“Plagiarizing” yourself

[Denbo_17]

I took myself to court and won…. and lost….

[DavidM]

Isn’t any artist or composer who has a recognisable style effectively plagiarising themselves anyway? Almost every John Williams piece I can think of begins with a perfect interval on an anacrusis, every Duran Duran song sounds like Duran Duran because of Le Bon’s voice, and if I hear a woman on the Radio complaining about her boyfriend to music, I can pretty much know it’s going to be Taylor Swift.

[Gael MacGregor]

It’s inevitable. We all have patterns.

I find that I write certain kinds of songs with the guitar, and certain kinds at the piano.

The solution? I took a page from Stephen Sondheim’s playbook: I write melodies away from any instrument. He said he did that in order to not be bound by the limitations of his instrumental prowess.

After I’ve solidified the melody I’ll start chording & arranging. It helps keep me from following my hands’ patterns and allows more creativity in the writing process.

[LAwriter]

I get briefs to “plagiarize” myself all the time. They send me cues I did last season and am told to “copy” them as close as possible. I always as “why not just use it again”, and am constantly told that they need new material, but make it as close as possible to the old material. LOL. I oblige. If they are using it, who cares….

[boinkeee2000]

funny you mentioned that. had the same thing happen recently. so now i wonder, does the old track become obsolete? am i really growing my catalog or just revising it?

[LAwriter]

Haha! Depending on the client, you’re often just revising it.

[Author]

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