One conclusion here I think we are getting is that, the originality depends on our perspective of that meaning. In my own term it would be something like The Beatles, the direction music took after the Sgt Pepper was totally different. A lot of bands had to reinvent themselves after that moment. So then for me that was original.

If you get right down to it....what the Beatles really did that was original for the time was write their own songs. Most of George Martin's and their ideas about production were being done by Pierre Schaeffer and others who were involved in Musique concrète decades before them.


They just brought it to the mainstream's attention. Without Pierre Schaeffer and Musique concrète....bands like The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart, etc....would have been a lot different or in the case of Pink Floyd most likely not lasted long.



There really hasn't been much true originality in music's history.

I think they did more than only write their own songs. The idea of making that kind of concept were theirs, and mainly McCartney's. For example the art cover was taken seriously as part of all. Maybe the production is not as original, but the profoundness of it, the whole idea of the album and not only as a content of songs was significantly different from the others.

Yeah. After awhile, you'll get to know me well enough not to take anything I say seriously.

Different than most others in Rock at the time, but the first real concept recording was Frank Sinatra's The Voice of Frank Sinatra in 1946. Brian Wilson & Beach Boys were also ahead of The Beatles in this, however, with Wilson's mental condition being what it was, they couldn't continue it. If not for Brian Wilson, who knows what The Beatles might have ended up doing.


There were a few "Concept" recordings which were either recorded and/or released before Sgt. Peppers.


Pet Sounds
Face to Face
Freak Out! (recorded about 9 months before The Beatles even started to record Sgt. Peppers but not released until 25 days afterwards.)



They might have been "The Beatles", but they were still being influenced by others around them at the time and taking what those others did and adding their own personal touch to it. In the end, that's really the difference been the greats and clones like Oasis.

Yes I totally agree, everyone has been influenced by someone else and still can have an unique sound.
And when you copy the style of another and make it as if it was yours, that's cloning.

For example I really liked Turn on the Bright Lights from Interpol, but every time I hear it, Joy Division comes in my mind and it is something inevitable, their styles are so similar that I don't know.

In that case then, we can put it in other words. Are there new artists around that are not clones?

it does not matter if it is original as long as it sound good.