14 Songs That 'Rip Off' Classical Music

this video is sponsored by soundcore since its release last year many people have pointed out that memories by maroon 5 sounds very similar to the classical piece canon d by johann pakebel [Music] bring back all the memories [Music] particularly if we move canon into the same key as memories the similarities are starkly apparently [Music] first of all both songs use the exact same chord progression but the element that really makes memories sound like canon is the melody the melody for memories is almost like a simplified version of the melody from canon for example if i take canon and remove these notes i basically wind up with the melody from memories [Music] so memories is quite clearly based on canon but does this mean that maroon 5 will get sued over this well no even though usually plagiarism like this would result in a lawsuit as it would be copyright infringement the piece that maroon 5 have ripped off here canon d is no longer in copyright the copyright has expired and the piece is now in the public domain if a piece of music is in the public domain it means that enough time has now passed that the copyright has expired the period that copyright lasts for has changed over the years but the current law in most countries worldwide is that the copyright of a composition expires 70 years after the death of the composer pacobal died in 1706 so his compositions have been in the public domain for a few centuries now so maroon 5 really don't need to worry about being sued over their use of pakabao's cannon memories by maroon 5 is also far from the only song that's ever used canon d as a foundation canon's distinctive chord progression has been used in many pop songs over the years [Music] all together [Music] this is how it [Music] we feels all the times we had together [Music] like i said earlier because copyright expires 70 years after the death of the composer basically all classical music from before the 20th century is in the public domain now so as you can imagine canon is far from the only classical piece of music that has been repurposed into a pop song for example what does this piece remind you of there's no way freddie mercury lifted this segment of liancavello's vesti legal bar to use as the intro for it's a hard life when we move the two pieces into the same key we can see that the contour of both melodies is almost identical however one difference is that freddy has simplified the chords changing chord only once a bar instead of twice what does this piece remind you of [Music] [Music] is [Music] falling [Music] can't help falling in love written by hugo peretti luigi creator and george david weiss it's based quite closely on jean-paul martini's placer dear more melodically you can't help falling in love is much like a simplified less ornamented version of placea de amor although the songwriters of can't help falling in love have made quite a few changes to the pictures of the melody to the point that although the melodies are obviously related they are certainly not identical and can't help falling in love isn't even the only elvis presley song that's based on a classical piece of music when we kiss my heart's on fire burning with a strange desire and i know it's time i kiss you [Music] by ernesto de curtis melodically surrender and torna sorrento are near identical however doc thomas and mort schumann who wrote surrender have modified the timing of the song whereas torna sorrento is in 3-4 time surrender is in 4-4 time and thomas and schumann have also added an extra bar after each line of the melody breaking it up the next example is from one of my favorite bands radiohead but just before we look at that i want to take a quick second to talk to you about today's sponsor which is soundcore soundcores liberty 2 pro wireless earbuds offer premium quality at an affordable price i've always been a big believer that if you're a musician or a music lover that you should be listening to music on top quality headphones the liberty 2 pro earbuds have been endorsed by 10 grammy award-winning producers including daryl thorpe who has worked with radiohead paul mccartney and beck once you put these in you sort of forget that you're even wearing them i actually went for a run for over an hour and they just stayed in place the whole time they never fall out for a limited time only if you follow the link in the description you'll get 30 off your purchase thank you right back to the video so i'm going to play you the beginning of prelude and e minor by chopin and i want to see which radiohead song you think it sounds like [Music] wait [Music] particularly when we move them both into the same key you can see that both of these tunes start in a very similar way from your sleep [Music] however after this point the two tunes quickly diverge chopin died in 1849 so by the time that radiohead released exit music in 1997 prelude e minor was well into the public domain so radiohead have nothing to worry about whether they meant to copy chopin or not john lennon claimed to have written the beatles song because after hearing yoko ono playing beethoven's famous moonlight sonata on the piano yoko was playing moonlight sonata on the piano she was classically trained i said can you play those chords backwards and wrote because around them [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] because it's certainly similar to moonlight sonata but despite what lenin said because doesn't actually use the chords of moonlight sonata played backwards you can see though how jon was inspired by moonlight sonata and perhaps used it as a starting point for because for example moonlight sonata starts with this arpeggio of a c-sharp minor chord but instead of repeating the same three-note arpeggio like beethoven does because climbs back down that same arpeggio and then elaborates it by adding an extra bass note [Music] [Applause] even if it's not the case that the chord progression from because is