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The new elephant in the room: Muse need to stop trying to be Queen


ChrisirhC

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Muse have always been influenced by others, and I think the only difference between the old Muse and the new muse is that they used to be influenced by stuff you didn't already hear on the radio. I mean, RATM, Rachmaninov and flamenco guitars weren't exactly overplayed on popular music stations.

 

Muse continue to borrow to create their own unique sound, but they're borrowing from more popular spots. You can hear U2, Queen, funk, film scores and "electronic music" every day.

 

So while Muse used to be "Rock for clever people" (yeah, I said it) now it's "Music for people". That doesn't say anything about the quality of the music, of course, but it takes away a lot of the draw that Muse had on their original fan-base.

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Muse have always been influenced by others, and I think the only difference between the old Muse and the new muse is that they used to be influenced by stuff you didn't already hear on the radio. I mean, RATM, Rachmaninov and flamenco guitars weren't exactly overplayed on popular music stations.

 

Muse continue to borrow to create their own unique sound, but they're borrowing from more popular spots. You can hear U2, Queen, funk, film scores and "electronic music" every day.

 

So while Muse used to be "Rock for clever people" (yeah, I said it) now it's "Music for people". That doesn't say anything about the quality of the music, of course, but it takes away a lot of the draw that Muse had on their original fan-base.

 

Your username is ironic-ish in this thread.

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I'm surprised people don't mention their massive U2 similarities recently as much as they mention the Queen ones. They show them about as often. Like with Queen they're always 'trying to be them' but the U2 similarity is always mentioned sort of offhand.

 

I dunno, maybe it's because U2 have already been copied to death so nobody even notices their similarities?

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Popular music stations play classics and what's popular today. That's hardly ever RATM and includes quite a bit of funk. In the US and in Holland anyway, I never listen to British radio stations.

 

EDIT: Or Canadian.

 

RATM doesn't get played on the radio because radio stations tend not to play songs that swear throughout. Despite this they are still quite a famous band.

 

I'm not saying funk was never popular. I'm saying it isn't popular now.

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People are completely missing the point.

 

The problem isn't what influences Muse, it's what they do with their influences. And this thread was started because the OP along with other people think that Muse aren't very good when they're influenced by Queen.

 

That it doesn't matter who influences them as long as it sounds good is obvious, the problem being addressed is that it DOESN'T sound good, and therefore people think they should stop.

 

"Muse have always been influenced by others", yeah we know.

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People are completely missing the point.

 

The problem isn't what influences Muse, it's what they do with their influences. And this thread was started because the OP along with other people think that Muse aren't very good when they're influenced by Queen.

 

That it doesn't matter who influences them as long as it sounds good is obvious, the problem being addressed is that it DOESN'T sound good, and therefore people think they should stop.

 

"Muse have always been influenced by others", yeah we know.

 

If this is addressed at me than you fail to see my point.

 

They were never good at imitating flamenco or Rachmaninov either, but people enjoyed it because they didn't recognize it and didn't approach it as a bad imitation, but rather as a unique sound. It's because people are more familiar with Queen that they take offense in the bad imitation, if we weren't so familiar with the sound of Queen we'd probably appreciate it a lot more.

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If this is addressed at me than you fail to see my point.

 

They were never good at imitating flamenco or Rachmaninov either, but people enjoyed it because they didn't recognize it and didn't approach it as a bad imitation, but rather as a unique sound. It's because people are more familiar with Queen that they take offense in the bad imitation, if we weren't so familiar with the sound of Queen we'd probably appreciate it a lot more.

Only the last part where I actually quote you is addressed at you. And we're not talking about being good at imitating something. Because hopefully they aren't TRYING to imitate something. We're just saying we don't like the result. Because it's a bad song, not because it's a bad imitation.

 

And for some reason Muse are at their shittiest when they are influenced by U2 or Queen.

