Originality is over-rated

Hear me out.

I don’t mean that being creative and making things and finding new ways of combining old ideas is over-rated.

But original ideas, or supposedly “original” ideas are over-rated. Firstly, a lot of ideas that are thought of as original, in music at least, aren’t actually knew. Avant-garde musicians have been making music with tons of new and unique ideas for ages. Many ideas that are thought of as “original” in mainstream music aren’t all that original.

Being truly “original” means being avant-garde. If that’s the music you want to make, then go make that music. If you’re not making avant-garde music, originality is over-rated.

This doesn’t mean that the formerly “original” ideas aren’t good. They might not be original, but they’re often using old ideas in new ways or combining two ideas that haven’t often been combined.

Even if the ideas themselves are old, combining two ideas that haven’t been combined before, or combining them in a new way, can make for great discoveries.

So find two ideas to put together. The end result might sound original even if the ideas themselves are not.

ISJ