How important is originality?

So I recently had a random discussion with a few friends about originality in music. The general consensus of the discussion was that artists nowadays are using recycled chords, riffs, beats, samples and parts that were already done by other artists. I argued that while these recycled materials sounded similarly in progression and that their interpretations are what makes them different and original. While a lot of songs do sound similar, they don’t have the same tempo, lyrics, exact notes, or necessarily use the same musical scale. You can even take the same song and re-compose it to be a totally different genre.

I agree that music is simply the arrangement of the 12 total notes that are available, yet these arrangements can be set with enough variances to create new songs. There are only so many chords and chords progressions that at some point everything original will be exhausted at some point. I think as time goes on, it will get harder and harder to recognize any new/original materials. Bottom line, does it matter if it’s original or not if it musically sounds good? Watch the vid embedded below just to see how many different songs can come out of the same typical 4-chord progression.

 

 -John