Can't tell you how many demos I get from bands and musicians who sound just like somebody else. If you want to hear some great examples, check out the Demo Derby segment on any episode of Music Business Radio, where we review music which has been sent in.
Rarely do people succeed by being copies of somebody else. It's great to have influences, but if people wanted something that sounded just like a certain artist, they'd go directly to that artist and not elsewhere.
There are hundreds of people trying to sound like Elvis (or Frank Sinatra, or U2, or Green Day, or [insert musician here]) and nobody has heard of any of them.
Be yourself.
True that it is better to sound like yourself, but it seems to me that there are a lot of rock bands heard on the radio in the late 90s and beyond that sound incredibly similar to each other. Maybe I'm biased, but it sure seems to me that, back in the 70s and 80s, bands generally sounded more unique compared to each other than the bands heard on the radio in more recent times.
J.
Posted by: Jay | November 14, 2007 at 12:24 AM
You are right!!
There are certainly a lot of "soundalike" acts out there, but the guys who have real longterm success do their own thing and let people copy them. Same for the music biz guys... The A&R who have long term careers are going for the stuff that isn't just a flash in the pan soundalike.
But some stuff does slip though.
Posted by: David Hooper | November 18, 2007 at 01:12 AM