Bill Withers & Alicia Keys Inspiration/biting ???

ost

I personnaly respect both of these artists alot, so this is not a diss in any way whatsoever. The things is I've always felt that there was alot of similarity within' the harmonics of Bill Wither's "Ain't no sunshine" , Alicia Keys' "Fallin in love" and James Brown's "It's a man's world". I've always felt like they kinda jacked or got inspired from James' song...Am I the only one to thing this way??

johmbolaya

That first Alicia Keys album, as good as it can be, is full of "inspirations", including "(You Make Me Feel Like A) Natural Woman", a nice big Aretha bite.

SPlDEY

When Bill Withers wrote, Aint no sunshine there wasn't many other songwriters that you could pinpoint as the source of inspiration. Same as It's a man's world, though you can definitely feel that it has the same spirit as many gospel ballads it is hard to pin the point of reference.

There's only so many possible chord combinations, and familiarity is also a big comforting draw for most pop songs. So, when writing songs, and learning standards, sometimes familiarity when composing can lead to biting.

As a breakdancer, I can tell you there is a definite amount of stuff that is just defined moves. Then there is stuff that are completly original moves inherent to the original dancer. Sometimes when you understand what the other dancer was doing you expand upon it. This can lead to innovations, but it is essentially biting, unless you can figure out how to completly remove the original idea.

Alicia as a songwriter, I understand where she's coming from on trying to bring back the feel of those soulful ballads. However she doesn't innovate it, now people can pinpoint the source of inspiration, and call it fake. It's not that it didn't come from a pure place, it's just a hard feel to create something original with. It's hard for me to judge Alicia Keys as an artist. On one hand she's beautiful, and talented and much deserving of the praise. On the other hand, it doesn't feel authentic or that it comes from the same place. It is refreshing to hear a new artist take on trying to recreate that feel. I just don't get anything from it.

- spidey

LaserWolf

It's A Mans World has been pleasantly stuck in my head for months. What a great song. Ain't No Sunshine is one of my all time very favorite songs. Besides being deep ballads they seem very different, and original, to me.