Begging, borrowing, and stealing

"Good artists copy. Great artists steal." 

Most of us have probably heard some version of this quote, often attributed to Pablo Picasso. But what does it really mean? Is it an endorsement of plagiarism? What's the difference between copying and stealing? And shouldn't we be coming up with our own ideas instead of poaching them from other artists? 

In the last blog, I shared Megan Hilty's thoughts about the importance of embracing our uniqueness. She believes this is the key to success as well as longevity in the musical theatre industry. Yet earlier in that same book (So You Want to Sing Musical Theatre), author Amanda Flynn also recognizes the usefulness of copying. She writes, "It is important to listen to professional singers to learn style, and mimicking can be a helpful way to explore sound." But she also warns that singers have to set realistic goals about their sound and not get lost in trying to copy someone else.  

From a technical standpoint, mimicking can be an effective tool. By exploring the sounds you hear in other singers and trying them out yourself, you can sometimes stumble upon different ways to negotiate your own voice or discover new sounds you didn't know you could make. So this kind of copying and stealing has real advantages. 

I saw a video this week featuring some of the best celebrity impressions performed on Saturday Night Live. In the video, they make a distinction between impersonation and parody. Jimmy Fallon's imitation of Jerry Seinfeld and Amy Pohler's imitation of Christopher Walken are both incredibly skillful impersonations. Will Ferrell's performances of Alex Trebek and Janet Reno, however, are better described as parody. Ferrell doesn't really try to sound exactly like the celebrities he portrays. Instead, he picks out certain mannerisms or characteristics that he then highlights or exaggerates in his performances. We can see hints of the celebrities coming through, but you wouldn't mistake him for the actual person he's parodying. 

I think there is a significant tendency for singers to do both impersonations and parodies of their favorite singers without even realizing it. More than once, I have complimented students on their near-exact replicas of performances by Jeremy Jordan or Sherie Rene Scott. Sometimes I hear them taking on certain vocal qualities of these singers and other times I recognize stylistic characteristics that have been swiped. Once again, if great artists steal, then all of these choices are available to us. But I think we need to be incredibly mindful of when and why we are imitating, impersonating, mimicking, copying, and/or stealing. 

Back to author Amanda Flynn, who expands on this idea. She says, "Singers often give themselves silent obligations. They may think that they must sound a certain way, or that they have to copy the riffs and style choices of the original artist. Sometimes they think this subconsciously without realizing it. Singers compare themselves to others and come up with ideas about what they are 'supposed' to sound like." (So You Want to Sing Musical Theatre, p. 217)

Singing with subconscious obligation of how we believe we are supposed to sound would seem to be the exact opposite of embracing our uniqueness. If these personalized expectations are what lead us to copy other singers, we are essentially trying to force someone else's characteristics and choices onto our own voices and performances. While it may be useful in select moments, wholesale imitation is really just a form of parody. 

By bringing these tendencies into the forefront, we can start to recognize when we are intentionally borrowing and when we are just defaulting to an impersonation of someone else. Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but performing as anyone other than yourself is likely to fall flat. 

Now go practice.