P.S. If I muddled up any lyrics, I'm sorry, I don't have Kylie's exciting new album, it's what I could make out from MTV.
P.S.2 bigmouth_strikes has just informed me that Max Martin wrote both the Britney Spears and BackDoor Boys songs. Can he be stealing from himself? If it's the same person, that makes it even more pathetic, I think.
P.S.3 the above was written at least a day before Accipiter added his insight. I hate it when people don't read to the end before writing a reply, and even more when they reply in the node body when a /msg (like bigmouth_strikes wrote) is enough. Oh well....
P.S. 4 achtung man says "Ironically enough, BsB has also covered Britney. "The Call" uses the exact same chord progression for the chorus as "Hit me Baby One More Time". Again, Max Martin copies himself.
P.S. 5 Matt_t_hat says might I point out the famous: "(everywhere you go) I'll be watching you" with "I'll be missing you" which other than a slight change is identical to the former!
Yes! We Have No Bananas!
"Is It Scary" by Michael Jackson on album Blood On The Dance Floor: HIStory In The Mix has a verse identical to a verse in "Ghosts" by Michael Jackson on the same album except for "ghastly" instead of "ghostly" in one place. (Source: http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:www.exclusivelymj.com/BOTDF.html+ghastly+smell+around) "Is It Scary" also uses the same chord progression (E+B E+C E+C# E+C) as the theme from James Bond.
Video game music rips off popular themes also. In Acclaim's Forsaken 64, the "Pure Power" track has a riff disturbingly similar to the Bond theme's. (This may be considered inspired instead of stolen.) And much of FaceBall 2000's theme song (get the SPC at http://www.zophar.net/zsnes/spc) is taken note-for-note from the old Sesame Street theme.
"Tribal Dance" by 2 Unlimited, "Jump" by The Movement, and the first Mission: Impossible remix (not Limp Bizkit's M:I 2 version) all sound like each other. The theme from freepuzzlearena (available at http://pineight.com/fpa.htm ) parodies this by combining all three pieces seamlessly.
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE tempo=400 55 0 0 55 0 0 55 0 0 55 0 0 58 0 60 0 55 0 0 55 0 0 55 0 0 55 0 0 53 0 54 0 55 0 0 55 0 0 55 0 0 55 0 0 58 0 60 0 55 0 0 55 0 0 55 0 0 55 0 0 53 0 54 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 TRIBAL DANCE tempo=500 65 0 0 65 0 0 65 0 0 65 0 0 66 0 63 0 65 0 0 65 0 0 65 0 0 65 0 0 70 0 68 0 65 0 0 65 0 0 65 0 0 65 0 0 66 0 63 0 65 0 0 65 0 0 65 0 70 0 70 0 68 0 68 0 65 0 0 0 0 0 0 JUMP tempo=520 65 0 0 65 0 0 65 0 0 65 0 0 68 0 70 0 65 0 0 65 0 0 65 0 0 65 0 0 70 0 68 0 65 0 0 65 0 0 65 0 0 65 0 0 68 0 70 0 65 0 0 65 0 0 65 0 0 65 0 0 70 0 68 0 65 0 0 0 0 0 0 DOSARENA THEME tempo=520 65 0 0 65 0 0 65 0 0 65 0 0 66 0 63 0 #t.d 65 0 0 65 0 0 65 0 0 65 0 0 70 0 68 0 #t.d/jump 65 0 0 65 0 0 65 0 0 65 0 0 68 0 70 0 #jump/m.i 65 0 0 65 0 0 65 0 63 0 63 0 64 0 64 0 #m.i/t.d 65 0 0 0 0 0 0
As is noted in the example for Six Degrees of Facial Bacon, The Verve were sued for using too much of a Rolling Stones sample (from the orchestral version of "The Last Time") in "Bitter Sweet Symphony," resulting of the transfer of all rights in the song to the Rolling Stones' people. (A Google search for rolling stones last time verve symphony will pull up references.)
Fair use, or copyright theft?
Britney Spears couldn't find anyone better to rip off than the Backstreet Boys. OH MY GOD! In Lucky, she goes into a falsetto-ish bit which seems to have been forced into the song to make it cool. She sings "Then why do these tears come at night?" to the exact same tune, (and chords) as "And that makes you larger than life." (Except for the last note or two).
First of all, Britney Spears didn't rip off anyone (Except maybe the Rolling Stones, but I don't consider that a ripoff....)
Britney's song "Lucky" (Track 7, Oops!...I did it again) was co-written by Max Martin. Not coindidentally, "Larger than Life" was ALSO co-written by Max Martin. You assume one artist is ripping off another, but Britney didn't write "Lucky".
Max Martin didn't rip himself off, either. He just has a discernable writing style.
So tell me....one single line of one single song makes it "Blatently Stolen" from another? "Lucky" and "Larger than Life" are nothing like each other.
Wouldn't it make sense to REMOVE the incorrect parts of a node, rather than say "Oh, by the way, the writeup you just read? This one part is wrong. That's wrong too. Oh, and that's incorrect as well."
GirlsDontLikeMe makes my point, precisely. Just because one line sounds a lot like a line from another song, that makes it blatently ripped?
The Pogues are not given any writing credits in the liner notes of both BBVD albums on which the song appears (the first was a self-released CD that, I believe, is no longer available). Back around '95 or '96, a friend of mine brought up this issue to one of the members at a concert. Said friend was asked to leave. Afterwards, he sent the drummer a couple of e-mails regarding the subject. The response was a claim of ignorance regarding the matter and a promise to get back to him when he knew more about it. No further e-mails were received.
But that's showbiz, I guess.
One case I heard about, but didn't agree with, was Slade's Let's call it quits which was just a standard rocker. Apparently somebody sued them over copyright infringement and won, after which they had to withdraw the single which was already hitting the charts. If that song was a copyright violation so are thousands of songs like it.
For a more creative case of ripping off the elders, see Blur.
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