What music is not derivative?

Check out the clarinet playing of Jimmy Guiffre and Joe Maneri -- they are classified as jazz musicians, but nobody sounds like them to be sure!

I love Mark Knopfler but he would be the first to acknowledge his many heros and main sources. Among them Chet Atkins and J.J. Cale. Look at the chord progressions of Cale. It runs through all of Knopfler's stuff. Unmistakable.

I remain

I agree with the premise that others have posed that music builds upon its predecessors and so can be deamed 'derivative'. Furthermore I'd suggest musicians from the 20th century onwards are at a disadvantage because they, generally, have released their performances on widely available media and so the performances can be considered 'preemptive'. Also the format of current music in 3-4 minute chunks is such that it may not replayed by others unless it's in the forum of future 'folk' music.

Having said all that a couple of musicians that come to mind as potentially transitional are Steve Reich and Philip Glass, and in the more mainstream I think one could squeeze in the Beatles. Most of the rest (even though I listen and enjoy it) I consider "contempory" and as such will die a quiet death in time.

Aren't I in a happy mood !

To Clueless: the French author Sacha Guitry is quoted as saying, as translated by yours truly, "originality is the art of concealing one's sources". Push come to shove, everything is derivative, save for the work of the most naive, I guess.

I, also, am fast becoming clueless.

Good day.

Very intersting discussions all around. If you read my original post, I never said that the Beatles were non derivative, although I do believe their later work was far enough removed from anything that had been done before to consider it original. Particularly Abbey Road. Plus it has spawned several generations of bands that have continued music in the same vein.

That being said, some of the people I had in mind?

Kraftwerk. Noone had ever done anything like what they had. So many now draw from what they started.

Grandmaster Flash. He single handedly started the whole hip hop movement. Well maybe he had some help. Or a ot of it.

The Velvet Underground.

The Jesus and Mary Chain. This is derivative to some extent, but they definitely put a different twist to beach boys melodies with massive use of feedback.

Those are some of the people I consider to be fairly original. I do agree it is impossible to be entirely original if you use a guitar, bass, drms, etc. But some of these artists pioneered the use of alternate forms of sound, ie turntables, feedback, all electronic music, etc...