Dream Theater

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Not surprised that JP kept a picture of Steve Morse during the sessions. Easily the most Morse inspired guitar playing on SDOIT.
 
That's a very odd thing to make public...no doubt had they kept it public during the Octavarium/SC/Black Clouds sessions people would literally be able to trace the ripoffs/soundalikes. :D
 
Oh man...

Years ago I already felt this band didn't sound original enough to find it entertaining (or good) enough. Especially Rush and Pink Floyd are way too much present, two of my favourite bands. I know many people don't give horsehit about originality, so they still find DT good. Good for them! But here you go, it's true that this band is not that original when it comes to the creative process. If they were, they didn't need to draw so heavily from other works.

It's not easy to find a band having so many musical pieces sounding so much like other pieces (by other bands). Only Led Zeppelin and Gamma Ray come to mind.
 
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I still don't see how 2007 song The Calling could have been an influence to 2003's Honor Thy Father. Some of the others you could argue for, but this one is ridiculous. ;)

As for the others - DT has always been a band full of fully admitted "fan boys" and their influences have always shown in quite an obvious way. AFAIC, I don't believe many of these were truly intentional (apart from maybe Octavarium, which was supposed to be full of nods) and while the idea might be older, this "recontextualising" might be beneficial in the end. I don't see myself listening to a Lamb of God album in its entirety, but if they used a variation on the riff and used it in a much superior song, I don't really mind. It's not as if Maiden have not used others' ideas as well (Nomad). We are never completely sure how many of our favourite bands have reused older ideas.

Musicologists have put forward the claim Pink Floyd's album The Dark Side of the Moon contains uncredited elements taken from American electronic music duo Beaver & Krause's 1971 album Gandharva. In particular the opening sound effects to "Soft/White", the vocal performance in the song "The Great Gig in the Sky" sounds identical to "Walkin'", and the saxophone phrasing of "Us and Them" is similar to "By Your Grace" and "Good Places"

Deep Purple's 1970 song "Child in Time" is based on It's a Beautiful Day's "Bombay Calling", who were never credited. Ian Gillan during an interview with author Martin Popoff, admitted the song was "nicked." Deep Purple's 1970 song "Black Night" is a liberal uncredited take of Ricky Nelson's 1962 single "Summertime", itself a reworking of the George Gershwin standard, using the same two-bar pentatonic riff. Jon Lord during an interview on Heavy Metal Britannia, admitted the song was "nicked".


Eric Clapton claimed sole credit for "Give Me Strength", a song released in 1974, but was originally written in 1939 by Chicago gospel singer-songwriter Louise King Mathews. Mathews was financially disadvantaged and could not afford to take the copyright matter to court when she heard the Clapton version during the 1970s.

The opening of the Beatles' 1963 song "All My Loving" sounds almost identical to the solo in the Dave Brubeck Quartet's song "Kathy's Waltz", which was released in 1959.

Coldplay/Satriani, Harrison's My Sweet Lord etc. etc.

This whole "originality in music" would be a great theme for a longer elaboration, though... Nobody creates in a vacuum and I guess it must be really hard to always know whether that idea is truly yours or if you've heard something like that before. I guess the more music you know, the harder it gets, because you realise how many melodies etc. there actually is (and you have to avoid).

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All music is derivative of something that came before it. I defy you to come up with a purely original artist. Dream Theater takes an insane amount of influences and puts them in a blender while still having a definite DT sound, which I find impressive. It's very pastiche in a way, which is a legitimate style.


I've rarely seen so much effort put into disliking something. It's music. The only one missing out is yourself if you don't like it.

I have already edited this post, before I refreshed the page.
 
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Originality is one of my main go-to's for liking a band, and DT is one of my favorite bands. Dream Theater are as unoriginal as Iron Maiden are. Maiden also combined elements from many already existing bands.

Oh man...

Years ago I already felt this band didn't sound original enough to find it entertaining (or good) enough..

Yet here you are, once again arriving at their thread to talk shit about them. Can't you just let it go? Do you see me coming into the Iced Earth thread to talk shit about them?
 
Yea that was the only odd one to me. I think inspiration corner still exists, there are clear connections to other bands on the last three albums. Red on ADTOE, Rush and Ozzy Osbourne on DT12, and Yes on The Astonishing are the first ones that come to my mind.
 
All music is derivative of something that came before it. I defy you to come up with a purely original artist. Dream Theater takes an insane amount of influences and puts them in a blender while still having a definite DT sound, which I find impressive. It's very pastiche in a way, which is a legitimate style.

Yet here you are, once again arriving at their thread to talk shit about them. Can't you just let it go?
I've rarely seen so much effort put into disliking something. It's music. The only one missing out is yourself if you don't like it.
 
As for the others - DT has always been a band full of fully admitted "fan boys" and their influences have always shown in quite an obvious way.

On some albums, I think the overall feel of the album feels heavily influenced by one other band. In the sense that the first few times I listened to each album, I thought that the guys in DT must have been listening to that particular band a lot lately.

Scenes From A Memory - Pink Floyd.
Train of Thought - Metallica.
Octavarium - Muse (and perhaps also Pink Floyd - especially for the title track)


All the albums still sound distinctively DT.
 
