That sounds familiar...

Have you ever seen that YouTube video of the Australian rock comedy group, The Axis of Awesome, performing their "4 Chords" routine, where they explain that every pop song in the past 50 years use the same four basic chords?

No? Well, here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pidokakU4I

Anyway, these Aussies have a point.  When musician are limited to 12 notes, not including octaves, you can imagine how hard it might be to come up with new riffs after several centuries of musical history.

And it's true.  There really is no more originality when it comes to music.  Even the lyrics these days rarely stray from tales of love, violence or growing up.  If they're feeling clever, artists might try to spin lyrics about love during their violent youth.

The derth of originality is, of course, rooted in the instrumentals.  It's downright impossible to find a song that uses A minor in a fresh and unique way, because every artist is influenced by another artist who came before them.

This, of course, makes it easy for musicians.  All we have to learn apart from technique is the basics of a genre and of a handful of influential artists and we can fake our way through almost any song.

Now the secret's out, and of course the Musician's Alliance will never stand for this.  I will soon be abducted and never be heard from again.