Comments on: Imitation and Influence

By: Righteous Bubba

Righteous Bubba — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 04:54:38 +0000

Sonic Youth:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sf2qYa8c-cA&feature=related

Smashing Pumpkins:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2snP7rGP6g

By: Righteous Bubba

Righteous Bubba — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 04:17:10 +0000

So I grant that Vince is influential.

…but not at all musically interesting or important.

By: Righteous Bubba

Righteous Bubba — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 04:15:17 +0000

Vince is a great call for influential but not imitated.

You know, I think I’m thinking of influential as “musically important”. So I grant that Vince is influential.

By: John Emerson

John Emerson — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 03:01:20 +0000

Van Morrison. Influential? Imitated?

Chryssie Hynde?

By: richard

richard — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 02:47:09 +0000

Well clearly The Human League were the major influence there. Or was it Blancmange? Or Men Without Hats? Or Soft Cell? Or OMD? Or Cabaret Voltaire? Or New Order? Or The Pet Shop Boys? Or A Flock of Seagulls? Or Propaganda? Maybe Yello?

No, four of your list were basically one hit wonders and wore Vince’s influence on their sleeves. One of them actually was Vince in disguise. That said, Giorgio Moroder and Tom Moulton were more important in putting the whole scene together. Of course, they were influential and widely imitated.

Vince is a great call for influential but not imitated. Also, Jimmy Somerville, Elvis Costello.

By: Scott

Scott — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 01:46:07 +0000

Maybe it’s my age, but I’m convinced Sonic Youth had quite a bit of influence, at least within indie rock. And they certainly had their imitators through the ‘90s (Blonde Redhead, Unwound, etc.)

Having listened to a lot of SY and VU, I hear the influence but not the imitation. Early on you hear earlier New York bands like Mars, Teenage Jesus or Glenn Branca’s stuff. The real connection between the two bands is their toying with the avant-garde.

My vote for influential band no one imitated has to be Kraftwerk as well. They’re the key to just about every band righteous bubba named and a lot more, but very few bands went in for their campy conceptual act (Telex and Devo being exceptions).

By: Righteous Bubba

Righteous Bubba — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 00:25:49 +0000

Go to your local club – you know, where young people dance – to find out.

By: novakant

novakant — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 00:12:23 +0000

what can anyone rip off from Vince Clarke?

Go to your local club – you know, where young people dance – to find out.

By: seth edenbaum

seth edenbaum — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 00:10:30 +0000

Kraftwerk. Hugely influential
The beats behind the early years of hip hop.

By: Righteous Bubba

Righteous Bubba — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 23:43:38 +0000

Vince Clarke

Other people had synthesizers and wrote pop songs too: what can anyone rip off from Vince Clarke?

By: novakant

novakant — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 23:36:45 +0000

What are the most influential bands that no one imitates?

To my knowledge Kraftwerk and Vince Clark (Depeche Mode, Yazoo, Erasure) haven’t been imitated much, but to this day they are extremely influential.

By: Righteous Bubba

Righteous Bubba — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 23:09:00 +0000

Not so many worldbeat nerds (worldnerd music?). Now that I think of it Peter Gabriel might have been influenced by the Talking Heads. A little Google action reveals Chris Frantz making the same claim. Gabriel moved from melody-based to rhythm-based songs pretty quickly at around the time the Talking Heads were blazing their trail. Eno did some work for Genesis and some of the TH musicians worked with Gabriel. That's a fairly big deal I think.

By: Roy Belmont

Roy Belmont — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 22:54:37 +0000

Neil Young is/was cited a lot as influential, or at least avidly looked toward which must carry some weight of influence, by some surprising artists. David Bowie for instance.
But what he does/did at his best is so refined, not in the hoity-toity sense but in the sense of stripped down to the artistic core, imitations don’t work too well.

By: CK Dexter

CK Dexter — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 22:28:34 +0000

Oops: should read “But it’s true, there are not that many.”

By: CK Dexter

CK Dexter — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 22:27:54 +0000

“I would suggest Sonic Youth as another band that has influenced more than it has been imitated.”

Off the top of my head: Broken Social Scene could count as a Sonic Youth imitator. But it’s true, there are that many.

“They were a constantly evolving band that experimented a lot but never developed a “signature” sound.”

On the contrary, they clearly have a signature sound: Second Rate Velvets Imitators. I think that’s the real reason they have few imitators, most imitate their source material.