Thread: When you've found the "perfect" soundtrack, do you fear someone else will start...

...to use the track before you've found time to get together an act that does it justice?

I used to pour over this Clint Mansell piece from Requiem For a Dream, but found that other performers had begun to use it before I'd developed any strong ideas.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSY4Yi2ypno"]YouTube - Requiem for a Dream - Clint Mansell[/ame]

And yesterday, I re-discovered a really beautiful piece of classical music... it's nothing unusual, in fact, it's quite popular. And when I have ideas regarding how to use a popular piece of music, the fear that someone will get there before me sets in.

But at the end of the day, I suppose it doesn't really matter. I've got more important acts in the pipeline that require attention. This one has to go on the back-burner... and if, in the meantime, someone else uses the music for an act with a similar concept/aesthetic then I'll have to resign my ideas. On the other hand, if someone else finds the music and uses it to a different end, it won't affect me all that much.

Have you ever had a piece of music swim into your soul, crying for some choreography, only for you to find that someone else has got there before you?

And please, no tales about Eileen Barton's If I knew you were coming I'd have baked a cake song - many people have thought about/executed that one!! Myself included!

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I'm not a performer so, no that's never happened, lol, but Lux Aeterna is one of my most fave pieces of music ever - get chills everytime I hear it.

Hi Beatrix - really looking forward to seeing you on Saturday night at Missy and Leyla :-D

I don't perform, but I do write and I do have the same sort of 'issue' in a roundabout way. What tends to happen is the thing that sets off a chain reaction in my head that results in a 'hey THAT's a good idea for an article' also sets off a chain reaction in other writers' heads too.

So you tend to find that some kind of writing synchronicity thing occurs where there is a little rash of similarly themed articles crop up.

Either that or unscrupulous editors just filtch your pitch and pass it over to a staff writer *sigh*

I am more sanguine about it now, but I used to get REALLY paranoid about even mentioning what I was writing about in conversation....just in case someone beat me to it :-D

AX

I'm not a performer either but again I do get the same problems with making corsets.
I get paranoid about people thinking I've copied a design from elsewhere or wondering how many people use the fabrics I want to use!
But with corsets its hard to be completely original, the best styles of corsets already exist (all the 17th-20th century examples). So I suppose its much like any kind of performance/design, you can use similar elements but you just have to try to put your own unique spin on it (and hope no one else thinks the same way you do!)

Lilly x

I have one piece of music I've been absolutely itching to use in a routine for about a year now, but I can't quite get a concept that does it justice, as you said. I'm quite paranoid that someone else is going to find a use for it first, and if they ever do, I will cry ...

Yes, because it's taking me so long to get things to stage for real life issues, I've been panicking and quite neurotic checking youtube, veoh etc, myspace, people's websites etc hoping no one else is using my 'perfect' tracks.

Luckily because I'm quite off the wall hopefully most of the stuff I'm putting together isn't the 'norm'.....but then there are lots of other wonderful 'off the wall-ers' out there. So the way I calm myself is knowing that because of my vanilla life, all my music has some sort of editing - lots of extra sound effects, spliced tracks, fade ins/outs and in two acts I'm currently developing - recordings of me talking and erm, singing, over tracks. So fingers crossed, even if someone is using the same track, they won't be using the same way I do.

However there are two songs I absolutely love, one a show-girl show-tune and the other one that must have been used by tons of other performers.....but I really, really love them.....so I decided 'dammit! I'm just going to do it anyway' and have concentrated on using both in unconventional contexts.....including a suit of armour.....though I'm having some problems at the mo engineering this - it will work, I'm determined (translation: stubborn)

I have a massive list of songs and concepts, and i wait until two of thse match up before making a routine. So often I find myself pipped to using a song or concept, (Dani california I still hate you for whipping boy does nothing before me, although her routine is way better than anything I'd have done!) You gotta wait until you have a routine that ticks all the boxes, you cant just crack it out to make sure someone else doesn't do it.

I'm working on a few pop culture routines and really want to get them done before the references become more widespread and others use it. But I have too many ideas and not enough time!

I think worse than someone pipping your ideas before you get them out there, is when you have a bit of music and a concept you love, crack out the act and then find a string of similar acts crawling out of the woodwork afterwards.

If I see one more 'jump in the line' routine or one more pink leopard routine I am gonna be forced to open a massive can of whoop ass! (La Senza have just released a range of pink leopard undies so i can see this happening!)

I have a song that I heard a few months ago and it was like a lightbulb flicked on, I knew I had to perform to it! It is the first time I had such a strong reaction to a piece of music, and have been worrying about someone else using it while I am trying to think about an act. Two weeks ago the act popped into my head and is running away with me at the moment, i have started buying props and making costume. Now I just need to find the confidence to perform it!

I told a couple of people at my burlesque class which music I wanted, now I am UBER paranoid they might steal it....arrgh :disbelief:

Yeah, this has happened to me!! It was a really obscure song as well, and I went out of my way to check noone else was using it, bought all the stuff for the act, then the day I started rehearsing was when I discovered someone else had just debuted an act with the song the night before!! I was absolutely gutted. I emailed the performer and it turns out our actual concepts for the act are completely different, but the song is so distinctive there are bound to be comparisons. She was lovely and said I should still go ahead with the act, but I've lost some of my passion for it now I know the song's already being used. I'm also really worried that when I perform it people will think "Oh, she's just nicked that song from so-and-so".

Grrrr....
xx

Originally Posted by Ginger La Rouge

She was lovely and said I should still go ahead with the act, but I've lost some of my passion for it now I know the song's already being used. I'm also really worried that when I perform it people will think "Oh, she's just nicked that song from so-and-so".

Grrrr....
xx

You have my sympathies, there's nothing worse than finding out that your exciting original idea for a routine is actually not quite as unique as you thought it was! :love:

It sounds paradoxical, but really distinctive, original ideas are a complete nightmare for this if two people get the same idea as the very distinctiveness of the idea makes people more likely to assume plagiarism than they would otherwise be!

I got into a similar situation, not with music but with (what I thought was) a wonderful new idea for a distinctive set of fans to go with a medieval routine I had in mind.

I was just about to start buying up materials to get them made up when I read a MoB discussion about a more established performer and her brilliantly original act featuring fans just like the one's I'd been dreaming of in silence! :disbelief:

Still, at least I heard about it before I started spending money on the damn things I suppose!