Re: Most pointless rip-offs

The Christmas music discussion got me thinking about various popular christmas music acts, which brought me around to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, an act whose entire existence is merely an excuse to rip-off the Mannheim Steamroller's schtick. This is not something that needed to be done, as the Steamroller is pretty horrific to begin with.

But that got me wondering who some other performers might be whose entire gig is ripping off someone else's schtick when that entire schtick has not one single element worth ripping off in the first place.

It's especially obvious in this case, as it's such a specialized niche they're both trying to fill - cheesy holiday instrumentals presented by a conglomeration with a nonsensical but exotic sounding name. But are there any others?

Jessica Simpson/Britney Spears springs to mind.

the entire Country and Western conglomerate both males and phillys.
Looky, put on CMT and close your eyes, betcha can't tell one from the other!

Korn (et al) owes Faith No More. Limp Bizkit was pretty pointless, alright.
But PRO's include
-all hair-metal (cheesy songcraft; all interchangeable)
-all twangy country post-Hank Williams (whose twang was an accident not an affect)
-95% of rap. Rap is strictly about having something to say and the skill to meter it. What happens when an 'artist' (or a genre) runs out of things to say and doesn't have melody, nor instrumental skill nor songcraft to fall back on?

Then there's the bands that pontlessly rip themselves off.

Faulting Jessica Simpson (or any other singer) for ripping off Britney Spears is kind of pointless. It's not as though Spears ever got into music to be an "artist." With her (and her handlers), it's all about commerce, and has been from day one. Wherever a singer or musician hits upon a particularly lucrative sound and style, others will always follow in their wake, hoping to cash in with something similar.

I may be incorrect here, but I think Korn is the band that can really be credited/blamed for starting the whole rap/metal sound of the late '90s. And it's a head-scratcher, to me, that bands from Limp Bizkit on down (or up) chose to copy that sound. I sure never heard anything in that hybrid that seemed worth appropriating; it seemed to be the worst of both worlds, IMO.

The other side of the "pointless ripoff" coin is bands who choose to copy an artist whose approach is so singular that anyone who does copy said artist can be tagged instantly as a ripoff. (The originating artist's approach doesn't have to be all that terrific ... just strongly distinctive.) As an example -- admittedly, a rather weak example -- who would take a band that wears full-face makeup onstage seriously?

> Trans-Siberian Orchestra, an act whose entire existence is
> merely an excuse to rip-off the Mannheim Steamroller's schtick.
> This is not something that needed to be done, as the
> Steamroller is pretty horrific to begin with.
>
> But that got me wondering who some other performers might be
> whose entire gig is ripping off someone else's schtick when
> that entire schtick has not one single element worth ripping
> off in the first place.
>


well, was a time during the late 80s/early 90s when every town in america had it's own version of the red hot chili peppers...

fortunately, i can't remember most of their names, but:

omaha had 311
minneapolis had the style monkeys
and los angelos had one opening/closing every day of the week

heck, even sweden's formerly wonderful creeps fell into that trap. sheesh

Quick Trans-Siberian story. Saw them Christmas of 2004 (got dragged there). Hideous, painful schtick. Anyway, ater the 2 PLUS hour Christmas show, they launch into a whole other set. They "previewed" a non-Christmas show they were working on for 2006 (remember this was in December 2004). They slipped in an ELP cover and updated a Tchaikovsky piece (not Bram). Tchaikovsky was described by the lead guy (formerly of metal losers Savatage) as "a big influence". The crowd was literally like the crowd in The Producers watching "Springtime For Hitler".... It was the most brazen piece of holding an audience hostage I'd ever seen , because they kept promising some more Christmas type songs to close the show out and the crowd was families who wanted that stuff. They did 2 quick tunes at the end that were Christmas-y and split after subjecting everyone to 45 minutes of prog-rock noodling hell. A 3 hour show in total ......ouch.

you should buy a car...