When Dire Straits recorded "Money For Nothing" they came up with that wicked chorus "I want my, I want my, I want my MTV," which was actually a direct rip off of the Police "Don't stand so, don't stand so close to me."
Luckily, Sting was actually recording in the next studio, so they dragged him down the hall, got him to perform the line, and then gave him a songwriting credit.
Page did a large part of that reworking and then took his work with him when he left the Yardbirds.
As for the rest, there really are only so many notes and combinations of notes that sound good to the human ear. With millions of people writting songs, eventually some will sound similar. In the case of Stairway to Heaven, you have a simple and extremely common Am to D transgression. It's also used in the Who's Pinball Wizard.
Page did a large part of that reworking and then took his work with him when he left the Yardbirds.
As for the rest, there really are only so many notes and combinations of notes that sound good to the human ear. With millions of people writting songs, eventually some will sound similar. In the case of Stairway to Heaven, you have a simple and extremely common Am to D progression. It's also used in the Who's Pinball Wizard.
fyp.
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I think most "artists" subconsciously rip off their influences, at the very least. But only when they vary their influences enough does it actually translate into something new and interesting.
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I knew a guy who used to live in L.A. and he told me that the song "Every Morning" by Sugar Ray was a blatant rip off from a street performer that used to hang out in Venice Beach and I guess a lot of people knew about it, but the guy lacked the ability to seek legal help about it.
Most bands nowadays steal their sounds anyway.
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Anyone remember "Larry & Willy" from CFOX in Vancouver?
They were on in C fox in the 90's when I lived there, They had a segment on their morning show called "Plagiarism Court".
It was brilliant! ... They would play a newer song and then play some older tune that they thought the rip-off derived from. Some of the stuff they would compare (old to new) was so obviously ripped off, especialy guitar riffs and chourses.
I always though this was a pretty blatant ripoff, considering SUM41's version came out only 2 years after Coldplay's (same chords, same structure, same key, similar tempo):
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Anyone remember "Larry & Willy" from CFOX in Vancouver?
They were on in C fox in the 90's when I lived there, They had a segment on their morning show called "Plagiarism Court".
It was brilliant! ... They would play a newer song and then play some older tune that they thought the rip-off derived from. Some of the stuff they would compare (old to new) was so obviously ripped off, especialy guitar riffs and chourses.
Haha, I remember when they did "Froggie went-a-courtin'" vs "Bron-y-aur Stomp". Still makes me laugh.
I think a lot of those are a stretch, although Nirvana and The Damned are pretty similar, as are the Metallica and and Pearl Jam ones.
Some of them are just using similar tuning or timing. Rock music is not the most complicated genre and after some 60 years, a lot of it is bound to be repeated.
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Last edited by FlamesAddiction; 05-29-2010 at 07:26 PM.
Well like Tom Morello says , there's only so much you can do between A and G, so bring on the effects pedals.
Heh.. ya. I remember taking guitar lessons as a kid and learning to play almost every Kiss song which all just used different combinations of A, G and C....
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Seems like all you have to do to make a successful hip-hop career these days is find a classic song from the 70's or 80's and play it in the background with a guy periodically going "yeah, yeah" or "uh-huh" over top. Instant moneymaker.
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Aritists ripping off other artists
