Originally posted by: Spooner
How can you guys say he sounds nothing like Dave Matthews? When my girl first played the cd... i thought it
was Dave! when she explained to me who it was, i was like, "wow... throw in a trumpet somewhere, and it sounds just like Dave"
Now that I listen to him more, I can obivously pick out the difference between the two bands, but there are clearly some similar elements to the type of music they put out -- both vocally and in sound. If you really hate things being "labeled" and shy away from comparing him to Dave, you're taking things too seriously. When someone asks about a new artist or band and ask what they sound like.. what do you say? "Can't be classified?" No, you compare them to a previously known band or artist that has similar qualities.
anyway... i'm just saying
Spooner, no offense to you man, but you may not have heard much DMB if you think you can add a trumpet to JM's songs and come up with DMB. First of all, there's no trumpet to speak of in the Dave Matthews Band. There is a sax, a violin, percussion, keys, bass and rhythm guitar, but no trumpet.
And the only comparison I can possibly make is that their voices sound "slightly" similar (which is probably why you thought of DMB when hearing JM for the first time). But their whole musical backgrounds, influences, roots... are completely different from one another. Seriously, I want you to queue up some DMB and JM back-to-back and see what I'm talking about. First off, DMB songs will 99% of the time have sax and violin parts, whereas John's songs are just him plus drums and bass (and some keyboards). But even beyond the instruments involved, Dave's songs aren't quite as jazzy/bluesy as John's are. They're also much more intricate, with the different instruments playing off each other (in a true "band" sense)... as opposed to Mayer, who is a frontman with a backup band.
Also, lyrically the two could not be any further apart. Part of the allure of JM is that the content of his songs is instantly accessible (even to teenyboppers). He sings about real-life events that happen to him and just about everyone else. Check out some of Dave's lyrics OTOH... completely esoteric, poetic, and metaphorical. You can't listen to/read them once and instantly know what Dave is writing about (sometimes you'll never know exactly). John's lyrics couldn't be more obvious... "I'm going to run through the halls of my high school... there's no such thing as the real world... etc. etc. etc."
See what I'm getting at here? On the surface it may be easy to compare the two, but they really aren't alike at all. I may get more "uppity" about comparisons than the average person, but it's because I am passionate about both of these artists and the comparison seems unjustified... it sells both artists short.
I don't like comparisons period because I really appreciate artists that bring a unique, reinvented sound to the table. In this era where popular music all sounds alike, I love it when I hear something that sounds different. And I think people do themselves a disservice when they say "oh I only listen to punk" or "I only like emo and rock" or "I'm a big fan of pop" because it's so limiting. When someone asks me what John Mayer sounds like I say "he doesn't really sound like anything else that's out there... why don't I just play it for you and see if you like it". In that way I'm not stabbing in the dark for comparisons that can't be made and I'm not selling John short by giving people a reason to judge him before they've even heard him.
I don't really know how to get across my feelings about this whole thing. It may seem insignificant to you, but I think the attitudes around classification of music (and anything in general) only draws lines where they need not be drawn.
But seriously, queue up some DMB and John Mayer back to back in winamp and then tell me that they sound similar!!
l2c
This upsets me because now he is going to be molded and changed as luv2chill pointed out. Oh well... at least someone on MTV is truly talented now. 
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