Genius - a term adopted by Apple for their support staff, although I’m yet to meet one who has split an atom, come up with a cure for cancer, or painted a masterpiece. I’m messing with you, I don’t think that was Apple’s intended meaning, at least having met some, I do hope not.
In the creative world the term genius is touted about some of those working in the profession, who have without doubt achieved a great deal to be proud of.
However, there’s a problem with the term genius, it implies a special kind of talent, as if kissed by a god at birth, which then makes most mere mortals think that they too can’t also achieve great things.
In his book How to Fly a Horse: The Secret History of Creation, Invention, and Discovery, Kevin Ashton says;
“There is really no such thing as a genius—or, to be very specific, there is absolutely no evidence to support the modern sense of the word, which originated in the late 19th century and literally means ‘exceptional hereditary general intelligence that can be measured and used to predict future greatness,’” he goes on to say. “That term, by the way, was intended only for white men of European descent.”
So if it’s not genius that elevates some to creative greatness then what is it?
Immersion
Meet anyone who has achieved a great deal in their music career and start talking and you’ll soon realise that one thing commonly found is an encyclopaedic knowledge of many things. Their understanding of musical history enables them to draw deeply into the well of genres, styles, methods and more. They often have a deep understanding of recording history too. As they do literature, film, art, in fact their interest in deepening their understanding and appreciation of many aspects of the arts is often a clue to their prolific output.
I recall a few years ago working with a talented young female singer. We were exploring some ideas and as she was singing back the songs to me I said how much it reminded me of artists like Billie Holiday. She looked at me with a blank expression, she had never heard of her. As each session went on I started playing her tracks from Billie, Ella and many of the other female greats. We were recording strings for one of her tracks one day so I started playing some of Nelson Riddle’s arrangements for Frank Sinatra. I don’t say this to suggest I’m even close to being on a par with recording greats, but as I’ve been around them it’s become apparent that they are drawing from a rich well of artistic history.
Memory
The great thing about immersing one’s self in the treasures of history is it allows us to draw from it when necessary. This is the second thing I’ve identified in those regarded as a genius, that is their memory recall. You can be mid-sentence with them and out will come a quote, a line from a song, a scene from a film, a melody line. What’s even more interesting is their ability to draw from their unconscious and be inspired by those memories.
In the book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible it says; “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.”
Am I saying they are copying? Well yes and no. It’s a truth universally acknowledged that there are no entirely original ideas. If you are well-read then you will know that my last sentence was partly a quote from the beginning of the book Pride And Prejudice by Jane Austen.
Take the album Nothing Like The Sun by Sting, the title is taken from the track on the album Sister Moon. Here’s the lyric; “My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun.”
If that seems familiar to you, it is; “My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun.” Is from Sonnet 130 by William Shakespeare.
So is Sting copying? Perhaps, but perhaps not. If you know a little about Sting, or Gordon Sumner as he was in his previous life, then you’ll know he was a teacher for a period of time. It is likely that either for work or pleasure he read much of Shakespeare.
Mark Twain said there are no really original ideas; “the same old pieces of coloured glass that have been in use through all the ages.” He too was perhaps inspired by the Bible quote. It can be quite fun going on an investigation of certain ideas to see how far the trail leads back through history.
Inspiration
The creative world is full of elements of inspiration as I have already described, here’s a few very well known movies and their inspiration;
West Side Story - Romeo And Juliet
The Lion King - Hamlet
Star Wars - The Hero With A Thousand Faces
It’s highly likely that the source material for these movies was also inspired by other material.
Back to music. I annoy my wife when songs play on the radio by starting to sing another song to the tune or the melody… take a listen to this extract from the 2021 Calvin Harris song By Your Side
Now listen to the 2010 song Firework by Katy Perry (I’ve matched the pitch of both songs for this illustration.)
As you can hear the progression in the melodic line and chords is similar. Am I suggesting that By Your Side is a copy of Firework? Not at all, if you spend enough time listening to music then you’ll hear this happening again and again. There are entire websites dedicated to it. Rick Beato has an excellent video comparing the Justin Bieber “Anyone” song with the Toto song “Goin Home.” However, one could also argue that the Toto song has a similar melody to the song “Waiting For A Star To Fall” released in 1988, a year earlier to Toto’s song. If you keep digging you’ll keep going even further back. It’s suggested the song “A Whiter Shade of Pale” by Procol Harum is a direct lift of “Air On A G String” by J.S. Bach. If nothing else, one has to consider it to be inspired.
