Let's face it - pretty much every hit song you've ever heard is, on some level, derived from or "inspired by" something else. Hell, just about every blues song breaks down to the same few, simple chord progressions, and Rock n' Roll is just an extension of those. Take alcoholism, infidelity and heartache off the table in country music and the whole genre vanishes. You get the idea - nothing is completely original.
Of course, all this derivative talk inspires hypothetical fantasies of going back in time to kill The Cure, Jawbreaker and Sunny Day Real Estate, thus damming the emo tide they inspired, and doing likewise with Run DMC the Beastie Boys to prevent the world from ever having to deal with assholes like Limp Bizkit or Mike Shinoda and his Linkin Park buddies. But I digress.
The following are some of the more shameless ripoffs in Rock's recent history, who've made names for themselves by riding the styles of other, better bands.
Muse: Radiohead/Queen
Singer Matt Bellamy's vocal stylings on the first three Muse albums were such shameless adaptations of those of Radiohead's Thom Yorke that many thought the wonk-eyed singer was actually in another band. Having been called out relentlessly for the similarities, the band has since shifted gears and moved into operatic territory - where the symphonic pretense runs deep, and the kitsch of supposed oppression and Orwellian paranoia saturates and bogs down what could otherwise be perfectly respectable music. Switching derivatives from Radiohead to Queen was a smart choice, albeit a predictable one, but Muse has real potential to create memorable music if they'd get the hell over themselves, abandon the excess frills and leave the impersonations behind.
Owl City: Postal Service
Hey, that new Postal Service track on the radio is pretty good, right? Good in the same way that biting down on a Jolly Rancher that's attached itself to both your upper and lower cavity fillings is good. That's what those Postal Service guys are best at, right? But wait, that actually wasn't Postal Service at all, but Adam Young - aka Owl City - a highly religious young Minnesota man with a knack for carbon-copy musical replicas of side projects by Death Cab For Cutie's Ben Gibbard. On MySpace Young has 17 million plays from that damned "Fireflies" song alone. Who needs originality when you've got Jesus and ProTools on your side?
