The art of music can be described as a medium capable of moving people both physically and emotionally. All artists strive to be creative and stand out from the crowd; but when the majority of pop music is made up of four chords, where is the originality? GE(minor)-CD and A(minor)-CDF are the most common chord progressions and the only factors that change between the thousands of songs that use these progressions are the strumming pattern and the lyrics. However, the skills of the lyricist and composer who successfully produced these songs take a back seat to the singer. The public deprives them of the credit they are due with their applause and idolatry. Although many singers strive to be original, all artists “plagiarize” and reinvent the wheel; so how do they achieve originality? Jonathan Lethem analyzes how various artists, across all mediums, rip off other artists in his essay “The Ecstasy of Influence: A Plagiarism.” In his essay, Lethem defines “plagiarism” to mean that artists use the work of other artists through “mimicry, quotation, [or] allusion” (61). Rather than copying and pasting someone's work word for word, the word plagiarism will be used to describe using someone's work as inspiration for other works of art in this essay. Lethem does not view this form of plagiarism as a heinous crime, but rather as a “sine quo non of the creative act” and, in fact, as a badge of honor for the one who is “plagiarized” (61). In other words, it is impossible to be creative without quoting and alluding to people and their works. Taking the example of an Iranian filmmaker, Dariush Mehrjui, who used the work of JD Salinger as a springboard for his work, Lethem claims that the filmmaker "paid homage to [Salinger]" by using it and, in doing so, a...... middle of paper ...... I've changed in movies and on TV to accommodate whatever seems 'familiar'. Horror films and action, romance and comedy films were made because sticking to one genre would now bore people and cause them to leave or change channels. The only question that remains is what will happen once people tire of the mixing of genres. In other words, when the “strange” becomes “familiar,” what will satisfy people’s appetite for entertainment? Perhaps the emergence of the perfect genre will take over the market by stealing the best bits from all of music and combining them to please everyone. The Internet age is both a blessing and a curse when it comes to music. A person is capable of creating masterpieces using other people's music and mixing different genres, but we must not forget that the Internet is what made people crave creativity in the first place..