another musical musing...

How do you know when something is immitative? How do you know when it's original?

I don't mean songs that sample older songs (don't get me started), and I don't mean bands that re-write the lyrics over the same 3 melodies over and over and get hugely famous from it - I mean the vibe, the sound, the feel of the music being similar to other music, older music, other artists.

So much music that's out now sounds an awful lot like music I listened to from the 80s (yeah yeah, I'm old whatever). Not exactly the same but certainly reminiscent of. And more than that, people always want you to compare, to put the new in context with the old: "Oh they sound like...." or "They are the new..." or "They're like blah with heavier guitar." If that's true then how original can they be? And should we really care?

I find it funny that someone once said to me about someone whose music I really enjoy: "Doesn't she realize that she's just the poor man's version of insert semi-famous Canadian chick with piano here?" Which apparently is a bad thing. And yet the person she's being compared to is quite good and I happen to know this "new girl" has sounded like this since she was 6. And yet she's being unfavourably compared simply because someone else who sounded similar managed to get famous first.

So how do you win? There's only so many notes, so many chords, so many instruments...

I'm as guilty of the next music lover/critic... I'm just wondering aloud really. I think it's possible for music to sound like other music and still be good. I don't think I need to only love one Celtic band and not the others. I think there can and will be many worthwhile Canadian chicks who play the piano, or the guitar, or the maracas for that matter. (ok maybe not maracas)

really, not usually a hypochondriac

Not usually a hypochondriac, I find myself in a bit of a dilemna.

And as much as I feel a bit silly talking about this here, a dear friend of mine made me feel better about even thinking about this by explaining that I am a processor – I need to talk about, think about, write about things in order to process them…and then purge them from my train of thought. So I am writing about this here… mostly to try to get over the ridiculous worry, to purge the thought from my head and send the concern out into the ether so I can get on with other things.

3 days ago I may have been exposed to a virus - A virus that affects between 1/3 and ½ the people who become infected…well… by killing them. (It’s not contagious person to person; you get it from an animal). First you come down with general flu-like symptoms (between 1 week and 8 weeks following exposure) then you have a day or two of feeling better, followed by the rapid onset of pulmonary pneumonia. There is no specific treatment other than to treat the symptoms but “in spite of vigorous treatment about 50% of persons infected will die.” (I took this from a medical journal; I’m not making it up).

So all of that said, I only MAY have been exposed… and not everyone who gets exposed gets sick.

So thus is my dilemna. Part of me is completely preoccupied by this train of thought. Most of me, the more rational most of me, knows that the odds are COMPLETELY in my favour and nothing will happen and all will be well. And regardless, worrying accomplishes nothing.

But the shitty thing is, the odds of me coming down with “general flu-like symptoms” in November or December are probably pretty high. Which means even if I manage to purge these thoughts for the time being, as soon as the ache-y feeling of a cold sets in I will be convinced that I have the virus.

So bear with me. I promise on January 21st I will stop fretting. And until then, if I tend a bit more than usual towards the introspective and sentimental… well, deal with it.