemy of what we like and what we eventually make from raw materials. A new opportunity now arises for musicians to become more avant-garde and create really strange and different music. But pop music must use templates if it ever has any chance of being commercial. So the catch 22 might be over because of this case.
The reality is that all composers and songwriters operate in a system riddled with traps, and this quote easily becomes bait. In pop music the trap used to be equal temperament and functional harmony--the system that created the possibility that George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord" could easily sound like "He's So Fine" or that Stairway to Heaven sounded like Spirit's Taurus. It is a framework that everything uses. It's the OS of Music.
It is obvious that the difference between poor Blues musicians influencing poor rock musicians in the 60s is now driven by the potential of huge unmerited awards courtesy of the Copyright Act. The sources usually never got paid.
To my ears, the Gaye track was more Ska than plain R&B, and it's impossible to fathom that there's any real Ska influence in Thicke's music on a cultural -genetic level. What it indicates is that we now operate on nostalgia easily accessible through the search engine, not on a chemistry or alchemy of what we like and what we eventually make from raw materials. A new opportunity now arises for musicians to become more avant-garde and create really strange and different music. But pop music must use templates if it ever has any chance of being commercial. So the catch 22 might be over because of this case.
