This article brings up interesting points. It reminded me of ad-busting culture. The ideas surrounding ad-busting are similar: certain individuals feel that advertising, marketing, and other factors such as hollywood, have killed the human ability to produce original thoughts. Thinking has become standardized- a collection of corporate logos, phrases, cliches, and "common knowledge". Ad busters seek to make fun of the corporate world be defacing their logos, often going to extreme or illegal lengths. Some ad busters have been known to redo bilboards, morphing whatever corporate logo is present into something disturbing or comedic. For instance, a bilboard sporting the "Enjoy Coca Cola" phrase could be morphed into "Enjoy Cocaine", thus commenting on the addictive quality of caffeinated soft drinks. Even though this only vaguely relates to the above mentioned article, it manages to conjure some provocative ideas. Are we all thinking the exact same thoughts? Are our ideas really original?
To point out an interesting example, Johann Pachelbel wrote a piece of music known to most as "Pachelbel's Cannon" or "Canon in D". First published in 1919, it is often played at weddings or receptions. Strangely, the exact same chord progression used in Pachelbel's Canon has been duplicated dozens of times since, in multiple genres. "Basket Case" by Green Day, "Let it be" by The Beatles, "Crazy" by Aerosmith, "The Hook" by Blues Traveler, and many others, all use the exact same chords in the same order as Pachelbel's Canon. Comedian Rob Paravonian is perhaps most famous for his "Pachelbel rant" in which he complains about the shameless duplication of Pachelbel's chords and melody in dozens of popular rock songs. Don't get me wrong- these songs are all unique and worthy of admiration- it's simply an interesting phenomenon. Think- dozens of songwriters have written essentially the same song without realizing it- each one thought they were making something unique.
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Very interesting example with "Pachelbel's Cannon." Maybe the musicians you've mentioned were influenced passively or subconsciously by one another in some way. Perhaps it's more so that once we start picking things apart the similarities arise, as opposed to listening to an entire song at once and not noticing the similarities between them.
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