I think that two songs sounding alike does not always qualify as stolen work. Especially in today's pop music, melodies tend to be more on the simpler end in order to make songs catchier and easy to sing. This strategy helps create hits more easily since the listener will have an easier time getting a simple melody stuck in their head rather than a complex one. One type of chord progression has been popularized to the point of it single-handedly dominating the industry, and if a song does not use that chord progression, chances are it is an altered version of it. This further limits the different melodies that will sound good to the average listener.
When a melody is similar, we should think about other factors that might set it apart. For example, although the melody might be the same, the instrumental could be completely different. We should also take into account the possibility of the melodies being the same purely by coincidence. With simpler melodies being more popular as of right now, there are only so many different options you have. It is viable to use as a counter-argument because of this. Composers might lean towards starting and ending on certain notes due to conventional patterns used in musical phrases, such as starting and ending on the tonic.
On the contrary, there are some cases where it makes sense to accuse the other composer of stealing. When a melody is more complicated, it is less likely that someone else used the same melody out of pure coincidence. In addition to that, if other elements of the song are similar, such as the instrumental, tempo, percussion lines, etc., stealing is a likely explanation.
A real-life example of this is a court case comparing Sleigh Bells' "Infinity Guitars" and Demi Lovato's "Star." Sleigh Bells claimed that Demi Lovato took part of their instrumental, but I do not agree with this. The part they claimed Demi stole was a basic drum rhythm with clapping. They did sound similar, but the rhythm was so common that I find it hard to believe it was stolen.
Sampling is something people should not confuse with stealing. In the music industry, samples are used to quicken the producing process, and sometimes, it can add lots of flavor to the song. Producers will commonly use samples if they cannot hire actual musicians to play the part. Generally, you have to pay the person who made the sample some money, but in some cases, they are completely free. An example of this is IVE's song "After LIKE" sampling Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive." IVE's record label paid Gloria Gaynor to be able to use the sample, so it was completely legal.
In conclusion, whether an artist stole a song depends on the case. In some instances, they were stolen, but other times, it could just be out of coincidence, or it could be sampled. With today's circumstances, stealing is not always the case, and we need to be aware of that. Instead of jumping to conclusions, as listeners, we should put more time into researching what actually might have happened behind the scenes.
Video comparing IVE's "After LIKE" and Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive"
This is a good point as there is a limited amount of sounds we have access to. There is no one way we can go about this, even though there is legal battles on this topic. Good points made, I like your post!
ReplyDeleteAlso with the thought of Sampling is challenging as to the thought of what is sampling and at what point is it a completely stolen song. A lot of songs you used as examples were good to get my brain thinking, nice job.
DeleteI really liked how in-depth you went about it! Talking about tonics and stuff- not just "oh they sound the same". Your conclusion was really strong talking about putting in more effort to find what REALLY happened not to just jump to conclusions :)
ReplyDeleteI think this was a very interesting topic to write about because the music industry today has many songs with similar sounds. Something that I took note of was how you mentioned that a song may have not been stolen or a coincidence, but that the label may have paid the artist to be able to use samples from their music. I think that this information is something we definitely should keep in mind when listening to songs that have similar sounds!
ReplyDeleteI really agree with many of the things said in this blog. I really appreciate that you went into detail about things like real world examples, sampling, and song elements, but I think some parts are left unexplained, like chord progressions and tonics, which many people may not understand, and I feel like are important to explaining similar sounding music. One thing I think you could have also mentioned is songs that are in the public domain, like how "Memories" by Maroon 5 is based off the melody of "Canon in D" by Johann Pachelbel, which is in the public domain. I think that this is a topic that would expand your argument. Either way, the information in this blog is something useful to keep in mind while listening to music.
ReplyDelete- Jason
DeleteI liked how you talked about how certain music usually sounds similar. If you want to prove that the music is stolen you have to actually listen to the music in detail and look at all the different factors. You can't say it is stealing if it sounds similar.
ReplyDeleteI very much agree with the point you are making! I have always wondered, is it really possible that, with all the music out there, every piece of music is completely unique and shares no similarities with another piece of music? I think there are basic rhythms and tunes that so many people use that you can’t claim the tune as your own. As long as the tune isn’t explicitly copied from another, then I don’t think that it should be a big deal if a small musical concept is copied from one musical piece to another. Great job using different examples to prove each aspect of your point!
ReplyDeleteI like how you talked about how music can be similar and different in many ways. Such as when you brought up how melodies may be the same but the instrumental could be different. I also liked how you used a real life example to help us understand that sampling and stealing are two different things.
ReplyDelete