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A saying of advice to artists of all sorts to eliminate the behaviors or styles of their "idols" or what they took influence/[inspiration] from. It's synonymous with [Kill your darlings]. First said by Sonic Youth on the EP Kill Yr Idols, on the song of the same name.

They came up with the song and phrase after music critic Robert Christgau attended a very early live session of theirs and wrote a quite negative review in The Village Voice. Sonic Youth had looked up to Christgau before, and as stated in the song had previous wanted to impress him with their music.

"[I don't know] why
You want to impress Christgau
Ah, let that shit die
And find out the new goal"

After the review they said "fuck that" and adopted a new mindset, where trying to impress people, or mimic the styles of your idols is detrimental to the creativity of your work. A very good mindset to have for the band they are, as they certainly did what they said and were a very unique band that didn't sound like much before it.

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