I’m currently in the process of writing a song. I’ve got a tune and I’m putting the lyrics together but I’m always concerned that any tune I think of might just be another song I’ve heard somewhere randomly that I don’t remember hearing.
Do I just have a shitty memory or is this a problem that other people have too?
Nope, happens a lot to me, too. Worst part is that whatever you’re accidentally plagiarizing, will immediately sound great and will be really easy to write, because of course, you’ve listened to it before. And it can be nigh impossible to distinguish between accidental plagiarism and just being in a flow.
Everything is derivative of something else. Thag made that drumbeat on a rock 20000 years ago and it has passed down in oral history to eventually be in a Nirvana song.
This sometimes results in songs like Dani California that are almost certainly overt or unintentional copies of another song. When you find out your song is subjectively too close to another song you do the right thing, whatever that may be between you and the original musician.
I simply don’t think about it. If Chino Moreno can get away with using the chorus chord progression of “Hit Me Baby” in one of his songs and the most that happens is laughter about it in the comment section, it’s not an issue.
Alternatively, there is nothing new under the sun. Music has seven fundamental notes that can only be arranged so many different ways and still sound pleasing to the ear. It’s an inevitability that somewhere, you’re going to use the same chord progressions as thousands if not hundreds of thousands of other composers, you’re gonna write the same licks, you’re gonna play the same riffs. The difference is in atmosphere, genre, and performance. Don’t stress it too much.
Deftones have so much staying power, like they keep making good stuff after 30+ years now. I know Koi no Yokan is like over a decade old, but it’s so good, and that was wayyy after their popularity peak.
You don’t. I used to write music, and I would frequently think I’m writing a melody only for it to turn out to be something I heard in the background of a TV show or something.
I’ve done this. Yes, they did exist. That’s one of the risks of creating songs from melodies stuck in your head
Reminder Deadmau5 has accidentally remade Sandstorm multiple times.
It might be similar to a song you’ve heard but you’re misremembering the notes of the existing song.
Maybe try playing it for an app that recognizes the song that’s playing and then listen to any songs it guesses might be the song.
No you see, that’s the secret. All my songs are just me Weird Al-ing every aspect of them.
Eventually they’re different enough that they’re truly mine.
Copyright bullshit has made artists paranoid.
It is a problem for other people too, but I would argue it’s a very small insignificant one. Unless you’re ripping off an entire song and it’s not parody, you’re fine.
You don’t lol. There have been instances in the past when pro musicians did this
Nothing is ever truly original, everything you create is a remix of things you encountered after they are processed by your subconscious. And that’s ok. Even if your song will end up to be very similar to another one it will be your own spin on the musical “idea”. Go for it
I’m not a song writer but it seems to me a lots of songs can share some similar chord progression without being in any way the same. It can be more or less obvious.
I feel like, as we’re immersed into music, when creating music what we hear in our head can and will be influenced. It probably should be too.
Because even so, you have more than one influence, you don’t put them like anyone else and that’s where you start putting something that’s you, into it.
But to me that also mean what you feel is not only normal for a song writer, but also to any creative process.
I myself got quite obsessed at some point with this question of what is “original”, what is creation.
It’s pretty philosophical though, on a more practical point of view the best solution is to be learn to recognize your influences in general, and start to build your own style from them. Then you’ll know even if one melody resembled another it’s still your song. That takes a good level of expertise to define yourself though, and is never really fixed, wich will mean the question can come back often.
You don’t. It happens. There are only so many notes. As Picasso said, “good artists borrow, great artists steal”
