acsgjjp@sunybcs.UUCP (Jim Poltrone) (10/23/84)
Opening up a brand-new can of worms here.....
I've noticed that a few recent (~5 years) songs sort of incorporate
commercial jingles into them. Let me cite the examples I know of:
"Fool In The Rain" -- Led Zepplin
The six-note pattern (E,F,G,A,A,G) sounds like "When you say
Bud-weiser (you've said it all)", from one of Anheuser-Busch ads.
"Illegal Alien" -- Genesis
Parts sound to me like "No-body demands more from a Datsun, than
Datsun".
"Rockin' The Paradise" -- Styx
"What 'cha doin' tonight (have you heard that the world's gone crazy)":
The first phrase of that (F,F,F,D,F,G) calls to mind an old McDonalds
commercial (the one that had the chorus "You deserve a break today..").
Don't tell Barry [Manilow] about this, though. :-)
"Twilight" -- E L O
The horn notes (G,C,E,F) are similar to an old Hartford Insurance
commercial.
(I'm just indicating the piano notes; ASCII doesn't allow for duration.)
I guess we're not the only ones who watch too much television. If you
know of any other examples of "unconscious plaigarism", mail to me or
post to the Net.
(I hope this doesn't blossom into another debate on stealing ideas, just
like the one started when the lyrics to "Eat It" were posted.)
--
From under the smogberry trees....
Jim Poltrone (a/k/a Poltr1, the Last of the Raster Blasters)
uucp: [decvax,watmath,rocksvax]!sunybcs!acsgjjp
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"The web of life connects each of us to the other..."dvw@hopd3.UUCP (D. V. Wilkerson) (10/24/84)
I don't know, but Huey Lewis is suing Ray Parker, Jr. Huey claims that the "Ghostbusters" theme is a direct rip-off of "I Want A New Drug". Hmmm. I do think that "Carribean Queen" sounds a lot like "Billie Jean". Diane Wilkerson ..!hopd3!dvw
djc@wlcrjs.UUCP (David J. Carpenter) (10/25/84)
Wouldn't one think that there are only so many possible melodies that we can come up with that won't "sound like" another existing one and that will sound pleasing, or at least reasonable? True, if you yank out individual sections and compare, there will be similarities. Some are of course, rip-offs, but some comparisons are pushing it, I think. David Carpenter ihnp4!wlcrjs!djc
thielges@uiucdcsb.UUCP (10/29/84)
I had a music instructor who insisted that all new music was just bits and pieces of Bach's works put together. According to him, Bach figured out almost all of the snappy riffs long ago. Bart Thielges
lutton@inmet.UUCP (10/30/84)
#R:sunybcs:-75400:inmet:6600212:000:623
inmet!lutton Oct 28 19:42:00 1984
<>
You can quote up to 4 notes of a song legally, without being
liable for plagiarism. At the 5th note, plagiarism begins.
The court case that set this precedent was one in which the
publishers of Handel's "Halleluia Chorus" sued the publishers
of "Yes, We Have No Bananas." The decision was that "Bananas"
was not a ripoff of "Halleluia." (I don't know why Handel's
piece was not considered to be in the public domain.)
Also, nobody has copyright to the C major scale, so
Kraftwerk's "Kometenmelodie" (ascending) and Arlen's
"Somewhere Over the Rainbow" (descending with ornamentation)
are safe from prosecution.