18 Songs That 'Rip Off' Other Hits

recently we've seen loads of pretty questionable pop song lawsuits blurred lines versus Marvin Gaye ed Sheeran versus Marvin Gaye Katy Perry versus a Christian rapper a lot of these lawsuits that are claiming that one artist plagiarized another artists are often fairly obvious money grabs the similarities that they're arguing for between the two songs often come down to pretty generic building blocks of music scales chords general aesthetics these aren't things that you can own these aren't things that you can copyright and yet most of these lawsuits are based on these principles a painter would be called absurd to sue another painter for using the same shade of blue as them but yet this is basically what we're seeing in the world of pop music at the moment really plagiarism and influence are the same thing they are two poles to the same spectrum of course if a new song comes out and it's obviously copying the basic character for elements of another song then it's going to wind up here it's obviously plagiarism but if a new song comes out that has taken inspiration from another song but this song has actually developed the source material into something new and interesting and separate from the original then this would fall on this end of the spectrum it would be a case of influence not a case of plagiarism and songs on this end of the spectrum really don't deserve to be sued so today we're going to run through a whole bunch of different songs that were quite clearly influenced by other hits that came before them and you can decide whether you think it's plagiarism or if it's influenced several One Direction songs sound strikingly similar to other classic songs for example one Direction's midnight memories released 2013 sounds suspiciously like pour some sugar on me by Def Leppard [Music] [Music] so after hearing those two clips back-to-back you might be thinking how on earth did One Direction get away with ripping off Def Leppard like that well Def Leppard and their legal team did take a look at this song but they concluded that the only similarities came down to the essential building blocks of rock music Vivian Campbell the guitarist from Def Leppard said the chords are 1 for 5 those are the blues you don't get any more basic than that I think what's more reminiscent of the Leppard thing here it's the production the sound the vocals the reverb and the way that it's assembled and this isn't the only time that a rock legend has given One Direction the benefit of the doubt when it comes to plagiarism One Direction's track best song ever also came under fire for its apparent similarities to Barbaro Riley by the WHO [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Pete Townsend from the who responded saying that the band would not be taking legal action I liked the single I like one direction the chords are used and the chords they used are the same three chords we've all been using a basic pop music since Buddy Holly Eddie Cochran and Chuck Berry made it clear that fancy chords don't mean great music one direction aren't quite off the hook yet though the riff from their song live while you're young seems to be heavily inspired by another classic rock song Harry Styles actually admits that the band intentionally lifted the riff from should I stay or should I go despite this open admission though the clash don't seem to have acknowledged the similarities or pursued a lawsuit likewise Harry Styles has also admitted that the intro to that's what makes you beautiful purposefully mimics the riff from greece's summer nights but just like with the Def Leppard case the summer nights riff is arguably too generic to own the riff is built purely from the chords one four and five the three most common chords in all of western music and in fact the summer nights riff was itself probably ripped off from another earlier song hang on Sloopy made famous by the McCoys in 1965 [Music] as I'm sure you're aware one direction don't generally write their own songs they're written for them by a team of songwriters and I actually believe that it was the strategy of these songwriters to take little bits of classic pop and rock songs and splice them in to these One Direction hits to give these hits a bit more of a sense of authenticity or timelessness and perhaps they even intentionally stir up a bit of controversy to help popularize the song anyway this video wasn't meant to all be about one direction so let's take a look at some other artists who have worn their influences on their sleeves the guitar riff from Green Day song warning sounds almost identical to the riff from the kinks picture book [Music] and this isn't the only rift that Greenday have borrowed the opening riff from their track brain stew is very similar to the riff from Chicago's 25 or 6 to 4 the harmonica intro to Green Day's hold on is clearly inspired by the harmonica intro to the Beatles I should have known better as far as I'm aware none of these instances of Green Day songs sounding like other songs have ever led to a lawsuit and nor am i saying that they should I think that in all of these cases Green they have taken something old something that they admired and worked it into something new and valuable let's take a look at some other artists who have done some questionable borrowing Danny California by the Red Hot Chili Peppers sounds strikingly akin to Tom Petty's Mary Jane's last dance [Music] Petie did confirmed that he had noticed the similarities between Danny California and his song but said that he would not be pursuing legal action I seriously doubt that there is any negative intent there a lot of rock and roll songs sound alike I don't believe in lawsuits much I think there are enough frivolous lawsuits in this country without people fighting over pop songs in fact Mary Jane's last dance was actually most likely ripped off from another song Tom Petty probably got his inspiration from the Jayhawks track waiting for the Sun [Music] the Jayhawks were the opening act for Tom Petty in 1992 and Mary Jane's last dance was released in 1993 so there is a real chance that petty was at least subconsciously inspired by the Jayhawks for this next example I'm just gonna play you a short snippet of the song that was ripped off and I'm pretty sure even from that short snippet you're going to be able to tell me which artist did the ripping off [Music] any guesses Nirvana's come-as-you-are is pretty clearly based on killing jokes song 80s the two riffs are melodically similar but not melodically identical however I think that the similarities between them have been accentuated by the fact that both are performed on a chorus affected guitar the jam are one of those many bands that are understandably inspired by the Beatles for example the jams track start is a pretty overt display of this influence [Music] the two bass riffs are virtually identical the jam have just stuck one extra note onto the end of the bass line to make it sound a little bit different the jam were apparently so obsessed with this taxman bass line that they actually used it