songs that sound like other songs

I just did some quick Googling, and it appears (contra my understanding) that the "innocent infringer" defense to copyright infringement – i.e., lack of awareness of the prior work – isn't such a slam dunk after all, at least in the US, due to various legal developments in the past century.

Michael Jackson's "Will You Be There?" was a famous case of court finding "no actually, your song wasn't original either!", though not in an American court.

After seven years, an Italian court ruled in favor of Carrisi because Jackson failed to show up to court. In a follow-up case some months later, the court ruled in favor of Jackson and rejected the claim, stating that while the two songs were very similar, they both may have been inspired by The Ink Spots' 1939 hit "Bless You for Being an Angel".

Earth Angel C Am F G

Stand by Me C Am F G

Wonderful World C Am F G

Last Kiss C Am F G

Where Have all the Flowers Gone C Am F G

etc.

Let it Be C G Am F

No Woman No Cry C G Am F

I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For C G Am F

Don't Stop Believing C G Am F

etc.

fuck, i wrote a doo wop song about dismembering someone as a 20 something and played it for someone and they said "isn't that Oh, Donna?"

lots of those progressions just kinda...jump at you

Fwiw, here's what the plaintiffs' expert witness in the Sheeran case (the guy whom Sheeran said is "putting in notes to try and find similarities") had to say beyond the chord progressions:

Stewart told the jury that the 1973 hit and Sheeran's 2014 chart-topper "Thinking Out Loud" use nearly identical chord progressions and rhythmic anticipation.

Stewart also testified that he found similarities in the two songs' melodies, including the tune of their respective opening lines, "I've been really trying, baby" from "Let's Get It On" and "When your legs don't work like they used to before" from "Thinking Out Loud." He said the songs' choruses and interludes have similar pitch sequences as well, and that 70% of "Thinking Out Loud" is attributable to "Let's Get It On."

"These are similar melodies, and they're happening simultaneously with the same accompaniment," Stewart told the jury. "It's the same creative choices."

In cross-examination, the attorney for Sheeran and the music publishers:

pointed out that a combination of the same chord progression and rhythm used in "Let's Get It On" was present in multiple songs before 1973, including covers of "Georgy Girl" by the Seekers. (...) In opening arguments the day before, (the attorney had) told the jury that the tunes are "very, very different" and Stewart's melodic analysis is entirely without merit.

The chorus of "You've Got a Friend" and the verse of "Trains and Boats and Planes" use very similar melodies.

Jury deliberations in the Sheeran trial begin today. In y'day's closing arguments, Sheeran's attorney said – "If we start to dissect every song to hunt for similarities and hand out ownership to things as basic as chord progressions and the manner in which they are performed, nothing will be left for songwriters to create. You would be removing an essential element in every songwriter's tool kit. Is that really what we want to do to music?"

Sheeran wins! After 2.5 hrs of deliberations.

good, I think his attorney was exactly right in that statement

Sheeran guilty of seditious conspiracy!

Proud Boys not rip-off of Proud Mary!

The difference between “most other I-iii-IV-V songs” (substitute I6 for iii in the case of “Thinking…”; functionally the same chord)— the difference IS those anticipations. Drawing parallels between these songs and the standard earlier examples of songs with the same progression (“The Weight”, “Just Like A Woman”, “Ziggy Stardust”) only (to my ears) emphasizes the general “mood” similarities between Sheeran and Gaye, which are notable!

Glad Sheeran won and I hope that professor/expert witness has something shitty happen to him this year

This just in: Sheehan to start writing atonal aleatory 12-tone pieces inna Schoenberg stylee, accompanied by Yoko Ono screams and occaional input from Tibetan yak herders who do circular breathing, so as to never have to go through this shit again

what if this could lead to pop songwriters being forced into only using convoluted, lawsuit-safe chord progressions and everyone just gets acclimated to it?!!

Every pop song will sound like "Bitches Brew"

fievel is glauque would become the biggest band in the world!