It’s nothing new, if you listen to classical music you’ll hear striking similarities between music across history. For example, Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9, commonly known as The New World Symphony. He spoke openly of his interest in Native American music and the African-American spirituals and those influences have made their way into this incredible work.
One final example. The Trolley Song sung by Judy Garland in the 1944 movie Meet Me in St. Louis. In an interview in 1989, the writer Ralph Blane said he had seen the line ‘Clang, Clang, Clang, went the trolley’ in a children’s picture book he had seen in a public library.
The fact is that one can go on and on hearing influences in music. In reality we all do it to one extent or another, either subconsciously or consciously when we go for the Bonham drum sound, or the Clapton guitar sound, or the reverb used on Adele’s vocal.
It is almost inevitable that in every creative effort there is going to be a lot of inspiration, in his book The Myths of Creativity author David Burkus explores this in detail, here he is writing about it for Psychology Today;
We tend to think that outstanding creative works or amazing disruptive innovations sprang forth into the world wholly original and unique to that industry. We think that they came from nowhere and their mere arrival changed everything.
It's quite simply not true.
As I’ve written about in The Myths of Creativity, the truth is that all ideas are combinations of pre-existing ideas. And most often “disruption” happens when an existing idea (or a new combination of existing ideas) migrates from one field to another.
If you want a tangible example of how inspiration works then you have it in your pocket. It’s likely to be an iPhone. Did Apple invent the mobile phone? Nope. Someone else did that, Motorola, who drew that from technology first invented in the 1940s by AT&T. Of course, mobile phones were based on the telephone invented by Alexander Graham Bell. Even then the idea goes as far back as 1760.
Instead of wanting to be original, which in many cases is overrated, consider instead inheriting creative DNA. I’m a huge fan of Sting, as I am Frank Sinatra, in fact my influences are deep and wide. Whilst I’ll never be a patch on any of my musical heroes, I do hope a little bit of their creative DNA is in mine.
Joining The Dots
As I’ve already pointed out, many of us draw from things we’ve previously experienced, they influence our creative output. However, what can sometimes be seen as genius is the ability to take a number of things and synthesise them into something new.
Apple Music is a case in point. When Apple introduced iTunes they drew three strands of disparate technology together to make a single user experience. MP3s already existed, as did places to download music from the internet, albeit many of them illegal. MP3 players also existed, hands up who had a Creative Labs player? What Apple did was join the dots of MP3s, a store and a player. The iPod and iTunes Store was a hit, Apple even used their leverage to convince record labels to trust in music downloads, a huge ask after their battering from the illegal download sites like Napster et al.
“Steve [Jobs] created something that made it so easy for people to buy music. He had a complete thought that went from iTunes to the iPod. It made complete sense, and it was something he felt people would be willing to pay for. In the end, he was right. It was all about having the right product.
Doug Morris, CEO of Sony Music Entertainment and former head of Universal Music Group
The ability to immerse oneself into influences is one thing, as is the capacity to recall that data. However, taking that inspiration and synthesising it into something new is immensely powerful. It’s perhaps the closest thing to genius.
Perspiration
It is said that genius is 1% inspiration 99% perspiration, I happen to agree. One thing that links all of the geniuses I know, and is indeed perhaps the most important part of the equation and that’s they work incredibly hard.
All the examples I have cited during this article didn’t come easily. They are partly a product of immersion, memory and inspiration but that still had to be crafted with blood, sweat and tears (see I did it again, that’s Winston Churchill).
It’s not enough to listen, read, watch and study. Memory is good and inspiration is a wonderful well to draw from, however, we still need to mine the dirt to find the diamonds.
Take this article for example, it’s taken about 3 hours of checking sources, finding supporting information, reading, watching and listening. Then it’s taken me time to make it into something that makes sense and is interesting to read - I hope it is.
Creating great things that will bring joy to those who partake of them, and in turn inspire others to do something new with those ideas, is hard work. However, when we look back across history and see all the great things achieved by those who took that hard road we can be nothing but eternally grateful.
Can You Be A Genius?
I believe everyone has the potential to do something great, but as this article demonstrates, it takes a lot of time, investment and an incredible amount of hard work. I speak more about this in my article Good Enough Just Isn't Good Enough If You Want To Make Great Stuff. To listen, watch, read and immerse oneself takes years, it’s certainly not possible if that time is wasted on other things that don’t fill the well. It’s certainly not possible if we shirk at the idea of hard work. And before you tell me some of the greatest songs were written in an hour, we are talking rules not exceptions. My daughter’s boyfriend survived his parachute not opening, but don’t jump out of a plane without one. He was lucky.
Can you be a genius? I don’t know, can you?