on the b-side to start as well Liza Radley but the Beatles themselves so have definitely borrowed ideas from other artists the Beatles tracked Sun King from Abbey Road has a very similar sound to albatross by Fleetwood Mac [Music] both tracks are in the same key and feature very similar parts and tones on the guitar bass and drums now I would say that this example is far closer to the influence end of the scale than the plagiarism end George Harrison said when we were writing Abbey Road albatross was out before the reverb on the guitars so we said let's be Fleetwood Mac doing albatross just to get going the beatles may have taken albatross as a kicking off point but what they came up with in the end was a distinctly different piece of music what does this one remind you of [Music] this is probably yet another example of a classic being used as a starting point to write a new song the first two beats of da G's staying out for the summer and Blue Oyster cult's don't fear the reaper are melodically identical and are both played with similar electric guitar tones let's look at some more recent examples what does this song remind you of treasure by Bruno Mars released 2013 has some obvious similarities to baby I'm yours by break BOC released three years earlier in 2010 the main similarity is in this melodic hook that both songs use in the heart of their chorus break bot the artist who wrote baby I'm Yours called treasure a ripoff of their song however they also said that they were cool with it admitting that they themselves had taken lots of bits from here and there when creating their own music with this next example I'm far from the first person to point out these similarities [Music] [Music] as I said if you've noticed these similarities before you're certainly not alone the band themselves Portugal de man were also fully aware of the similarities between their track and please mr. postman so they went ahead and secured the rights of the song before release crediting the writers of please mr. postman on their track the use of please mr. postman in feel it still doesn't really constitute calling feel it's still a cover but also it isn't a sample they haven't taken the sample of police mr. postman and spliced it into feel it still what we're looking at here is something different called interpolation interpolation is when the melody or part of the melody of an existing song is taken and worked into a new song now the most recent example I have for you today is Louis Capaldi's 2018 here someone you loved many people have noticed the similarities this song has with the song dragons DDT by ozone perhaps better known as I could show you the two tracks back-to-back to demonstrate the similarities but what I think will do a better job is this version by songwriter Owen Denver so um nothing really got away and jabbin crazy underneath my smile to my to my is my gosh [Music] is a candy please the important thing to remember with all of this is that culture and music don't exist in a vacuum every piece of music you've ever heard was effectively a rehash of something that came before it a new spin on an old classic and that's how culture is meant to happen in develop like I said before culture is one ongoing conversation of course I'm not saying that everyone should be allowed to use everything if a songwriter or a producer has worked really hard to create a piece of music they should be allowed a time to exclusively profit from that so their hard work is rewarded but that's what copyright is therefore the idea of copyright is to incentivize creativity but nowadays is often abused by corporations who just want to squeeze as much money as they can out of the intellectual properties they have to finish off I'll show you this clip of Albert Hammond who wrote The Hollies hit the air that I breathe the air that I breathe was infamously ripped off by Thom Yorke when he wrote the Radiohead classic creep because of this Hammond was awarded a third of creeps royalties and the writing credit but Hammond didn't actually want to sue Radiohead and it wasn't even him who sued them it was his publisher all these lawsuits and all these things I think it's silly you know I really do it shouldn't be about money and it shouldn't be about egos it should be about loving and wonderful things that's what I feel so I'm sure you guys will have plenty more examples in the comments of songs that plagiarize other songs so I'm excited to see those and I'm sure you've all got lots of opinions about copyrights so let loose in the comment section below and I'll try and reply to as much as they can also a massive thank you goes to all of you subscribers who have got me over the 90k mark that's actually absurd that we're now honing in on a hundred thousand subscribers that's crazy if we do get to 100,000 subscribers I'm gonna do a Q&A so if you have any questions you want to ask about me or what I do or how I make these videos or about any songs that you like stick the comments below and I'll do my best to reply to as many as I can and a massive thank you as always goes to my incredibly generous supporters on patreon if you enjoy my videos and you want to see more of them perhaps consider lending a hand over on patreon for example a pledge of five dollars gets you on this list of legends including entry signs deasia Andrew Brown Andy deacon Austin Barrett Bob McKinstry Chris Korbel Christopher Ryan Kieran Benin Daniel long Darrell Darren Harvey David defender Ferg David M Barrie has been handsome eyes FD Hodor George Taylor Gulf house James KO j a caucus manga jovis one Jonas Soderstrom Jonathan banks Justin vigor Meg fellows melody composer squared Nancy Gillard Nicholas Orlando Bernard Paul Miller pulp a soul peter Dumpty logically summer Rae T Newport Tim beaker and Vladimir koulikov you said I was trying to pretend that I was Marvin Gaye when you were put a feeling of the music when you were creating blurred lines were you trying to pretend that you were more Marvin Gaye at that particular time no but as I look back I feel that feeling is it your testimony that you and mr. Thicke never once turn the creation of blurred lines spoke about discussed referenced the song got to give it up by Marvin Gaye I did not go in the studio with the intention of making anything feel like to sound like Marvin Gaye [Music]

Channel: David Bennett Piano

Views: 2,992,968

Keywords: one direction, pop songs, lawsuit, blurred lines, green day, tom petty, dani california, comparison, copyright, plagarised, plagarized, plagarism, influence, killing joke, the beatles, creep, marvin gaye, katy perry, the jam, taxman, should I stay, grease, pour some sugar, the who, breakbot, bruno mars, copied, sued, please mr postman, numa numa, lewis capaldi

Id: FHx3l6Iu47k

Length: 17min 3sec (1023 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 05 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/inselfwetrust]

Idk why, but it never occurred to me that Fleetwood Mac were formed early enough to catch the tail end of the Beatles career. Especially to the point where they would influence them