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I think a good example of what is happening to Muse is what happened to RHCP. The chili peppers started off as a rock/funk/hiphop/punk group. They had a very unique sound and that attracted a cult following. When they released BSSM they adopted a slightly more alternative rock feel to their music (Most likely due to john frusciante increased influence. They album was a hit adn they Chilis gained a more general following, they began to sell out bigger and bigger arenas. Once John left they seemed to drop the alternative influence and their next album 'One Hot Minute' had a much stronger funk influence (although it also had a strong metal influence). The album wasn't anywhere near as big a hit as BSSM so the chilis fell back into the cult following crowd. When John rejoined they regained the alternative influence again, which made them popular again (Just listen to 'Coffee Shop' and 'Scar Tissue' to see the jump in style). This meant they left their cult followers behind and became a consistently popular band.

 

Basically Muse have gained certain influences (Queen, U2, electronic music etc.) that makes them far more popular but this means they have lost the cult followers but have gained a general popularity. But unlike the chili peppers they haven't had the return to the original influences so it looks like they are just going to become more and more popular. Unless they pull a REM and release a decent album that just isn't popular and they never recover.

 

/tldr

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/English.

 

I don't think Muse are necessarily worse when they pull influences from Queen. I just don't think they can pull it off most of the time.

 

USOE is my favourite song from TR and I adore survival :erm:

 

And I am still not sure if he's a girl or a boy so left it out so as not to offend

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We're just saying we don't like the result. Because it's a bad song, not because it's a bad imitation.

 

And I'm saying people perceive it as a bad song, because they associate it with the artist it's influenced by. Either as a bad imitation, or as an hommage to a band or sound they didn't like in the first place.

 

Unless of course you say a "bad song" is not based on perception but somehow an established fact. In that case I'll refer you to Niall.

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And I'm saying people perceive it as a bad song, because they associate it with the artist it's influenced by. Either as a bad imitation, or as an hommage to a band or sound they didn't like in the first place.
Well I'd say that you are wrong because there's still the option that a band is influenced by something without it being a homage, and I can dislike it and still like the artist that influenced it.

Unless of course you say a "bad song" is not based on perception but somehow an established fact. In that case I'll refer you to Niall.

If that's what you think then I refer you to pretty much every discussion I've had with Niall regarding the subject. I suggest you start in this thread http://board.muse.mu/showthread.php?t=87472

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Muse have always been influenced by others, and I think the only difference between the old Muse and the new muse is that they used to be influenced by stuff you didn't already hear on the radio. I mean, RATM, Rachmaninov and flamenco guitars weren't exactly overplayed on popular music stations.

 

Muse continue to borrow to create their own unique sound, but they're borrowing from more popular spots. You can hear U2, Queen, funk, film scores and "electronic music" every day.

 

So while Muse used to be "Rock for clever people" (yeah, I said it) now it's "Music for people". That doesn't say anything about the quality of the music, of course, but it takes away a lot of the draw that Muse had on their original fan-base.

 

Completely agree, I stated something along those lines on another forum where we were having a similar discussion. Songs like Space Dementia sound great, fresh and original, however it's a song that has a strong influence but we don't mind it because most of us aren't familiar with Rachmaninov's work, and if someone didn't point it out, most of us probably wouldn't even notice. But now we have Prince, U2, Queen, bands and artists that are pretty known by the general public so it's easier to recognize that influence. I know people who think songs like Madness or Survival are great songs but still they get irritated by how obvious the influences are.

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Completely agree, I stated something along those lines on another forum where we were having a similar discussion. Songs like Space Dementia sound great, fresh and original, however it's a song that has a strong influence but we don't mind it because most of us aren't familiar with Rachmaninov's work, and if someone didn't point it out, most of us probably wouldn't even notice. But now we have Prince, U2, Queen, bands and artists that are pretty known by the general public so it's easier to recognize that influence. I know people who think songs like Madness or Survival are great songs but still they get irritated by how obvious the influences are.

 

Maybe for some people I know for me (and possibly other people) it's more a question of how well blended those influences are in a song. I appreciate the influences in lots of Muse songs for example the queen, rachmaninov & Ravel blending in USOE but songs like Madness and Survival feel like a bad paint by numbers instead of a blending. And then there is the separate issue or not liking what they are influenced by (in my case that would be U2).

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