moonlight sonata played backwards you can still quite clearly see how jon was influenced by beethoven here a whiter shade of pale by prokum harem is based on orchestral suite number three in d major by bark better known by the name air on a g string [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] i do remember having this musical idea which i worked out on the piano air on g string which was a bark composition and it came out but i think when i got after about the first two bars i think i got it wrong kind of thing or didn't remember where it went but i just carried on in my own way if i move whiter shade of pale into the same key as air on a g string it's quite clear that both pieces begin with the exact same descending chord progression and the same long suspended notes held over the [Music] top but after two bars just like gary brooker said in the interview why the shade of pale diverges from air on a g g-string bark died in 1750 so pokemharam in 1967 had no issue at all drawing from bark's music to create their own song [Music] the classical piece minuet and g major was for many years attributed to bach however it is now widely considered to be instead written by a different baroque composer christian petzold [Music] the tune was repurposed in 1965 by songwriters sandy lindsa and denny randall into a lover's concerto which was released by the toys an interesting difference between a lover's concerto and minuet and g is that minuet ng the original tune is in 3-4 but a lover's concerto is in 4-4 [Music] you can see that the songwriters have stretched the melody out to make it fit into a 4-4 groove a lover's concerto has to be one of the most blatant uses of a classical tune in a pop song that i've ever heard but of course it doesn't matter how blatant it sounds because the tune minuet and g is in the public domain so the songwriters can use it as extensively as they want and they won't get into any trouble but the next example the final example we're going to look at today is an example of what can happen if you write using a classical tune that's not in the public domain yet all by myself by eric carmen is based on the second movement of rachmaninoff's piano concerto number two in c minor nobody's home [Music] the chord progressions of both pieces are almost identical in every way and the melody is so similar that it's almost like eric carman has just set lyrics to rack manila's tune the interesting thing about this example is when eric carman wrote all by myself he thought that the rachmaninoff piece that he was basing off was already in the public domain and in the usa where eric carman was writing it was in the public domain however that wasn't the case across the entire world see the 70 year after death system that we have in most countries today is a relatively recent development back in 1975 when eric carmen wrote all by myself copyright law worked a bit differently in the us historically in the usa copyright lasted for a maximum of 56 years from publication rather than death of the composer rachmaninov's piano concerto number two first published in 1901 would have entered the public domain in 1957 in the usa so carmen was right to think that rachmaninoff's music was out of copyright in the usa however crucially it was yet to leave copyright in other parts of the world it wasn't until eric carman was actually contacted by the estate of rachmaninoff that he realized that the tune he had used wasn't in the public domain yet allegedly an agreement was reached that meant that rachmaninoff's estate would receive 12 of all of the royalties earned from all by myself and all by myself wasn't even the only song that eric carmen wrote using a rachmaninoff piece his song never gonna fall in love again was based on the third movement from rachmaninoff symphony number two [Music] just [Music] just like with all by myself carmen has again effectively just set lyrics to rachmaninoff's tune keeping the melody and the chords near identical to the original so carmen also had to pay 12 percent of this song's royalties to rachmaninoff's estate so if you're stuck for ideas when you're songwriting next maybe choose a classical tune to base your song on just make sure that the song you choose is already in the public domain and if you can think of any other pop songs that are based on classical tunes i'd love to hear about them and thank you again to soundcore for letting me try out their liberty 2 pro earbuds they really do offer some of the best sound quality i've ever heard on headphones and i'm already a bit of an audiophile when it comes to headphones so if you like me care about hearing the finer detail in the songs that you love do follow the link in the description to find out more thank you and as always an extra special thank you goes to everybody who supports me on patreon including adam granger andrei science diargia andrew brown andy deacon austin barrett bob mckinstry britney parker bruce mount cameron all available chris cabell kieran bennen daniel long darren harvey david defunder for dr darren wicks elena scorchenko espen hansen eugene leroy eyes fd hodor golf house guillermo latona james ko j.a cockensparger joe vasson jonas sodastrom justin vigger lavender mint rose meg fellows melody composer squared michael vivian nancy gillard nicolas orlando bernard pablo ocampo paul muller paul paisle peter dunthy roger clay xi jin kang schnitzel craft steve daly thomas armstrong tim beaker timothy payne toot vidad flowers and vladimir kodakov [Music] you

Channel: David Bennett Piano

Views: 3,681,286

Rating: 4.8837285 out of 5

Keywords: bach, music theory, plagarism, copyright, lawsuit, analysis, explained, comparison, compared, canon, pachebel, pachabel, famous 4 chords, beethoven, moonlight sonata, rachmaninoff, public domain, history, notes, chord progression, chords, melody, pop music, original, stolen, steal

Id: yknBXOSlFQs

Length: 19min 2sec (1142 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 18 2020