Reviewer 336 - "That lick sounds familiar"

[MattCurious]

Hi there

First, thanks for taking the time to review the track I sent for listing Y131003HH a while back.

I totally get that the flow wasn't quite old-school enough - fair point.

However, I was kinda offended by the comment "That guitar lick sounds very familiar to another sample of a popular song".

It implies one of three things:

1. I cannot read. I have sampled another artist's work when the brief clearly said not to.

2. I am unprofessional. I sampled another artist's work when the brief clearly said not to.

3. I am a thief - I am infringing someone else's copyright and trying to pass it off as my own.

All of the samples on the track were original, recorded by me in my very own studio with my very own hands. The difficulty with recording something that you want to have a traditional blues feel is that you have to use traditional blues moves often - as in this case - over a traditional scale like a blues pentatonic. There are a limited number of available permutations.

I appreciate you're under time pressures and that the comments box is small, but please credit us with the ability to read, a degree of professionalism and a minimum of law-breaking.

Thanks
Matt

[funsongs]

By "familiar"...does that necessarily imply, or mean the same as, "not original"?

If some sounds or licks did NOT sound somewhat familiar, how else would you make distinction about the genre?
(as you suggest by signatures of a "blues" tune or song, for example).

I'm not a blues player...but I think I can identify something sounding familiar to other blues. Also, isn't it familiarity that is signified when a listing posts an "ala"...something wherein style and tonality are, in fact, familiar? Doesn't mean it was ripped off, unless you're doing a cover, or perhaps a parody.

Not at all unlike Bluegrass, Blues seems like one of those genres where borrowing, copying, imitating...is a part of it, and an accepted reality. Freedom within the boundaries, so to speak?

Matt, maybe your response could have been,
"Oh, Really?! Why, thank you!!...must mean I was on target!"

My 2 holiday cents worth.

Cheers,
Peter R.
http://www.soundcloud.com/funsongs-1

[MattCurious]

@funsongs - totally agree with you, and 9 times out of 10 I'll assume the best of people - particularly in writing, which is a difficult medium. But rightly or wrongly, I took the phrasing as critical. More than happy to be corrected. I suppose what I'm trying to offer the reviewer is the suggestion that more thought could go into the way feedback is delivered even in the tiny comments box. I've had some amazing (by which I mean valuable constructive) feedback even through "no critique" returns. This was, sadly, ambiguous at best.

I think part of the issue might be that the listing was actually a hip-hop listing, which I chose to answer with a beat based around blues licks. Maybe it's just not the reviewer's genre - I've had the same beat described as "rock" and "country"(!)

[Len911]

However, I was kinda offended by the comment "That guitar lick sounds very familiar to another sample of a popular song".
It implies one of three things:
Thanks
Matt

If that's the whole quote I don't think it implies anything, if it was me, more than anything I would be curious what the song was. Fwiw, from my understanding guitar riffs can't be copyrighted, though the familiarity could be a distraction to the listener.
It is for me, I've heard a couple peer-to-peer songs previously that contained similar, and after that, I was only thinking about what the other song was that it sounded so similar to or exactly like. I usually after some time find the song and post it. Folks ain't usually too flattered, in fact they never acknowledge the post. That's the thing, I had assumed no one "copies" on purpose
and that it's probably either intense influence or a mere fluke, however, when there are no replies, I had to wonder, oops, maybe they did do that on purpose.

[Casey H]

Matt
I think you are being way too sensitive regarding the screener's comment. He/she may have just thought the lick sounded very familiar and in no way was accusing you of ripping it off, implying you were illiterate, unprofessional, etc. Sometimes, through no fault of our own, a riff we do sounds very much like something we've heard before. In this case, the screener felt it was too close to forward. Nothing more, nothing less to read into it.

Did you post a link to the track? It's impossible to really comment intelligently without hearing it.

Best,
Casey

[AntonioV]

Matt,
I have to say that is an interesting statement to take issue with, after all, there is nothing in that statement about the quality of your music or the suitability for the pitch. I don't think it implies any of the things you point out. If that was the only statement on the reason why it was not forwarded then I would hesitantly agree that a more helpful reason could have been provided. But at the same time, if I put myself inside the head of a music supervisor for a moment, I could imagine the following internal monologue:
"Gee, I really like this piece and it would work well for what I'm looking for but that guitar lick sounds so familiar... would using it make me and my employer and/or client a target for a law suit? Maybe... Hmm, I better move on to the next piece then."
Just something else to consider.

Antonio

[MattCurious]

Guys - that's a really helpful reality check, thanks.

The issue with the lick was the main reason for the submission being returned, and I guess that's why I was so irritated by it - familiarity is sometimes unavoidable, and sometimes what you're going for!

The second reason - the vocal not being stylistically close enough - was entirely valid.

[BruceBrown]

If we could hear the track it would help. who knows it may sound familiar

[MattCurious]

@BruceBrown - it probably will, hehe! I've no issue with it being familiar sounding (I was trying to create a cliche'd blues feel), it was more that the familiarity was the main reason for the return and I couldn't see why familiarity was a problem in the circumstances unless it was one of the things I was griping about above.

The tune is here: https://soundcloud.com/matt_curious/sid ... at-rob-one

[VanderBoegh]

Hey Matt, yeah don't read TOO much into that comment. However, the very opening notes of this song are a standard blues lick that really have appeared countless times in modern and vintage blues. It might be a neat idea to try changing that lick up a little bit so it's not so "familiar" and is something a tad more unique.

Cool song though, and some pretty good rapping. But something interesting was happing in the 20 second instrumental intro. Something wasn't jiving with the timing and I couldn't quite figure it out. I might be alone here (and I hope I am), but it was rather jarring rhythmically. Once the rapping came in I locked into the groove, but those first 20 seconds didn't hit me right.

~~Matt