Shocking plagiarism

I always thought it would be a great radio show for bands to come on, play their songs and then follow it up with the song they ripped off to write it.

Elastica's "Waking Up" knowingly lifted from the Stranglers' "No More Heroes."

I read somewhere that Bono & the Edge maintain that "With or Without You" is a shameless homage to Suicide's "Cheree," but it's debatable.

As for Offspring and "Ob-la-di..." Not that I like Offspring, or anything, but I think there were songs that sounded like "Ob-la-di," since that was Macca's ska tribute (and all the Mighty Mighty Bosstones fans scratch their heads).

Honestly, I would not have thought of it, though.

I once had an original LP of Bobb Trimble's Harvest of Dreams which I sold in the '90s for nowhere near what it's worth today; I didn't realize it was worth anything beyond face value when I sold it and had never heard of the artist at the time. Wasn't even mentioned in the price guides I checked at the time.

Freddie Hubbard's "Povo" shamelessly steals the bassline from "Come Together".

Early versions of Green Jello's "Electric Harley House of Love" had this great breakdown where it blatantly stole the riff from "Enter Sandman" but then they got sued and now it has a 3/4 of the riff taken out and just sounds like a weird, unmemorable guitar vamp.

just read/listened to this a few hrs ago and it tickled me. p obscure but that's what makes it amusing imo - Mary Timony and the music from a 90s Nintendo game I've never heard of: http://trapperjennmd.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/action-in-morning.html

harbinger (70s god folk thing) has a song on their LP that are not subtle in any way at ripping off bowie's "space oddity". i gather that's not the only rip on there but can't remember the others off the top of my head..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smPPboZe3Vw

Here's an interesting one: 'Everybody' by The Jacksons (1980) is credited to Michael, Tito and Mike McKinney. However, listen to this production music from the late 70s. This is Jack Mayborn, not credited on the Jacksons album.

This library music was never meant for public consumption, but industry types had it around. it was work-for-hire, but you're supposed to get a license from the library to use the music for TV or films. I'm surprised Capitol records didn't sue, since Media Music was their library.

Those library tracks can be costly, lol

- https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/oct/25/eminem-wins-600000-after-new-zealand-political-party-breached-his-copyright

This is about a (terrible) political ad by the National Party, New Zealand's government at the time. They used some music with a VERY FAMILIAR SOUND

The impressive 132-page verdict includes the country's largest political party arguing that a track called "Eminem Esque" does not resemble Eminem. And then questioning his music's originality... by citing the noted innovators Led Zeppelin.

Somehow, that defence didn't work.

Maybe it's more a symbolic ruling, but nice to see someone get sued who totally deserved it.

I have no idea whether the opening post of this thread is mine or the other Tim’s.

It's yours! I only ever started one thread. And I wouldn't know a gnutella if it bit me. I saw a post yesterday where I thought the same thing though.

I generally assume that if the post is intelligent and clearly-expressed, and not about some ancient indie nonsense, it's your work.

Sorry, Tim.

That Jack Mayborn track also interpolates 'Jump to the Beat', so I'm willing to wager he had just heard the Jacksons track before release.

The Kraftwerk/Hindemith one always amuses me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfegCvpSM5g

Something on this thread makes the Flagging app crash every time I scroll up.

Some music I've been working on lately has me questioning the validity of just how far someone can stretch out their musical influences. It prompted me to Tweet very early this morning, to all six of my followers:

Good morning, my fellow music nerds. Question: where does inspiration and influence end and flat out plagiarism begin? Further, is it okay to copy? If no, why not? If yes, when, how, etc.? #talkingtunesonatuesday #musicdiscussion #musicnerd

— Gregory Austin Anderson (@gaustinanderson) December 4, 2018

But I would genuinely like to discuss this. Is something that is very heavily influenced by something else plagiarism, just because it sounds similar? Or is plagiarism only present when actual musical passages or ideas are copied? Is there a grey area? What is it? Are there any moments of musical plagiarism that are of legit quality? Or is a copy inherently lesser?

(I'd like to keep self-plagiarism out of this, as I don't think that's actually a thing. And yeah, people can copy someone's aesthetic indemnity and expression ("image") — but that's not music, that's image.)

What say you, kind and gentle ilxors?

Yesterday I stayed up most of the night binge-reading the Lost Media Wiki. Two days ago however I decided to check out the old rumours that James Horner not only borrowed heavily from dead Russian composers but also from himself, and I found this thread at JWFan, a John Williams fansite:
http://www.jwfan.com/forums/index.php?/topic/20214-the-ultimate-james-horners-plagiarism-list/

It's really bitchy! I like that.

Exhibit 1a, the twiddly-twiddly bit at the beginning of "Stealing the Enterprise", from Star Trek III, which is right at the start:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7s5lQ-bGe6c

Exhibit 1b, Prokofiev, "The Death of Tybalt", at 1:30:
https://youtu.be/sz8i68lpBpc?t=90

James Horner often had very little time to write his music, and he had to write a lot of it. On the one hand the idea of interpolating classical themes into music isn't really any different from sampling, and Horner argued that he was quoting works that made sense in context, but on the other hand God smote Horner's aeroplane from the sky and killed him, so there's that.

I posted this on a rolling pop thread, but last year the 18 year old pop singer Madison Beer released a single called "Say It To My Face":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCyl9GBlM-M

About 30 seconds in, I was like "wait a sec"... it's a sterilized rip-off of Can's "Vitamin C".

Haha, that's a tricky one!

'Wouldn't it Be Nice" famously quotes a melody from Tchaikovsky and that's never really bothered me because, like Horner, it works within the larger work of the song. Is it a straight copy? Pretty close. Is it still a good song. Yes, obviously.

Albert, that song is atrocious. But I totally hear it. Hilarious.

Original: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcGbJMHwW_s

Rip-off: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHQnSeFAGTg

I'd never even considered a famous Chinese pop star could possibly rip off an obscure Welsh-language B-side, yet it happened.

Behold: the awesomeness of music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWFOLyjqb28

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KK2HBndkVdQ

sorry to xp, but: holy shit at that Madison Beer / Can thing!

The writer of this long 1995 article cribbed (maybe unintentionally?) a then-recent Liz Phair lyric:

At 2 A.M., the sky is gray, the way it is in paperback detective novels.

Did everyone but me know about this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sp1N0iArsuU