KVR Audio

Tricky-Loops · Post by **Tricky-Loops** » Wed Mar 11, 2015 9:44 pm

aMUSEd wrote:I can think of lots of examples of songs that sound much more similar - Roxette's "Listen to your heart" and Heart's "What about love?" for example. Heart never took Roxette to court either, the crappy Thicky song is much less similar than that or the Petty/Smith one.

Nobody forces an artist to sue someone with a similar song, it's a personal decision. If everyone sued artists who made similar songs, we needed the double amount of courts in this world...think of all the remixes and cover versions, there are millions of them...

aMUSEd · Post by **aMUSEd** » Wed Mar 11, 2015 9:46 pm

I know, I'm glad they didn't, I tend to think of Heart like Tom Petty as a bit more ethical. But I'm just saying there are more grounds for saying stuff got copied in both those cases than there are with this, it has a similar groove, so do a lot of other songs, and they clearly meant it as an homage to Gaye and sounds of that era, but the melody, even the key, are very different.

Tricky-Loops · Post by **Tricky-Loops** » Wed Mar 11, 2015 9:51 pm

BTW, Daft Punk were cleverer because they didn't simply make a song inspired by Giorgio Moroder, they INVOLVED Giorgio Moroder to make a real homage!

(Now we won't talk about how much stuff Daft Punk sampled probably illegally in their older records without being sued...

)

Tricky-Loops · Post by **Tricky-Loops** » Wed Mar 11, 2015 9:59 pm

A few years ago I heard a song from an unknown young Austrian rapper who sampled "They Don't Really Care About Us" by Michael Jackson. I thought how crazy must he be? Illegally sampling Michael Jackson, the king of pop?

If this song had been a hit in Austria, the Michael Jackson heirs would have sued him immediately and he would pay for the rest of his life...

Ph-J · Post by **Ph-J** » Thu Mar 12, 2015 12:22 am

aMUSEd wrote:I can think of lots of examples of songs that sound much more similar - Roxette's "Listen to your heart" and Heart's "What about love?" for example. Heart never took Roxette to court either, the crappy Thicky song is much less similar than that or the Petty/Smith one.

I don't know the examples you mention, but there is more than 'the feel' (& cowbell) in the Blurred lines / Got to give it up case.
Listen to 'keep on dancin' // 'i know you want it', 'dancing baby' // 'hey hey hey', plenty of stuff in the bass line, ...

You can say it's typical of a 'genre' and plenty of songs share the same things, but then I'd like to know what genre & what songs..?
The clever thing to do might have been to work out a split rather than preemptively suing.

Taoist · Post by **Taoist** » Thu Mar 12, 2015 1:16 am

I had a guy at work explain to me that it was his understanding that it is a percentage type analysis that leads to the conclusion that a song was officially considered ripped off of another. If that is correct, I am okay with it. I just had an issue with the fact that I couldn't hear a single element of the song being an identical copy of the other. But, I do definitely agree with not allowing people to just take other people's work trim some fat re-arrange a touch and call it their own. I need to do more research into this for sure.

fedexnman · Post by **fedexnman** » Thu Mar 12, 2015 1:23 am

There is plenty of music that is similar , is it plagiarism , probably not , maybe maybe not . But, I'm SURE they copied the Marvin Gaye Song into there DAW , come on man its almost spot on , but not quite the same beat but really really close . Does Thicke get all high tenor and high falsetto like Marvin Gaye , ah duh yep ...These guys knew . Was it the same song ...NO .....The Gaye family probably knew what Thicke and Pharrel did . They should of settled this outside of court . What a greedy lawsuit and world we live in . Both parties in this case are greedy . Oh and I hate the Blurred Lines song by the way , hey hey hey ... STFU already hated that song . Had a good beat though . I do like some Marvin Gaye songs , especially " What's Goin On " ...

skipscada · Post by **skipscada** » Thu Mar 12, 2015 8:07 am

Ben H wrote: Well he is called Thicke.

...and that's another example of Thicke copying Gaye. Here's a quote from Wikipedia:

Before the release of his first single, Gaye was teased about his surname, with some jokingly asking, "Is Marvin Gay?"[31] Gaye changed his surname by adding an e, in the same way as did Sam Cooke. Author David Ritz wrote that Gaye did this to silence rumours of his sexuality, and to put more distance between Gaye and his father.

BERFAB · Post by **BERFAB** » Thu Mar 12, 2015 2:47 pm

If you go back in history far enough, there are probably lesser known artists that could sue the artists that are now suing. I always thought it was funny that Avril Lavigne got sued by the Rubinoos for copying their "I Wanna be your Boyfriend." First of all, I aways assumed that I was one of maybe 4 people on the planet that actually bought their record. But more importantly, "I wanna be your Boyfriend" is a not so subtle rip-off of the Stones' "Get off My Cloud." The Stones, in turn, cribbed a lot of their stuff from old blues masters, and so on.

jsp1979 · Post by **jsp1979** » Thu Mar 12, 2015 3:07 pm

Listen to the master speak.

Pharrell, Robin Thicke to Pay $7.3 Million to Marvin Gaye Family