Pastiches

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...or, as some may regard them, blatant efforts to mimic someone else's style. (But let's try not to be too cynical :)

Three songs come to mind immediately:
1. Tears for Fears - "Sowing the Seeds of Love" (Beatles)
2. Ace of Base - "Always Have, Always Will" (early Motown/girl group)
3. Emma Bunton - "Maybe" (early 60s 'swinging london' pop)

― i'll mitya halfway (mitya), Sunday, 28 January 2007 13:45 (eighteen years ago)

Someone else may be able to nail the Emma Bunton source more accurately.

Also, the point is not to mention groups whose whole approach is to mimic someone else. I'm looking more for individual songs, possibly unlike everything else a singer/group has done, that specifically refer to something else. (I realize suggesting that Emma Bunton has a "style" that she's diverged from is pushing the limits.)

― i'll mitya halfway (mitya), Sunday, 28 January 2007 13:47 (eighteen years ago)

well, there's a fine line between pastiche and parody, as Frederic Jameson has pointed out...fIREHOSE did a spot-on pastiche of REM once, but when you consider the song title ("For The Singer Of REM"), it's clearly a parody...similarly, Butthole Surfers did a spot-on Jesus & Mary Chain on the Pighoud LP (I don't remember the song title, and I'm not sure I'm even spelling the LP name correctly), augmenting the distorted dum-dum beat with dentist drills and the like, but given the everything we know about Gibby and Co., they are more likely making fun of JAMC, rather than paying homage...in fact, that's what I find interesting about the parody/pastiche discussion, when you find an artist whose intentions are less than transparent...

― hank (hank s), Sunday, 28 January 2007 15:18 (eighteen years ago)

Cruising With Ruben and the Jets is a great pastiche (musically) and parody (lyrically).

I'll mention the Rutles here even though you probably don't want me to. That first Rutles album has a handful of songs that are just as good as Beatles songs, despite the pastiche element.

― do i have to draw you a diaphragm (Rock Hardy), Sunday, 28 January 2007 15:31 (eighteen years ago)

Pastiche isn't a bad thing!

― i'll mitya halfway (mitya), Monday, 29 January 2007 07:45 (eighteen years ago)

"raspberry beret" is '60s pop pastiche, but it's also better than 98 percent of what it references so i don't know if it counts or not.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Monday, 29 January 2007 07:54 (eighteen years ago)

rasberry beret is a pastiche from a distance; looking back rather than trying to recapture.

― george bob (george bob), Monday, 29 January 2007 16:44 (eighteen years ago)

4. Todd Rundgren - "Good Vibrations"

― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 29 January 2007 16:46 (eighteen years ago)

Bowie - Queen bitch (VU)
Bowie - song for Bob Dylan (well...)
actually, we could go on forever with Bowie !
Beach Boys - Girl don't tell me (Beatles)
Beatles - Back in The USSR (Beach Boys)
...

― AleXTC (AleXTC), Monday, 29 January 2007 16:58 (eighteen years ago)

http://www.sympathyrecords.com/catalogue/images1/SFTRI123.gif

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Monday, 29 January 2007 17:41 (eighteen years ago)

This thread would probably work better if we clarified which sense of "pastiche" we were looking for -- the original question seems to be about direct imitation of a particular style, but my sense of what "pastiche" means is still the one where a bunch of different conventions are getting mixed together. (Or actually I guess my sense of the word falls between the two: "pastiche" as the sort of work where you imitate a bunch of different things from one category, sorta collapsing the category into one thing -- e.g., a song containing different bits that imitate the Beach Boys, the Beatles, and Love would be a "sixties pop pastiche.")

― nabisco (nabisco), Monday, 29 January 2007 17:48 (eighteen years ago)

ABC - "When Smokey Sings"

― God Bows to Meth (noodle vague), Monday, 29 January 2007 19:04 (eighteen years ago)

ween - "don't get 2 close (2 my fantasy)"

sound borrowed from bowie. spelling borrowed from prince.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Monday, 29 January 2007 20:59 (eighteen years ago)

Steve Winwood, "Roll With It" - Obvious attempt to update Sam & Dave, to the extent that he even overdubs his own harmony vocals.

― M. Agony Von Bontee (M. Agony Von Bontee), Monday, 29 January 2007 22:23 (eighteen years ago)

I think that may be more

ween- "their career"

― bangelo (bangelo), Monday, 29 January 2007 22:49 (eighteen years ago)

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