pslewis

There must be a finite number of tunes that can be written without starting to copy those songs that have gone before.

Anyone any idea as to when the world will run out of original songs?

Pete

StickyMicky

we have still got to explore animal music yet,i might hang up the headphones when i have to start mixing dolphin music

fitzscoob

Personally I thought anything original died when crap like x factor and fame academy started to appear on tv.

s70rjw

iTrader: (2)

Correct. They even sing other peoples songs so what hope have they got of going it alone....
Sampling is fine, but some group of fat wannabees dressed like tarts/waiters no thank you.

unclebuck

Yep. Around about the mid 90s was when original music died out. I blame Karioke.

Nick Read

I pondered this very question at least ten years ago. I think there certainly are less original tunes coming out nowadays, and it's getting harder and harder to find something that doesn't sound like ANYTHING that's ever come before.

I suppose in the end the world will run out of tunes, when it does it will be a sad day. But when you look at (arguably) the biggest / most successul artists of the last few years - e.g. Madonna and Coldplay - their big new tunes are just wholesale nicking of old stuff (Abba and Kraftwerk respectively). Look at U2 - 'Beautiful Day' was basically 'The Sun Always Shines on TV' by A-ha! I can't believe no-one I knew seemed to notice the blatant rip-off.

In fact it may sound lame, but the most original sound I'm hearing at the moment is Girls Aloud LOL. Weird I know, but everything I hear from them at least sounds fresh, even though I might not necessarily like it.

KiwiGTI

It's virtually impossible to run out of tunes, the mathematical permutations of the notes, timings, chords etc is essentially infinite. Things will always sound similar though but technically we'll never run out.

StickyMicky

if you listen to the same old styles of music they will always sound the same over time

try a diffrent style of music?

OllyK

I can't be bothered to do the maths, especially becuase my knowledge of music is limited, but I'm sure it can't be that hard to work out how many permutations you can arrange a bar in?!

Neutral Cruiser

Agree. Our music being the harmonies of the spheres (planets), it is numerically (and therefore acoustically) finite but we the listeners are more finite and hence will never hear the end.

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

And theres always Chico.........

The one true successor to Joe Dolce.

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

I think what PSL is on about is that its like listening to the same old record, you know the one where he starts singing and then Unclebuck joins in....

Bubba po

Why's PSL asking? He can't have bought a new record since Gracie Fields died.

Swen6

Mod this needs to be in muppets, through Pete to the muppets and watch the thread get torn apart!!!

Must admit i have had the same thought. I hope i didn't say that out loud

_RIP_

Please feel free to tell us your favs from the early 50's. Wrinkly coffin dodgers are back in the groove I hear.

dpb

nothing new under the sun.

not on a psl thread i meant.

Apparition

And here's me thinking they kept bringing back the old ones because they were the best.

Try listening to AfroCelt's stuff. Nice mix of .......yes , that's right, African and Celtic music.
Yve

paul-s

i've often wondered this, in fact it was only the other day i thought bout it last. Each genre (dance, drum n bass) can in theory only explore so many eventualities before it has to develop itself and adapt itself.

Then i started thinking about ice-cream if I remember correctly

unclebuck

Funkii Munkii

Jonathan the nonce King said the same thing 20 years ago and it made me wonder then, A lot has come and gone in that time, so it should last a while longer

SupaMiniCupa

Very little truly original these days, but theres lots of great new bands making lots of great music at the moment, as long as you look past the majority of the Top 40.

Still like my classic Who, Jam, Zep, Smiths, etc. But loving a bit of Hard-Fi, Editors, Arctic Monkeys, Maximo Park at the moment.

Abdabz

Great post! I'd noticed ref the above names band/song rip offs and agree with everything you said - even the girls aloud bit!!

Apparition

Unclebuck........ don't knock it till you've tried it !
Yve

JTaylor

I'd agree with the above also and actually like Girls Aloud's songs when I catch them. Refreshing, catchy, pop music.

It's very difficult to be original. I write music and songs as a hobby and I'll often come up with something which I'm pleased with only to bin it later when I realise it was somebody else's tune that had lodged itself in my sub-concious. For something like guitar music, there are only a certain amount of chord combinations and even less that sound good.

Most music makes use of the primary chords and particularly those chords, usually 3, which sound good together. EAB, ADE, DGA, GCD, CFG and so on represent the building blocks of popular composition and it's inevitable that songs will sound samey. Take blues for example, which is at the route of so many popular songs and is based almost entirely on the three chord theory comprising predominantly of A, E and B.

The thing is these chords sound good and most people want to listen to pleasant sounds rather then those that are wholey original.

J

Leslie

Probably what happens with everything else. When they run out of new ideas they will go full circle and start again, like fashions reverting to styles of years gone by.

I quite enjoy Sounds of the Sixties on BBC4.

Les

Dracoro

Try 'Pyramid Song' by Radiohead. Original. not my fav Radiohead song by any means but it's rather good and original. Also try some Mogway, Sigur Ros for some more unique sounding music.

Problem is, most of you are looking at the 'charts' which inevitibly always has the easy listening styles for kids. Most stuff interesting or really good will happen outside the charts and has done for a long time.

SiPie

Saved me typing it

JTaylor

I love Radiohead, one of my favourite bands, but my least favourite of their albums are Amnesiac (Pyramid Song being one of the few highlights) and Kid A. I'd imagine this is because the band wanted to break musical boundaries but sadly began producing records which for the majority were unlistenable. I can appreciate the music from a composition perspective and for it's orginality but do I like it? No.

Status Quo used to get criticised for only playing three chords, but play one of their records and everyones feet tap, tap away.

SiPie

The tap tap is the sound of them running away

fast bloke

3rd Feb 1959 apparently