Music Plagiarism - How Common is it?

rolfw

rolfw

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The Current case featuring Cold Play and Joe Satriani, is just the last in a long list which have come to light, George Harrison, My Sweet Lord and the Chiffons, He's So Fine, being one of the most famous.

In this case Cold Play have, it is thought, paid a large sum of money out of court.

Here is a comparison, see what you think.

[TUBE]UvB9Pj9Znsw[/TUBE]

I have to confess that I'm not familiar with Satriani, nor his piece of music, and it is probable that Cold Play didn't know the piece of music.

Can we come up with any songs which owe something to previous songs, which perhaps have not been the subject of legal action?
 
Here's an odd one, the sampled material was taken from an orchestral version of the Stones song and now the full credit is assigned to Jagger and Richards, with all royalties going to the Stones' publisher, even though it isn't from their original record and the Lyrics are from The Verve.

Andrew Oldham Orchestral version

[TUBE]Q9QgpXhezIc[/TUBE]

Stones Original

[TUBE]BzZHmHqEE7k[/TUBE]

The Verve Bitter Sweet Symphony

[TUBE]Zx3m4e45bTo[/TUBE]
 
I am convinced some of the problems arise from subliminal audio input. A songwriter hears something on the radio passing through a room his brain interprets this as something nice and appropriate to his style and thinking he is creating a new tune and he bangs out a score.

Saw the Jersey Boys whilst in London last week, what a fantastic show about Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. I was amazed at what the songwriter Bob Gaudio had written and sometimes produced for other artists. I am not aware of any plagiarism taking place but I did promise myself to look into it upon my return as some of the music like Sherry, Big Girls Don’t Cry, Can’t Take My Eyes off You was interspersed with other familiar stuff
 
Topper said:
Big Girls Don’t Cry
Click to expand...


Gaudio might have something over 10cc about that particular lyric.
 
No, they changed it, to substantially change the meaning of the phrase CH. ;)

Here's another possible influence on the Cold Play single.:) This time with a Cat Stevens Song, although it's debatable whether a short musical phrase in a song is really plagiarism, if it is, then most modern song writers plagiarise.

[tube]5GqBn8hP-QQ[/tube]
 
Elvis Costello - Pump it Up

[TUBE]tpprOGsLWUo[/TUBE]


Bob Dylan - Subterranean Homesick Blues

[TUBE]PedxiosPF8U[/TUBE]
 
Alphaville - Big in Japan=Son Dam Bi - Crazy


Vanessa paradis - be my baby= Pisces - when a star cries


Wham - Last christmas 3354flS1KJs = ZZtop - Rough Boy I1qkUZZ1aho


I'm collecting such a clones, have huge collection :)
 
Just listened to the first one, not too sure, although there are some similarities, she's a cracker though.:) I was thinking more of well known ones.

If you can include youtube numbers, it makes life easier. I've added a couple for you.
 
In the old days blues singer used to do this all the time, changing a bit here and there and coming up with new songs. I am absolutely sure that I read somewhere that John Mayall (Godfather of British blues) told Peter Green (Best ever white blues guitarist) that if he couldn't find an idea for a song he should simply tale a line of a song he likes and then work from it.

But here is one that I discovered a long time ago: Peter Gabriel took something from Hot Chocolates sexy thing for his Sledgehammer song (I think). Listen to that Chocolate instrumental section from about 2.30 onwards:

[TUBE]MkQgm9cwt3w[/TUBE]

[TUBE]N1tTN-b5KHg[/TUBE]

Tell me what you think
 
Yep, although again, it may have been subconsciously and probably done at the production stage.:)
 
To find similarities, you need to have musical ear.

I have such clones mp3-es coupled...
 
Just listened to 1st song (I had no idea about what's coldplay, and I never listened to satriani also). As it seems, both songs are cloned from Billy Joel's "Honesty" :D
 
Hmm, can't quite see that, although I guess there are the odd similarities.
 
Yes.

We generally can divide similarities in songs of various artists into 4 categories:

1. Accidental plagiarism (George Harrison's song)

2. Legally purchased sample/phrase (Most of Will Smith's songs, say - Man in Black is based on "forgive me nots", Getting jiggy with it - on Sister's sledge's hit and so on).

3. Tricky plagiarism, but with copyright problems avoiding. There are international rules that define plagiarism. If I remember correctly, it is counted as plagiarism, if 4 beats in sequence are re-used. So it's very common practice to use 1-2-4 beats original, but insert the 3rd one slightly different, to avoid copyright problems (example: Ricci E Poveri - Sara perche ti amo vs. Madonna - True blue).

4. Direct plagiarism. Fragment of song, being completelly riped. Example - Cutting Crew - I just died in your arms tonight vs. Mika - Relax.
 
Some funny examples:

_ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7b8mMeDsFE

Bjorn Ulvaeus (Yes yes, one from ABBA),had stolen soviet military song.

Enrique Iglesias also captured soviet song:

_ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fIQtT04UI0&feature=related

:D

This one is definetly hot:

_ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns96BAOeoLc

Intro sounds very similar...

Let's check this:

_ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33XPuLXJ6p0

Wow, seems that jacko loved granny songs? :D

But again, that lady (Soviet-moldavian-romanian) artists, successfully cloned leonard kohen's "dance me to the end of love"

Original:

_ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zjLBWnZGTU&feature=related

Clone:

_ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZvSlwcWQOE

:)
 
Well it's a moot point whether George Harrison's plagiarism was accidental, as it pretty much takes the whole tune note for note.;):)

Patrice Rushen's Forget me Nots was of course a sampled track, but I guess he paid for the privilege of using that, the original was one of my favourites, but I also like Smith's song.:)
I see your point on the Ricchi E Poveri, definitely very similar.:)

Hadn't heard the Mika song, but the beginning is near identical.
 
my uncle is in a well known rock band from the 60's and even though they do the odd gig here and there...even now there are legal battles with their songs....its complete grey area every time a new case develops
 
Well, my personal collection of clones has more than 200 songs in it. Just never had time (and motivation), to put up an website for it.

Here's pisces vs vanessa:

_ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BviPHknqGbY

check from 16th second.

And original:

_ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwKn6fhtxtQ

check from 46 second...

It should be noted, that vanessas song intro is heavily inspired by madonna's - material girl, which itself, can be tracked down to alicia bridges - I love the nightlife, from which, very popoular clone was made by lenny kravitz (It ain't over till it's over)

See, how things are complicated? :)

We only have 12 tones in music, popmusic develops so faster, that they wrote music using bruteforce note selection, so we got clones :D
 
how the hell do you guys have time for an obsession for satellite...and for music...and I MEAN obsession pmsl
 
Of course one of the best known one was Chester Burnett AKA The Howling Wolf who made 2 successful claims against Led Zeppelin. One song was "Whole Lotta Love" and the other I am not sure.

Then there is what Elvis did, "stealing" a complete music genre and never even bothered to give at least some credit. If I was Little Richard I would be pissed off (which he is) :)
 
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