Originality is one of my main go-to's for liking a band, and DT is one of my favorite bands. Dream Theater are as unoriginal as Iron Maiden are. Maiden also combined elements from many already existing bands.
Dream Theater are as original as Iron Maiden are? No way. Of course Maiden combined elements. But that's more stylistic. They didn't copy so many (almost) literal fragments. Could someone make such a vid for Maiden? I guess no one attempted it because they wouldn't get further than 3 to 5 fragments.
Yet here you are, once again arriving at their thread to talk shit about them. Can't you just let it go?
Yet here you are, once again screaming and cursing like a banshee.
Do you see me coming into the Iced Earth thread to talk shit about them?
If you have anything to tell, even if brings a band in a negative light, I have no problem to hear it. It's good even, I get to know the band better.
All music is derivative of something that came before it. I defy you to come up with a purely original artist.
And of course, a few people need to take this to the extremes. No. No band is purely original. That was not my point. The point is: lots of bands are more original when it comes to song writing. As I said, it's not easy to make such a vid for other bands. That's it.
Dream Theater takes an insane amount of influences and puts them in a blender while still having a definite DT sound, which I find impressive.
I'm also impressed by the technical side of the band and I love to hear Petrucci's playing. Of course they have their own sound. Even when they cover another band (with credits ;) ), they still sound like Dream Theater. My stance is about writing songs.
Their songs put me off. And now I know, more than ever, why.
I've rarely seen so much effort put into disliking something. It's music. The only one missing out is yourself if you don't like it.
It's music, and if you don't care where they get there music from, fine. If I were a Maiden fan, I surely would like to know where my favourite band would have so many ideas from. I wouldn't be able to deny it, or simply put it aside. Or blame it onto some annoying forumer.

Let's not get so angry when someone criticizes a band (or keeps doing it). Not necessary. I have an opinion and it feels good to see the lack of originality (the idea I had about it) confirmed. Thanks Saap for bringing it up. Thanks Wingman (you at least reacted normally). And thanks Judas for bringing up other examples. When a band does this many times, my joy and respect for their music decreases.
 
Oh man...

Years ago I already felt this band didn't sound original enough to find it entertaining (or good) enough. Especially Rush and Pink Floyd are way too much present, two of my favourite bands. I know many people don't give horsehit about originality, so they still find DT good. Good for them! But here you go, it's true that this band is not that original when it comes to the creative process. If they were, they didn't need to draw so heavily from other works.

It's not easy to find a band having so many musical pieces sounding so much like other pieces (by other bands). Only Led Zeppelin and Gamma Ray come to mind.

Yeah, DT actually steal all their ideas and don't have anything original to them at all :(.

I still don't see how 2007 song The Calling could have been an influence to 2003's Honor Thy Father. Some of the others you could argue for, but this one is ridiculous. ;)
The uploader has explained that not all of these are DT playing stuff similar to previously released music, but can be the other way around as well.
 
And of course, a few people need to take this to the extremes. No. No band is purely original. That was not my point. The point is: lots of bands are more original when it comes to song writing. As I said, it's not easy to make such a vid for other bands. That's it.

Most bands don't have anywhere near the amount of material that DT do. They have 13 albums filled with long, progressive songs that include many different sections, drawing from here and there with the help of their musical knowledge and inspiration. When in studio, they write up each song section by section and sometimes refer to bands when naming the different parts. These are actual shout-outs to their favourite bands! It's all a big fun mixture and doesn't overshadow the original, distinctive sound of Dream Theater.
 
Other bands also don't wear their influences on their sleeves as much as DT do (so you don't know where to look, what was tweaked and how etc.). I might be wrong, but I still think even if you confronted them with this, the reaction might be more like "oh, really? Wow. Hm, shit happens".

(The intro to Act of Faythe (the orchestral part) definitely borrows something from "Albinoni's" (actually Giazotto's) Adagio in G Minor, BTW.)

It's harder than it looks like, especially if you listen to a lot of music - I wrote a cute little instrumental song for my girlfriend... Who immediately recognised it as Coldplay's Life in Technicolor (I haven't listened to the band for about five years then). And she was completely right. It was stolen nearly note-by-note. Absolutely unintentionally.
 
Yeah, it happens. I remember once I had this riff in my head that sounded very much like half of it was from a Maiden song (WTWWB) and the other half felt improvised (I played it a few times on my guitar too). A while later, I recognized it while listening to a Gamma Ray song :D (I know, the irony ...)
 
The thing is, Foro, that you are entitled to your own opinion but you are also displaying some ignorance about the band and that is bound to get people slightly disgruntled.
 
It happens. There are only so many notes in the world. Especially difficult when you're restricted to a certain key/chord progression/rhythm/etc. Just ask Maiden, they've had their fair share of copying other bands but the band they copy the most is Iron Maiden.
The thing is, Foro, that you are entitled to your own opinion but you are also displaying some ignorance about the band and that is bound to get people slightly disgruntled.

The thing is, Foro, that you are entitled to your own opinion but you are also displaying some ignorance about the band and that is bound to get people slightly disgruntled.
Exactly. Everyone here acknowledges that DT copies other bands. But there is more to it.
 
And for the record, I do not necessarily consider it a bad thing. There are times where a Maiden song feels recycled but more often than not they manage to do interesting things with those chord progressions. They've also been moving away from it slowly since TFF, though I haven't looked at TBOS that in depth it does seem like they're doing different things with chord progressions and keys.
 
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