My next song's chord progression will be I IV€ vii(dim) ii¤ IX X XI V(sus)

Gawd – it turns out there are still two more pending lawsuits over Sheeran's song, filed by Structured Asset Sales LLC, a firm which owns a portion of the Townsend estate's rights in "Let's Get It On."

I recently picked up Al Stewart's "Time Passages" and the opening of The Palace of Versailles is reminding me of Foxygen's Shuggie
(not the melody so much as the overall vibe... Al Stewart should get in touch with Ed Townsend's legal team)

Helloween's "Forever and One (Neverland)"'s chorus sounds very similar to "Lost in the Darkness" from Broadway musical Jekyll and Hyde.

Somehow I spent a significant chunk of my life never having heard "Islands In The Stream". And so for years I thought "Ghetto Supastar" was based on "It Must Have Been Love" by Roxette.

Here's another copyright infringement suit currently being litigated – Kristen Anderson-Lopez & Robert Lopez (and Disney) are defending a claim that this Frozen II song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vS2hfKN9b7Y

...rips off a 1999 song that a guy uploaded on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7NM8B9B2mY

quite a stretch there

That's just the way it is

Some things will never change

um that song above sounds like Jill Sobule's "I Kissed a Girl"

(the riff, that is)

like the song above is so facelessly generic I'd be wary of suing anybody

The guy says in his complaint that when he saw the movie in the theater, his daughter turned him and said – “Dad, Disney took your song”…

Star witness

what if this could lead to pop songwriters being forced into only using convoluted, lawsuit-safe chord progressions and everyone just gets acclimated to it?!!

― Terrycoth Baphomet (bendy), Thursday, May 4, 2023 3:29 PM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

My next song's chord progression will be I IV€ vii(dim) ii¤ IX X XI V(sus)

― coolgnoscenti (Ye Mad Puffin), Thursday, May 4, 2023 4:05 PM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

fucking bring it on imo, i'm here for this

Honorable Judge Hongro presiding

hey

What if to release a song you had to get government approval like when submitting for a patent

i take your point, just sayin i'd love it if more pop songs were written with unusual chords and progressions.

i'd love it if *most* pop songs were written with unusual chords and progressions, even.

i wouldn't make a federal case out of it tho.

Nah. I think I vi IV V and I V vi IV still have potential for good, even awesome, songcraft.

Taylor Swift recorded "All Too Well" twice and it's still a better and catchier song than anything Frank Zappa ever did, fuiud

ooh you know what, i'll also take pop songs with no chords and pop songs with one static chord the whole way through.

zappa is a low blow

Oh lol Deflatormouse I was in no way calling YOU Geir oh heck no. That was a non-sequitur

Deflatormouse, you say that but in an alphabetical list of famous musicians, Zappa is normally one of the last to be mentioned.

xp oh lol i thought that was directed at me but took it in a playful spirit!

Neil Young - Too Far Gone sounds like The Rolling Stones - "Dead Flowers".

Turning back to the copyright issue – for the interested, Justice Kagan's (blistering) dissent in Warhol v. Goldsmith contains a two-page discussion of copying in music (pp. 28-29); including a long footnote on Dylan, and a block quote from the blog of "songwriter Nick Cave (he of the Bad Seeds)".

I just realized today how much Black Eyed Peas' Where is the Love sounds like Des'ree's Life.

ben harper's "steal my kisses" seems to borrow a lot from william onyeabor's "fantastic man"

"As It Was" by Harry Styles owes a lot to "California" by Delta Spirit

― daavid, Monday, June 20, 2022 1:15 PM (eleven months ago) bookmarkflaglink

And "Late Night Talking" sounds like Robyn's "Keep This Fire Burning"

I heard Miranda Lambert's "Me and Charlie Talking" in a Sporting Goods store

seems like “Shoot to Thrill” has some resemblance to “Won’t Get Fooled Again.”

jump into my mouth and breathe the stardust by black moth super rainbow has the same guitar line as there she goes by the la's.