It always irks me when I try to explain to others why the band/music they listen to is unoriginal and they need to listen to better, more challenging songs. (Yes, the previous sentence shows what a likable fellow I am when I talk music). Anyway, I’ve tried a variety of tactics:
- “They only use 4 chords over the course of the entire song!”
- “This guy only knows how to use the descending bassline – all his songs have it”
- “Their drummer can only play the most basic fills, and never plays anything faster than an eighth note”
- “Song A is a total rip-off of Song B. Just listen to them one after the other.”
- “All they do is verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus. And you only get the bridge in 2 tracks of the album, the ones that were designated as singles.”
- “Their guitarist is playing only power chords. And the finger movement involved in that solo is less than that of a hunt-and-peck typist.”
Unfortunately, without a portable keyboard I cannot succeed. It is much easier to show than it is to tell.
So I salute the comedian in this YouTube video. He has done an amazing job. He goes into a rant on Pachebel’s Canon in D1, and then goes on to show a ton of songs that rip off the exact same chord progression as their main (verse or chorus) one. I’m sure there are a lot more than what he researched or could fit into his time slot. But it supports my message about the lack of originality in pop musicians very well.
Just about everything there is Top 40 music of course. And naturally you will find no prog rock or prog metal songs in there.
1 Famous song that is often heard at weddings.
