One of those polls.

[Rob Instigator]

of coruse it exists. It is the ultimate in human vanity to assume that we are so genius and so awesome that we have already exhausted the possibility of originality.

[pbradley]

In the strictest sense, no.

In the loosest sense, yes.

Which is to say that I like Mike Watt's definition of originality in saying "The only thing new is you finding out about something." This does not simply apply to the artist but also to the inexperienced listener who listens to, say, a Beach Boys album and is blown away. Personal discovery is the only original act.

[noisereductions]

 

[SYRFox]

Yes, it exists.

[Danny Himself]

Yes.

Of course almost every band has guitars and drums and bass, but these are just tools- like, say you gave everybody wood, nails, hammers and paint, and told them to build a house. You'd get lot of shitty, weird-looking houses, some few pretty and structurally sound ones.. it's all interesting! It depends on your taste in houses.

What a terrible analogy. But you know what I mean? You might.

 

 

 

[Rob Instigator]

those who think originality is dead are the one's who have no new ideas of their own. too bad for them.

Ok. Why do you think it exists, though?

[Rob Instigator]

why? because humans have an ability to connect thoughts abstractly that is only latent in some other higher animals, and we are just the animals with the ability to create.

humans can create concepts never before thought of, and coud be a result of our facility with language.

[akprodr]

I don't think existence exists

Originally Posted by Rob Instigator

why? because humans have an ability to connect thoughts abstractly that is only latent in some other higher animals, and we are just the animals with the ability to create.

humans can create concepts never before thought of, and coud be a result of our facility with language.

I was thinking about an answer that pondered on more specific and less vague notions of originality than that, but nevermind, thanks for giving it a thought.

Originally Posted by akprodr

I don't think existence exists

No point in telling you to fuck off, then.

[afterthefact]

I think it still exsists. I just think it's harder and harder for people in modern society to tap into it. What usually passes as originality nowadays is simply a conglomeration of other things that already exsists and pressures from specific cultures and scenes.

I think people tend to try and be both original and popular, and that blocks off a large section of original thought and product, the section that nobody likes or wants to see.

[Rob Instigator]

in an age where every person on earth can readily share anything that pops into their heads, it SEEMS that originality is lacking, but that is just because humans come up with the same ideas independently of each other, like the radio transmissions, or television tube tech, etc.
in the past it was up to each separate region to "create" their own originality, since new ideas and concepts were not imported fro other places, and this allowed everyone to find a niche in their community, for the creative people would be appreciated as that community's own creative folk, and not as mere "copies" of the lucky first-heard-of creative folks as is the case now.

with more people alive now than at any other point in history the chances of concurrent innovation are highly increased. This is a depressing thought to creative people because ti makes it that much harder to be truly innovative, and not just re"creating" a previously created idea/concept.

humans are not the fastest animal, nor the best sighted, nor the best at hearing or smelling. We do not have echo location, or the ability to sense electrical fields, or the magnetic field of the earth, or to control our skin's pigment and texture at a whim. all these things are in the real world though.
we however, have the deep seated desire to see/feel/experience/create NEW THINGS, new experiences. this will forever drive human originality.

plus big bootie makes me horny

the sad thing is that there have been more great ideas forgotten than ever have been implemented.

[afterthefact]

Originally Posted by Rob Instigator

in an age where every person on earth can readily share anything that pops into their heads, it SEEMS that originality is lacking, but that is just because humans come up with the same ideas independently of each other, like the radio transmissions, or television tube tech, etc.
in the past it was up to each separate region to "create" their own originality, since new ideas and concepts were not imported fro other places, and this allowed everyone to find a niche in their community, for the creative people would be appreciated as that community's own creative folk, and not as mere "copies" of the lucky first-heard-of creative folks as is the case now.

with more people alive now than at any other point in history the chances of concurrent innovation are highly increased. This is a depressing thought to creative people because ti makes it that much harder to be truly innovative, and not just re"creating" a previously created idea/concept.

humans are not the fastest animal, nor the best sighted, nor the best at hearing or smelling. We do not have echo location, or the ability to sense electrical fields, or the magnetic field of the earth, or to control our skin's pigment and texture at a whim. all these things are in the real world though.
we however, have the deep seated desire to see/feel/experience/create NEW THINGS, new experiences. this will forever drive human originality.

plus big bootie makes me horny

the sad thing is that there have been more great ideas forgotten than ever have been implemented.

Like that time I wrote that song and the later I heard an old Yo La Tengo song that sounded just like it? Dude, I totally know what you mean!!!

I think that the concept of 'personal approach to things' too often gets lumped with the peerlessness of swiping something off and replacing it with something that genuinely has no previous detectable history, at least when it comes to music. Maybe it's because I'm so into the whole 'cause and effect' business side of things, but I rarely hear something that is purely alien to everything else that exists around it. I'm split on this.

Originally Posted by Rob Instigator

in an age where every person on earth can readily share anything that pops into their heads, it SEEMS that originality is lacking, but that is just because humans come up with the same ideas independently of each other, like the radio transmissions, or television tube tech, etc.

This is contradictory.The act of sharing something doesn't take away or give the way something sounds anything, it's an independent human activity that happens.


in the past it was up to each separate region to "create" their own originality, since new ideas and concepts were not imported fro other places, and this allowed everyone to find a niche in their community, for the creative people would be appreciated as that community's own creative folk, and not as mere "copies" of the lucky first-heard-of creative folks as is the case now.

I call that doing the same thing someone else is doing somewhere else, but with an individual 'touch'.

with more people alive now than at any other point in history the chances of concurrent innovation are highly increased. This is a depressing thought to creative people because ti makes it that much harder to be truly innovative, and not just re"creating" a previously created idea/concept.

I don't know. What would be the point of creating anything if there wasn't an element of influencing others with it? This can happen even without having something 'original' to offer. Numbers are numbers.

humans are not the fastest animal, nor the best sighted, nor the best at hearing or smelling. We do not have echo location, or the ability to sense electrical fields, or the magnetic field of the earth, or to control our skin's pigment and texture at a whim. all these things are in the real world though.
we however, have the deep seated desire to see/feel/experience/create NEW THINGS, new experiences. this will forever drive human originality.

Rob, you've lost me with the above.

plus big bootie makes me horny

the sad thing is that there have been more great ideas forgotten than ever have been implemented.
Yeah, exactly.

...

[Rob Instigator]

just ramblin'

originality is but a concept, and it exists because humans say it exists.

[pbradley]

Originally Posted by sarramkrop

I think that the concept of 'personal approach to things' too often gets lumped with the peerlessness of swiping something off and replacing it with something that genuinely has no previous detectable history, at least when it comes to music. Maybe it's because I'm so into the whole 'cause and effect' business side of things, but I rarely hear something that is purely alien to everything else that exists around it. I'm split on this.

But does something have to be purely alien to be original? I would think that originally is closer to a witty twist on convention but, as such, needs a convention to operate. This is why, I think, one either has to be largely ignorant of the method of the convention in order to almost accidently introduce a new idea or else needs to understand the method of convention so well as to transcend it. But in either case, nothing is created from nothing as much as is the re-purposing of either elements within the art or elements outside the art made useful within it.

[fugazifan]

i dont belive in oroginality in the concept of making something from nothing. because that never happens. there is no band that sounds nothing like anything that came before it. everything is based on something and everything has influences. andanybody musician who claims otherwise is a liar. when i think of originality i look at what stravinsky said, which is, in order to make make something innovative one must take the old and make it new. or something like that. and that applies to 99% of the cases...