Music 'Interpolation'

[Shamar]

Ever notice how new Gen Z songs sounds like songs from the Gen X or Boomer generation?
Well apparently there's a weasel word for it called Interpolation, where you rerecord the exact same melody and change the lyrics and a brand new money maker is now yours. Because Gen Z are inexperienced and, as a whole, prefer playing videogames to listening to music, they are less likely to know music history so this recycled music appears new to them. Not a diss on Gen Z btw. Videogames are cool and far more stimulating than music is in my opinion.

This is not new. Give a listen to Christian Petzold (or Bach) Minuet in G major and Lover's Concerto by the Toys.

 

[Outdated]

I probably like Dylan more than I realise then. I could never get on with his solo stuff.

I never liked him as a singer very much either, but as a writer there's few better.

Songs written by Bob Dylan | SecondHandSongs

 

[Mr. Stevens]

Oh wow, it was so long ago, back in the early days of digital TV when we had a channel I think was called BBC Choice (eventually became BBC 4), I suspect it was on there. It had animations that looked kinda like the London Underground. As far as I remember it was a series that focused on the relationship between various bands and musicians, but I only saw a couple of episodes, the last one I saw was about Lou Reed, the Velvet Underground, Andy Warhol and David Bowie. It was like a family tree if that makes sense.

But what it was called and where it aired, I can't be totally sure. I never looked it up as I had heard it was Bob Dylan from at least two sources, I just accepted it as fact.

There's been various times though that I've seen these kinds of documentaries and they've gotten things wrong. I sometimes wonder if it's an anti plagiarism measure.

If you are sure it was someone else, I'm perfectly willing to accept you are right I just talked to my dad as I'm sure he saw the series too and he felt like he'd also heard it was Bob Dylan that created the guitar overdub, but since I had introduced an element of doubt, he wasn't 100% sure.

Thanks for the info! I was just surprised I hadn't heard that before, which doesn't mean it's false I would think Wikipedia would mention it, even if Dylan wasn't officially credited on the album. I guess I'll see if I read anything different in the future. Thanks again

 

[FilterFreq]

Because Gen Z are inexperienced and, as a whole, prefer playing videogames to listening to music, they are less likely to know music history so this recycled music appears new to them.

I have some weird theories about this one -- do you think it's possible that humans have conceivably written all the music that other humans may enjoy, and therefore recycling in one form or fashion is inevitable? I mean, obviously we can create crazier and more intricate types of music ad infinitum, but those are typically enjoyed by a very small portion of the population as it is, and it only gets smaller from there.

Being a millennial, we had vaporwave, and that really wasn't any better. Previous generations had plunderphonics, a precursor to vaporwave, and all generations were really only limited by the technology of the day. Musique concrete might've been a proper precursor to plunderphonics decades prior, going so far as to resample found sounds and the world around the artist as a basis for musical composition.

Sampling is its own topic, too. Hip-hop was almost directly built on using other pieces of music as a basis for songwriting. The same goes for big beat, breaks, breakcore, etc. There's a lot of crazy history behind some of the genres you do and don't already know about that were way more blatant about stealing than this. Even those were happening before I was on the planet, so I might be a little more used to it than others.

They say good artists borrow and great artists steal, so interpolation over the 'chopped & screwed' genres might be the better outcome, really. I think we've been mimicking one another throughout the ages and this is just a culmination of that. Although, it used to be confined to the underground 'weirdos' and now it went mainstream.

Although, if anyone remembers Limp Bizkit, they did quite a lot of creative interpolation in their day. I'm still not sure who got the songwriting credit for their half-stolen choruses, random lines and things that you swore were sampled, yet were likely just interpolated over to their own tracks. This stuff is so much more intertwined with the creative process than most people realize, and I only wish it were something new

 

[thejuice]

I have some weird theories about this one -- do you think it's possible that humans have conceivably written all the music that other humans may enjoy, and therefore recycling in one form or fashion is inevitable? I mean, obviously we can create crazier and more intricate types of music ad infinitum, but those are typically enjoyed by a very small portion of the population as it is, and it only gets smaller from there.

Being a millennial, we had vaporwave, and that really wasn't any better. Previous generations had plunderphonics, a precursor to vaporwave, and all generations were really only limited by the technology of the day. Musique concrete might've been a proper precursor to plunderphonics decades prior, going so far as to resample found sounds and the world around the artist as a basis for musical composition.

Sampling is its own topic, too. Hip-hop was almost directly built on using other pieces of music as a basis for songwriting. The same goes for big beat, breaks, breakcore, etc. There's a lot of crazy history behind some of the genres you do and don't already know about that were way more blatant about stealing than this. Even those were happening before I was on the planet, so I might be a little more used to it than others.

They say good artists borrow and great artists steal, so interpolation over the 'chopped & screwed' genres might be the better outcome, really. I think we've been mimicking one another throughout the ages and this is just a culmination of that. Although, it used to be confined to the underground 'weirdos' and now it went mainstream.

Although, if anyone remembers Limp Bizkit, they did quite a lot of creative interpolation in their day. I'm still not sure who got the songwriting credit for their half-stolen choruses, random lines and things that you swore were sampled, yet were likely just interpolated over to their own tracks. This stuff is so much more intertwined with the creative process than most people realize, and I only wish it were something new

Ah Limp Bizkit and the "I wanna *pet* you like an animal" NIN chorus. As you may well know part of a, probably made up, fued in which they ended up paying Trent Reznor royalties. Anything else worth mentioning? The mission impossible song, that was a really cool cover, first song I ever jammed with a friend. Faith cover was not the best, but quite amusing! George Michael apparently hated it, but I doubt he'd be a fan of the big LB anyway They interpolated their own song, Break Stuff with Shark Attack. Artists feeding off themselves!

There was also rumours of LB stealing riffs from guitarists that auditioned for their band when Wes Borland left, which left a creative hole to fill. Very shady if true, the whole thing was rumoured to be a ruse and they had already selected their guitarist from another band. Who knows what the truth was.

 

[MildredHubble]

I have some weird theories about this one -- do you think it's possible that humans have conceivably written all the music that other humans may enjoy, and therefore recycling in one form or fashion is inevitable?

Western equal temperament creates many limitations but just think of all the ways it can be used. The "western ear" only really "likes" diatonic scales. If we were exposed to more unusual scales from other cultures, I suspect we would find we have barely scratched the surface. But maybe western music is running out of ideas?

 

[FilterFreq]

There was also rumours of LB stealing riffs from guitarists that auditioned for their band when Wes Borland left, which left a creative hole to fill. Very shady if true, the whole thing was rumoured to be a ruse and they had already selected their guitarist from another band. Who knows what the truth was.

Weirdly, Chris Arp (later of Psyopus) seems to have been the band's first choice. He declined at the last minute, starting Psyopus and sadly even they've been disbanded for a while. The story checks out, since there's apparently audition footage and because he's a really wild and unconventional guitarist who would've definitely fit the bill to replace Wes.

(Although I'm not sure if he could feasibly pull off Chris's riffs, that guy is really nuts)

I guess they got a guy from some other established band when he bailed, though, which might've been why the one they settled on seemed like a questionable choice. They could've had Arpman, and I'd love to live inside of that alternate universe!

Anything else worth mentioning?

I might be taking some liberties here, but every time I scrutinize lines or choruses, I find even more of them. Not so much because I like to rip on them for being possibly one of the most dated bands out there, but because they near-blatantly stole the most out of any artist I'm familiar with. I'm sure there are others who do similar things