The art of music can be described as a medium that can move people both physically and emotionally. All artists strive to be creative and stand out from the crowd; but if most pop music is four chords, where's the originality? GE(minor)-CD and A(minor)-CDF are the most common chord progressions, and the only factors that change among 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 backseat to the singer. The public deprives them of due credit with their applause and idolatries. 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, steal from other artists in his essay “The Ecstasy of Influence: A Plagiarism.” In his essay, Lethem defines “plagiarism” as meaning artists using 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 the use of someone's work as inspiration for other works of art in this essay. Lethem does not consider this form of plagiarism a heinous crime, but rather a “sine quo non of the creative act” and, in fact, a badge of honor for those who are “plagiarized” (61). In other words, it is impossible to be creative without citing and alluding to people and their works. Using the example of an Iranian director, Dariush Mehrjui, who used the work of J.D. Salinger as a springboard for his own work, Lethem states that the director "had paid homage [to Salinger]" by using it and, in doing so, a ... middle of paper ... I'm changing in movies and television to fit in with anything that feels "familiar." Spoof horror and action, romance and comedy films have been made because sticking to one genre now would bore people and cause them to leave or change channels. The only question left is what will happen once people get bored of the genre mix. 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, stealing the best parts of all 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 able to create masterpieces using other people's music and mixing various genres, but one should not forget that the Internet is what led people to crave creativity in the first place.