If there have been 10,000 composers since the arrival of Philip Glass to write music for film/TV/media that simultaneously "sounds like Philip Glass" and sounds nothing like Philip Glass, well what is the difference? One answer is: pathos, brokenness. Philip Glass music sounds like it is made by a person who's wounded by the ravages of time and aware of his mortality and the larger life/death cycle of existence and who is seeking transcendence or healing or episodes of release and joy through the composition. The people who mimic Philip Glass sound like they are trying to depict somebody in that state, rather than experiencing that state directly and intensely themselves. Paradoxically, if they were to get in touch with that deeper level of experience, their way of expressing it would not sound like Philip Glass. Philip Glass evolved a language to express his state, his wounds and his longings. Each of us has a slightly different language to express our own experiences of these universal struggles.
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