This week Katy Perry won her appeal for a lawsuit against her, regarding her song "Dark Horse" (2013), for the tune of $2.7 million dollars. She was originally taken to court by a Christian Rapper by the name of Flame. At first the judge ruled in favour of Flame and his song "Joyful Noise" (2008), but when the case was appealed, Katy Perry came out victorious.
It seems like a couple of times a year you will hear of similar cases like this. The laws around copying songs are very vague. On one hand, you don't need permission to remix or parody a song (and can't get sued for copyright), and on the other hand, sampling a song is very clear in that you have to either ask or purchase the rights. But when it comes to someone claiming that another song sounds like their own, it gets very foggy.
This particular lawsuit lends to my confusion. The argument from Perry and her producer was that they had never heard of this artist or song and just came up with the same beat. After listening to both songs, for me, it sounds suspiciously familiar. So I thought I would post Perry and Flame's songs in question, and a couple other examples so you all can be the judge.
In all honesty, it's too close to judge for me. I'm not here to say who's in the right. We likely will never know if it was stolen or not.
The second one I would like to take a look at also happened fairly recently. Lana Del Rey and her song "Get Free" (2017), was accused by Radiohead of plagiarizing their hit song "Creep"(1992). The trouble with this song is that they are arguing over the chord progression. Now most pop music is written the same, there's not a ton of dynamic in the composition. Here is a comedy group poking fun at it. It's somewhat unclear because they settled out of court, but it seems as though Lana Del Rey came out on top, because she started performing the song again.
To me, because the chord progression is so recognizable and different, I personally hear the similarity two chords in. I think that Radiohead had a case because as Del Rey begins to sing the chorus, it sounds eerily similar. But can you really copyright a chord progression? Should you be able to? I don't know. Take a listen and hear for yourself.
The third and final case I will submit for your thoughts is Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down" (1989) and Sam Smith's "Stay with Me" (2014). This one is a little different because Sam Smith, whether he did it on purpose or not, admitted the similarities in the two songs after Petty and his writing partner reached out to Smith. Tom Petty and his writing partner now have an official writing credit on the song. There's a video out there overlapping the songs for you to hear. But I am not posting it on purpose, because I want you to listen to them on their own and make a decision for yourself.
I've given you only a few of the more prominent copyright riffs to consider. But these things happen all the time. I think all three of these cases had their merit, but there are many others that maybe didn't. You can look into Marvin Gaye vs. Sam Smith or Marvin Gaye vs. Robin Thicke or Marvin Gaye vs. Ed Sheeran, and maybe see where things get complicated.
I hope you enjoyed this food for thought! It's my goal to post topics that are not only relevant, but that you guys actually want to read about. If you have a blog topic you want to see on here, let me know! I might even give you partial writing credit.
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