Being relatively well versed in classical music, I think that the following
admission can be made without causing me too much embarrassment. I've heard
Vivaldi's Four Seasons hundreds of times, and I've never been able to tell which
season is being played. Still, there's no question that it's Vivaldi. Neil Young,
on the other hand, was once sued by his record producer because the album that
he was going to release was too different from the classic, and identifiable,
Neil Young style. Young was under contract not only to release a record, but
to release a "Neil Young" record. Somewhere between these two extremes
is the golden measure that determines how much repetition is enough to establish
a style, and how much is too much such that the end product, instead of being
a distinct and identifiable style, seems to be an unbearable repetition.