 It's a myth that originality makes for the best music, but is often mistaken for quote unquote originality as actually finding a new way to express an emotion in a more intense way. In this video, I'm going to explain how this all works. Hi, I'm Jesse Cannon and this is Muse Formation. There's a great Jim Jarmusch quote that I love. Authenticity isn't valuable, originality is non-existent. Those in hipster music critic circles usually celebrate music that appears to be original or creative. Only the most brazen music listeners judge music on a scale of how derivative it is. If you're one of them, I challenge you to look through your record collection to find if what you actually enjoy is music that contains as little derivative material as possible. Instead, I bet you'll find a lot of records that contain a common emotion you crave. If you enjoy Elliot Smith, Public Enemy, Dead Mouse, The Men's Zingers, or Black Sabbath, I bet you also enjoy other artists that are derivative of them. You've also probably heard a few artists with that same influence, but you don't enjoy their records. This is a reaction to the artist being unable to do the sound with as much emotional resonance as you're used to. We don't react emotionally to the most original music we've ever heard. We react to songs that use new tools to bring us to a new level of resonance in an emotion we desire. What's often perceived as originality is actually creating a more resonant version of an emotion we enjoy in music than what we've heard in the past. The musicians we perceive as original find new ways of communicating an emotion that bring these songs a greater resonance that we've heard from those before them. Cynics frequently degrade certain genres as derivative, generic, or all sounding the same. This derision often comes from an outsider's perspective that lacks an understanding of the intricacies of a genre that the audience that enjoys that drama finds great depths to explore emotionally. When a classical music fan hears converge or the replacements, they think it all sounds the same and vice versa for a rock fan who's uneducated in classical music or opera. The perception of whether music is derivative, generic, or whatever we want to call it is based on the familiarity a listener has within a genre. Pop punk is widely derided for being one of the most generic genres yet you can meet pop punk fans and unfortunately I have who will be fully ignorant of other subgenres within the genre they enjoy since there's so much variety within it to listen to for them. Most music can be divided into niches of niches and those who consume it are often burrowing down a well of an emotion they constantly crave a fix of. What usually makes someone think a song is original is they haven't yet heard the influences that artist is drawing from. An ignorance of Pink Floyd would lead you to believe Radiohead's ok computer redefined rock and literally made a whole new sound and an influence of Otaker would lead you to think Clark invented a new genre. Although none of these thoughts help music to be more emotionally resonant. However if you're ignorant of the past influences these sounds can be far more resonant since you've never experienced the emotion found within the song they're deriving inspiration from. Anyone who's ever watched one of those youtube videos that show that every pop song is the same fucking forward chord progression or enjoyed a three chord techno or punk song should be able to pick up that originality is not what brings emotional resonance. It may win some points in our analysis with our head by being interesting to us for a moment but the music that ends up being what we've revisited past initial listens are the songs that give us a feeling we want to experience again and again. If we judge songs on originality then can Africa Bambada and this heat would be far more revered than Led Zeppelin's Slipknot or Nas. Even when songs have somewhat similar if they're emotionally resonant you still enjoy them. Excluding the music that music theory majors make for each other which only other music theory majors enjoy the rest of the world is looking for music that moves them emotionally. While there are a few nerds who have ingested so much music that they believe they need originality to cure their jaded music taste what they're really looking for is someone who brings a new resonance to emotion that they've come to crave that they mistake for originality. That's it am I missing anything? Is there any way you would have done this? I need to know your questions and what no one else is telling you since I want to answer them so leave them in the comments. I hope you liked this video and if you did please like and subscribe and get notified for my future videos since I'm going to be breaking down the concepts in this video along with tons of others on promoting your music and how to make music you're more happy with. As well I have a Facebook group that's linked below that has only helpful information no one tried to sell you anything playlist or con artist only helpful information for musicians looking to be better themselves. If you want to learn more about me make a record with me or check out any of my books podcasts or anything else I do head to jessecanon.com or at jessecanon.com on any of the socials. Thanks for watching.