Last week we listened to a TED talk by Mark Ronson who talked about one of
the most sampled songs of all time “La Di Da Di,” by Slick Rick and Doug E. Fresh's from the 1980’s. I found this
podcast to be really interesting because it changed my view on what originality
really is. Wikipedia defines originality
as the aspect of created or invented works by being new or novel,
and thus can be distinguished from duplicates or derivative works. “Originality is synonymous with other terms such as innovation, novelty,
ingenuity, and encompasses a new idea or approach that departs from the traditional or previously established forms (Timothy 1). Originality
does not mean coming up with an idea that has never been thought about before,
but it means taking old ideas and putting them together in new ways. In the TED
talk Ronson talks about sampling which is reinventing something old
to such an extent that it becomes something new. One of the things I liked the
most about this podcast was when Ronson played “La Di Da DI” and then played
another song by an artist who took his original lyrics and turned them into
their own. One example he gave was in Miley Cyrus’ song where she took the
lyrics from “la di da di, we like to party” and changed them into “la da di da
di, we like to party.” She took an original piece and sampled it into her own
words. Every idea, invention, or song is built of something that came before
it. Whether we steal or we borrow, we are always re-inventing stuff from the
past.
"Originality." Wikipedia.
Wikimedia Foundation, 15 Feb. 2015. Web. 30 Mar. 2015.
Ryan,
Timothy. "The Art of Originality." The Art of Originality.
N.p., 2015. Web. 30 Mar. 2015.
I completely agree with the idea that all things are essentially created by ideas that came before it. It kind of makes me wonder if anything that I come up with is completely unique. In a way I feel like originality is all tied to society, and how its standards are what limits what the mind can think about without it being some sort of taboo. But that may be going to deep into it.
ReplyDeleteI agree with that conclusion as well. Whether we realize it or not, all of our ideas come from somewhere--which I think makes for a very interesting patchwork of media.
ReplyDeleteI agree with this post. Especially since we are writing our final papers and citing our sources, I had trouble with making sure I cited things and didn't get in trouble for plagiarism. Everything that we know, is a collection of things we have learned in the past, which is why I struggle with citing. I know that everything that I'm stating in my paper isn't my own words, but something that I learned recently or in the past
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