I've been playing guitar for a good amount of time, and recently I've observed something about many inexperienced players. Many of them are so bent on playing like the bands they enjoy that they forget about playing from themselves. I've heard countless guitarists writing riffs that sound like rejected Black Sabbath and Metallica B Sides and calling them original.
While it is good to have some influences, I find that trying to play like your favorite guitarist usually ends up sounding like just that: Trying to play like your favorite guitarists.
One thing we often forget as musicians is that the musicians we try and imitate were so influencial because they did not conciously try to play like other players.

Does anyone agree or disagree on this?

i would have to agree with you 100% here. you're right with this, and imo this happens mostly with younger 'kids' that start out a band with their friends or whatever. first they only play covers from the bands they like, and then, when they try to compose something original, it always ends up being that, playing like their favorite musicians but have no originality.

imo, one thing to avoid this could be for example opening a bit more, not just to other musicians but to ther musical styles, exploring music bacuse it is really big and has a lot to offer! this could probably help, and probably also studying at least a minimum level of theory so you can start experimenting by doing differnt things, maybe them something very orignal can come out

Yeah I definitly agree, it's really annoying at school to hear someone play something from like, Breaking Benjamen or something, and then the very next song they're like "This is an origional piece" and it turns out to be the exact song with two chords changed and a break in a different place....

But yes, it's important to strive to be origional as a musician. I mean, I understand influences, I have quite a few of them, but it's not good to just be another carbon copy, you have to try and incorperate your influences into your own style.

I think it also has to do with perhaps being afraid of expressing themselves properly. I guess some people are just too lazy to find out what they could sound like if they put their minds to work and to think of something that could reflect the way they want something to sound. But some people don't know better, so they find comfort of playing things that other people have already, it's not a bad thing to a certain extent, of course, but there is a point where every musician should think for themselves.

Well I feel like I need to say it and this is the appropriate place to do so, when somebody starts playing a musical instrument they want to sound like their favorite band, and because there is no way to create a masterpiece at that point people either quit the playing out of desperation or play covers. Form here on if they have chosen the second alternative they can become lousy cover players with no talent whatsoever and form a band of friends with absolutely no future or spend time learning the techniques used by their favorite musicians and combining them to form their own sound. I personally played for an year with 2 other people and later split up but what I learned form the experience is that you can't just pick up the guitar one day and start playing never before heard of music, you need time to learn.

Not totally in 100% agreement. You said "Inexperienced players", exactly, those players are inexperienced, its better that they sound like their idols rather than sound like some rigid guitar teacher. Once you learn your way around the instrument more people generally learn how to write original material within those influences (notice how I said generally, some people become technically amazing players but can't write their own shit to save their lives), so no, I don't think theres any problems with influences. You can't write something totally 100% original they day you pick up the instrument, why not learn to play like your heroes then branch out?

Hm i see this in a different way, having influences is never a bad thing, what you guys described is rather a case of not having enough influences. if your only big influence is metallica then it's really hard to think of something that doesn't sound like them, because it's just really hard to come up with a really good riff without any input, and this input is taken from what you already know
the more you know, the more you have to work with.

and further i think you're expecting a bit much from young guitarists, you can't just start from nowhere and be able to play all kinds of things, you need to practice by playing stuff from other bands obviously, everyone who plays an instrument knows that (i'm ignoring natural talents who miraculously master instruments all by themselves here) so obviously you need something like metallica as a starting point, the problem is rather that many musicians (and fans of music in general) are too close-minded to try to enjoy things that are a bit different from what they usually listen to

Yup, it's how you use the influences, not just "having" them. i try to be original, though in the past i've wanted to create songs that sound like other ones, well not exactly like them, but something in that vein. now i mostly start from a good riff or something.

Well sometimes I "create" stuff exactly the same from my influences, instead of creating something inspired by them

I think its really bad to stick to one different style of music in general. versatility is lost when one sticks to one genre or style.

'course. however, there's different ways u can use the influence.