Dezzy

Going with what you say with regards to The Beatles. I have always liked them but still have not heard everything by them, but have heard loads&loads. I also really like Oasis and have heard every studio recording except the new album. To me they are similar in someways but not a rip off as ppl bemoan. They have thier own unique sound.
Certain songs from my favourite bands are clearly influenced by others. Take for example, I am the resurection - Stone Roses. I love this so much and think I'll never tire of it, in parts I can hear Hendrix coming through.

boo boo

every idea good or bad is lifted from another...so i would say no its not possible, i only use the term original loosely.

Metallica_rox

There are many original bands but not many are well known, i like Anaconda and i don't think they 'rip off' any other bands, but i bet not many people know who they are, what they play, or even if theyre male or female, my point is people like a certain sound, the bands which are famous

Sneer

theres nothing wrong with bands taking inspiration from groups of the past as long as they elaborate upon this and progress to a different sound. an example of this is BRMC. they owe a lot to the velvet underground (whoever said the strokes were offcasts of VU must be on mind altering drugs) but they have incorporated psychedelics and brooding bass lines to make themselves different.
now on the other hand bands like interpol and the strokes are very unoriginal in terms of sound. its al lok being original image wise- but what people really want is to hear something different.
the mars volta (though they do borrow from 60s/70s santana), arcade fire, white stripes, lemon jelly and other bands all atain a level of originality becuase of their experimental tendencies. but today too many bands are scared to take the risk of experimentation due to the fear of either alienating their audience or simply not attracting an audience all together- they want to be available to the masses.

__________________
Fright Team radio show

shandapanda

i think Electric Ocean makes sense in the fact that if nothing was original everything would sound the same...or am i interpreting it wrong?
i think a band's originality can also be in the way that they mix all their influences and making something different(i think ledzepstu mentioned something similar). there are many bands that can be inspired by the same artists yet the way they interpret it does make it different from the way someone else would interpret it.
i like to think of it like colour, taking different colours and making new different and strange colours you've never seen before but tease the eye in a way that you want to just stare at that enigmatic colour and find out it's secrets and what colours it came from and appreciate that originality.....you know?

__________________

deadkennedysmeetstheclash

ther eis original music but it's rarely ever big enough to eb calle dmainstream. people theses days prefer to lsiten to mindless dribble like Coldplay etc that are just cheap copies of previous bands..They listen to Greenday because they think there punk (Which there not) etc..

Electric Ocean

That's what I meant, basically. For example, just say music stopped progressing, in say, the 60's. Most popular music would still be mid-tempo guitar-based Pop music/Rock and Roll to this day (Some may claim that's still the case, but you know the type of music from that era that I'm trying to get at). It's only the bands who come along and do something different, even if it's only a small difference, that carry music along and stop it all going stale. So in that case there must have been thousand upon thousands of original bands/artists to get us to where we are today with all of our genres and sub-genres.

jr.

There's no one out there that wasn't influenced by someone. The reason people pick up an instrument is because they saw someone else playing one and thought it would be cool to do that as well.

They emulate that which they admire. A little bit of this guy. Some of that one. A few licks from this guitarist that they thought sounded cool enough to figure it out. All those ingredients add up, and, hopefully, a musician is innovative enough to smelt it down into his/her own sound.

One example: Eddie Van Halen. All those greats from the 60's and early 70's inspired him. He played ,played, played, got all their licks down. Then, he was innovative enough to come up with something that was completely EVH, and no one else. Unfortunately, he hasn't varied much from that in almost 30 years.

But that's beside the point. The point is, he took a lot of parts, and came up with his own sum total. When you hear him, there's no mistaking who it is. Not original in it's broken down parts, but original in the end result.

Just my opinion.

__________________
Be strong then, and enter into your own body;
there you have a solid place for your feet. ~ Kabir

BabyGurl928

.....if there were no original bands there wouldnt be a god forsakin' genre, becuz original means first...if theres no first, how the hell are they to make one whole genre

pastor of muppets

i agree with this.... i also think that this is what determines a good musician..... someone who is able to take various things that theyve heard and then add to it and create something new, but familiar....

another example of such an artist i think would be hendrix for merging blues, rnb, funk, soul and a bazillion other genres to create his own completely whacked sound...