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I have blogged in the past that tracks like “Levels” by Avicii and “Titanium” by David Guetta featuring Sia started my EDM journey. These songs, however, appeared pretty late in my love of music.

Although I had liked a few songs in my childhood, I was fortunate that my adolescence coincided with the birth of rock’n’roll. The charts were full of songs by the likes of Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Little Richard and the Everly Brothers. It was a great time to develop a serious interest in pop music.

I had started to learn to play the piano at the age of five, taught by my talented brother, Robert, and had managed to keep it going off and on. I had advanced to playing Mozart’s Sonatas and would often play these at after-school parties to the appreciation of the adults present. It was about this time that pianist Russ Conway burst onto the scene with UK number one hits “Side Saddle” and “Roulette” and a top five hit with “China Tea”. I quickly learned to play these – quite well, if I say it myself – and played them at the after-school parties. All of a sudden, there was considerable interest from some schoolgirls present and Mozart’s Sonatas were sadly a thing of the past.

My interest in pop music developed and I soon accrued a great selection of records which led to invitations to parties, which had now moved to the evenings and beyond. I had a particular liking for the Everly Brothers, Neil Sedaka and Del Shannon who were successful at the time. I particularly remember one party where I turned up with just one single to the dismay of the hostess. It was “Please Please Me”, which had just given the Beatles their first top ten hit. I told the assembled party-goers that it was the only record they were going to need.

My interest in pop music continued through the sixties with acts like the Beatles, the Kinks, the Hollies, Manfred Mann, the Yardbirds and the Turtles, and into the seventies. It peaked again in the eighties when, for seven years, I became a part-time DJ in Gosport, Hampshire. It was a pleasure playing records by Madness, ELO, David Bowie, Queen, the Police and Michael Jackson. I also enjoyed playing most of the New Romantic music. I spent a lot of time in the British Newspaper Library and on my Tandy TRS-80 computer compiling a database of the pop charts as used by the Guinness Book and was in discussions with the Official Charts Company when it formed.

The nineties saw me step away from DJ-ing and, although I still followed the music and kept the charts up-to-date, it wasn’t quite the same as before. That is, until I heard “Levels” by Avicii.

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In February 1963, when I was eighteen years old, I was invited to a party by a girl. I was used to getting invited to parties, not because of my good looks or outstanding personality, but because I had the best record collection in our group and could bring the music with me. On this occasion, I turned up at the party with only one record; it was “Please Please Me” by the Beatles. When I arrived at the party, the hostess looked disappointed that I had only brought one record but I announced that it was the only record that they were going to need.

This particular song had just entered the NME Top Ten and would go on to be a number one, although that fact is not recognised as the “official chart” uses the charts of a music newspaper that no one ever bought. It was not the Beatles first hit; “Love Me Do” had scraped into the Top Twenty but had largely passed everyone by.

So what was it about the Beatles, and “Please Please Me” in particular, that was so revolutionary? They lined up as a foursome with whoever was doing the lead in front, very much like Buddy Holly and the Crickets. The harmony style in the main chorus was very much taken from “Cathy’s Clown” by the Everly Brothers; the change to falsetto and screeching “oohs” were similar to “Only the Lonely” by Roy Orbison and “Tower of Strength” by Frankie Vaughan; all previous number one hits in the early sixties. It was simply the fact that they took the best of what was around at the time, adding their own brand to create something which, as a whole, was both unique and original.

Even before the explosion of tribute bands that now exists, individual artists and groups unashamedly copied other artists and groups. Then we had impersonators, most notably of Elvis. Some of these enjoyed some success but none were lasting. So how much of the work of others should influence us and how much invention is needed in order to make an original brand.

“Standing on the shoulders of giants” is a phrase which has been used more than once to describe innovations in science and other disciplines. It is not problematic to use others as an influence but I would suggest that you need three things to call it your own brand. Firstly, let yourself be influenced by more than one artist or group. Combining attributes in this way, gives you a new take on what you produce. Secondly, you need some sort of inventive spark which makes you different. Finally, you need to develop your style with time in new directions. Most household names in the music industry have followed these steps.

The combination of influences, originality and development is the takeaway message for today. It’s far from easy, but realistically it’s the only way to get to and stay at the top.