The reason why I can't write my own songs for my games is that my brain automatically thinks of an already existing song for a given situation. For example, I always associate underwater with the Dire Dire Docks theme from Super Mario 64.
But apparently, Koji Kondo actually suffers the same problem. Virtually every Zelda song is a rip-off of some existing song. Nearly the entire soundtrack of the first game along with the dark world theme in A Link to the Past rip hooks from "April" by Deep Purple, and "Zelda's Lullaby" is heavily influenced by Mort Garson - Concerto For Philodendron And Pothos.
Really, all you need to do is just heavily modify a song to the point that it is no longer copyright infringing and you got your song.
ひげ
