One Song Sounds Like Another

[seashmore]

I looked for a music sub board under interests, but couldn't find one, so general discussion it is...

I have this problem where I'll hear (or sometimes dream) about a song and think it sounds like another. Once, I had a mashup of the music to two sacrament hymns, so it's not always the same two songs that I'm hearing in my mind.  Normally, it's not a problem to figure out what the "song twins" are, since they're at least within the same genre.

The exception to this seems to be the piano part (especially the intro/outro) of "Incomplete" by Backstreet Boys.  It sounds like a song I've heard while listening to progressive rock (or progressive metal, depending on the day and person you talk to).  And I can't. figure. out. what song it sounds like!  It drives me nuts.  Every time it pops up on Pandora.  The only help Google gave me was a New York Times article from 2003 about an Iraqi boy band.  YouTube gave me a video to the song "Piano Lessons" by Porcupine Tree.  I've searched all sorts of configurations, including the "rhythmic acoustic piano" tag from Pandora, which gave me a short list that included a Pink Floyd song I've never heard of.  Close, in the same way that the planet Mercury is close to the sun.

Not really expecting anyone to have the answer, just needed a place to express myself.

[NeuroTypical]

For the last dozen years or so, more often than not, I'll wake up with a random song in my head that remains stuck there for most of the morning.  Sometimes I'll catch myself 'fitting' another song's lyrics into that tune. It ticks my daughters off to no end when they catch me singing something 'wrong'.  

I figure the human race has basically run out of new ways to combine notes and words in ways pleasing to folks.  Everything is a remix, and that's certainly true of most things in our hymnbook.  It's why we see stuff like this:

 

And you can find stuff like this:

 

and

 

[Guest]

I believe you're experiencing one of three things.

1) Meter.  Even if the tune is different, the meter can come through, and is often discerned by those with an ear for it.  You may very well have one.
2) Chord Identities.  This happens most often with the guitar, zither, and other stringed instruments with chord capability and limited range variation.  It basically means that with limited options, you're going to come across chords that are forced from their classical range to an altered version that sounds very similar (and sometimes equivalent) to another chord.
3) They simply are similar.  Sometimes this is independent, sometimes not.  Many tunes sound like others because music theory dictates that some chord progressions naturally follow.  Techniques such as variation in pitch go along with variation in volume.  It takes someone pretty talented to come up with something truly and completely original.

[Guest]

1 minute ago, NeuroTypical said:

For the last dozen years or so, more often than not, I'll wake up with a random song in my head that remains stuck there for most of the morning.  Sometimes I'll catch myself 'fitting' another song's lyrics into that tune. It ticks my daughters off to no end when they catch me singing something 'wrong'.  

My 5 y.o. was singing in the hallway:

"We'll sing and we'll shout (tune change) with the army of Helaman."

[seashmore]

I think I have it narrowed down to a Dream Theater song. Most likely.

[mirkwood]

I saw the title of this post and thought we had another Anvil thread going for @MormonGator

[Guest]

I remember when Pearl Jam's "Given to Fly" seemingly completely and shamelessly ripped off Led Zeppelin's "Going to California".

I am no Pearl Jam fan, I think they are by far the least interesting of the big Seattle bands in the early 90s, I think it is absolute silliness they were once considered on the level of U2 and REM (both of which are actually truly great bands, particularly U2), and I think their fan base as a collective whole (not on the individual level) is a little cultish.  Yet, I think in this case, Pearl Jam's version is far superior (and yes, Pearl Jam is less gruesomely overrated than Led Zeppelin).

And don't get me started on how Breaking Benjamin took a song as amazing as "Spiders" by System of a Down, seemingly ripped it off, and somehow came up with something as horrible as "So Cold" . . . 

Edited July 16, 2017 by DoctorLemon