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| From | "jaysonj" <jaysonj@luxworldwide.com> |
| Subject | Re: What IS influence, anyway? |
| Date | Wed, 28 Feb 2007 11:12:50 -0800 |
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I think that influence is closely related to a sense of being challenged by
other artists, almost, and I sort of hate to use the word, a kind of
competition. I think the history of pop music is full of examples: we all
know that Lennon/McCartney was in some ways Lennon vs. McCartney. We're all
familiar with the challenges Brian Wilson had in "keeping up" with the
Beatles (of course the Beatles reported they felt they were trying to keep
up with Brian). Not so much chicken and egg, but evolution based on mutual
interpretation of one another's output.
Influences are not really mal-adaptive, like Plato talking about poems just
being imitations of nature. Influence and artistic challenge drives
innovation. For whatever reason people create art; it seems to improve the
art when artists confront one another's work and then re-interpret it. It’s
not wrong to point out when other people or musicians influence each other
in creating art; it's wrong to assume that it's always a bad thing.
--Jayson
-----Original Message-----
From: audities-owner@smoe.org [mailto:audities-owner@smoe.org] On Behalf Of
Michael Bennett
Sent: Wednesday, February 28, 2007 10:55 AM
To: audities@smoe.org
Subject: Re: What IS influence, anyway?
Two points --
1. Sometimes an artist is directly influenced in a manner that is readily
apparent from the music. But sometimes the influence comes more in the
motivation to create - Elvis and The Sex Pistols are good examples of this.
2. When writing reviews, I'm trying to become more judicious in using the
phrase "influenced by", because sometimes you learn that the artist your
writing about has never heard of the artist you are claiming influenced him.
Mike Bennett
Blog: http://blog.myspace.com/mrhonorama
Record reviews and more at http://fufkin.com
Find out about Chicago shows:
http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/chicagopopshowreport/
>From: Sam Smith <sam@lullabypit.com>
>Reply-To: audities@smoe.org
>To: audities@smoe.org
>Subject: What IS influence, anyway?
>Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2007 11:11:20 -0700
>
> All of this talk about Elvis and the Beatles brings me back around to
>the question of what exactly influence IS. I always thought I knew, being
>a writer with a boatload of influences myself. But maybe I was wrong.
>
>We always loved hearing Mitch Easter talk about what a big influence Led
>Zeppelin was, because you listen to Let's Active and you really don't
>hear it. At least nobody I know does. I have another buddy - Mike Smith
>of Fiction 8 - and he talks about The Church like Sister Mary Margaret
>talks about Jesus, but hit their MySpace page and tell me how much Marty
>Willson-Piper YOU hear. Skinny Puppy? Sure. Joy Division? Yup - in
>spades. But Church?
>
>The truth is that all musicians seem to have all these other musicians
>whose work they love, but whose influence you'd never be able to detect
>from listening, no matter how good your ears are.
>
>So I guess I wonder - there being a good number of musicians here, and
>plenty more informed listeners - is there a standard that says if I can't
>hear it, it's not really an influence? Or can influences be more or less
>invisible to the listener of the finished product?
>
>And let's try to keep Conway Twitty out of this one, mmkay? :)
>
>
>_______________________
>
>Sam Smith
>
>[TABLE NOT SHOWN]
>
>
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