"All good artists steal. Great artists just steal the best bits."

Without trying to impose my own opinions on this statement (yet), do you believe it is true? That, with absolution, there is no possibility that any musical artists could possibly create something unique now, or ever in history? That all music created - from a three-note melody on up - was influenced by something prior? It's an interesting debate that got ugly on Reddit yesterday.

 

I would say that all artists are influenced. To me stealing is quoting an entire musical phrase and is plagiarism. to be influenced is to make a similar but different musical phrase. I think the quote is an exaggeration to sound clever and is not to be taken literally.

 

This has been described as ‘one of the few totally original pieces of music’:

 

I feel the statement is wildly inaccurate in its absolution. You're telling me that throughout history, there has never been a human who created without influence? A small child? Someone in a remote tribe? People that never had exposure to music prior? That cannot stand as an absolute. That said, I also firmly believe there are people who create wildly unique music with bizarre tools in recent decades without influence. Mostly, though, I hate when people impose absolutes, especially related to the creative process.

 

Tell that to Noel Gallagher.

 

Something like this is true, yeah. I mean, almost nothing created by man springs wholly from a mind untouched by influence of their experience and the world around them. What did they grow up and learn in a complete bubble? No, no one ever. Instances of breakthrough original ideas in the arts completely untouched by prior ideas, if they exist at all, are astronomically few and far between. Whether that's always conscious "stealing" or something else, well, that range is all over the place. But bursting forth wholly original from a mind untouched by the prior ideas of others? Pretty much never. Like everything else, it's on a spectrum, I can think of artists who had more original modes of expression -- maybe like Walt Whitman or Arnold Schoenberg -- but even someone as idiosyncratic as Sun Ra or Captain Beefheart, the influences and impact of the work and ideas of others are all over their music.

 

Music is evolution. Occasionally, you get something like a Jimi Hendrix who does something extraordinary. But even Hendrix learned from the Blues. So, how do we define stealing? If you're outright plagiarizing, it happens. Carlos Santana almost note for note used Peter Green's solo on his band's cover of Black Magic Woman. Still Santana's version isn't Fleetwood Mac's version. It has a Latin flavor that isn't there on the more Bluesy version. The progression of music isn't about stealing, it's adding a different twist on an established musical phrasing. The best become proficient in what has been established then add their own personality to it.

 

Those are fair arguments. I just can't escape the feeling that unique creation doesn't happen every day somewhere, and the creator is mentally capable of dismissing (or repressing) influence. It's a heartbreaking reality.

 

All music comes from Bach who got it from.... eh..... erm........

 

I think this is true for most music. 99.9%

 

he got it from the Shaggs

 

Also, the quote doesn’t say that everything a good Artistdoes is stolen. It just says they all do it. Something completely original is not precluded.

 

Agreed, except for the "heartbreaking" part as I think it's OK.

 

if you arent influenced by anything, you wouldnt put basics like drums or bass in.
because a musician has heard drums and bass and whatever in a song then they write a song with drums and bass in it, so stolen yes, new yes, original yes and no.

all musicians are influenced and stolen can be a good word for influenced.
imagine Led Zeppelin songs with no influences...

 

good musicians take bits from wide ranging worlds and mix them together.

chords from one world, drums from another makes something original, add a melody over the top from another genre and you have something original from stolen parts.

 

There seems to be ambiguity about the source of the quote the OP’s quote is based on (many attribute a slightly different quote to Picasso), but to me the key word is “steal,” which implies the conscious lifting of a discrete idea (in pop music, a melody, riff, or lyric), which not all artists do (great or not), and which is not the same as being influenced.