olivia rodrigo sets a record

xxxp "like a damn sociopath" and "Ican'tstanditohgodIsoundcrazy"

these are the moments that really make the album for me. songs are good, lyrics are tiresome (admittedly, i am a middle-aged man, they are not for me) but those little moments have drawn me in.

there are plenty of other ex-disney pop stars who don't have anywhere near her charisma

Feeling inspired by @Olivia_Rodrigo ☀️ 

Original photo by Brett Lloyd for Purple Magazine pic.twitter.com/gRIfWlgfxI

— Kyle MacLachlan (@Kyle_MacLachlan) June 8, 2021

there are plenty of other ex-disney pop stars who don't have anywhere near her charisma

― ufo

Multiplying by 0 is still 0.

Jk

Opened this thread to confirm that song is a cover of Misery Business

The song is structurally similar and with similar rock leanings but melodically they're not really and good 4 u doesn't have that hooky riff. Even as a Paramore fan though, I've come to realize I've probably underrated misery business, what a song - "I REFUSE I REFUSE I REFUSE"

I hear only a faint similarity in the chorus (“Good 4 U” is a far far better song, IMO).

I guess I should be more diplomatic and say that the Paramore song is not in a style that I can connect with / enjoy.

It's remarkable how much more pleasant I find the SNL live video of "Good 4 U" than the studio version (at least on YouTube). Sounds like human beings singing and playing instruments in a room. Good power pop tune.

Courtney thinks she owns the concept of a prom queen with smudged eye makeup, f'ing excuse me?: https://pitchfork.com/news/courtney-love-accuses-olivia-rodrigo-of-stealing-hole-album-cover-concept/

they should have credited costello though for "brutal"

― ufo, Thursday, May 20, 2021 9:52 PM (one month ago)

This is fine by me, Billy.
It’s how rock and roll works. You take the broken pieces of another thrill and make a brand new toy. That’s what I did. #subterreaneanhomesickblues #toomuchmonkeybusiness

— Elvis Costello (@ElvisCostello) June 28, 2021

pretty cool response, can't think of too many in his generation who would've handled it the same way

Just listened to "Brutal"--anyone who thinks that's plagiarism of "Pump It Up" is completely out to lunch. I could easily believe it's nothing more than a coincidence.

I mean my first thought when I heard it was "that's Pump It Up" but it's also a pretty simple riff

I mean, I'm sure at least Dan Nigro has heard the song before and the riff does seem like a quote or homage but that's not a very strong case for plagiarism on its own imo.xp

The song reminded me of "Cannonball" and "Connection" before "Pump It Up," tbh.

it's absolutely close enough to "pump it up" that costello could have sued if he'd wanted to & so it was pretty surprising that they didn't credit him as a precaution, especially in the current legal environment around writing credits

anyone else watch the sour prom thing? it was pretty cool, better than I expected

Finally hit me the other day that the driver license bridge is the melody of the "na-na nanana" playground taunt which is why I've been connecting with it so hard, something about the way she sings of the relationship like it's a taunt in and of itself, combined with this massive emotion makes for the perfect elixir of unreasonable love and the real thing

I thought "Pump It Up" within 5 seconds of hearing it and agree with ufo.

Solid response by EC, tho.

about being surprised they didn't preemptively credit him, I mean.

xxp add it here!: Songs that incorporate the "nan nanny boo boo" melody

it's absolutely close enough to "pump it up" that costello could have sued if he'd wanted to & so it was pretty surprising that they didn't credit him as a precaution, especially in the current legal environment around writing credits

Oh, I agree that court cases have been won over less and an acknowledgment would have been decent.

If Elvis Costello was going to sue over Pump it Up, he would have already sued Escape Club for "Wild Wild West" and U2 for that terrible "Get On Your Boots" song. Granted both of those borrow more from the main melody as opposed to the lead riff like the Olivia Rodrigo song.

Haha, I thought about mentioning "Wild Wild West".

The song reminded me of "Cannonball" and "Connection" before "Pump It Up," tbh.

The two riffs consist of the exact same chords (B5-Bb5-A5) changing at the same times. "Brutal" just starts with four eighth notes on B5 rather than two quarter notes. There's no question that it's the same idea but there is a valid question imo as to whether people should sue over one repeated bar with three power chords falling by semitones.

Yeah - and after Blurred Lines, the bar is pretty low for “could have sued if they wanted to.”

I thought the "Blurred Lines" settlement was ridiculous but come on they clearly nicked the tune

It was a verdict! And it didn’t even really involve the melody (AFAIR), it involved the “feel” of the song.

they nicked the groove and wrote a different song on top of it

a classic songwriting method

Got to Give it Up is on my party playlist and pretty much every time it comes on someone says "wait is this Blurred Lines?" which I think gets to the essence of it

I just always felt that it was weird that Blurred Lines was the one that got him sued, as opposed to Magic which clearly nicks from Curtis Mayfield's Move On Up without any credit, but I guess that's what happens when the Gaye estate is a lot more litigious than the Mayfield estate.

It’s how rock and roll works. You take the broken pieces of another thrill and make a brand new toy. That’s what I did. #subterreaneanhomesickblues #toomuchmonkeybusiness

Perfect response, but also consistent with his own history. EC has pointed this out in his own concerts for many years by quoting his sources in his songs or seguing his songs into covers of his sources. With "Pump It Up," he frequently quotes "Subterranean Homesick Blues," and something like "Brilliant Mistake" usually quotes "Tangled Up in Blue" - in each case, the only thing that's different is the words, emphasizing his song's chordal and melodic roots to the source. He's frequently written or spoken about this too, particularly in the liner notes of his Rhino reissues.

that's really a really refreshing from an older artist

Another thing "Brutal" reminds me of--feel-wise, if not totally musically--is Courtney Barnett stuff like "Pedestrian At Best".

^That’s really funny; I’ve been trying to “sing” Brutal in my head the past day or so, and keep singing that song instead (I just listened to the CB album last week).

Oh wait, not that CB song—the one about swimming.

This supports the points that ufo (and others) have been making about "just-in-case" songwriting credits, but it's really surprising to me: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/olivia-rodrigo-adds-taylor-swift-st-vincent-jack-antonoff-co-writes-to-deja-vu-1193659/

We're talking about a few shouted lines, the melodic similarity seems so minimal. It does not seem good for creativity for songwriters to be running scared (IMO, but other songwriters/artists have made similar comments).

It only happens/matters when your record is a smash hit though. So it seems like a good policy to write what you want and then chip off the percentages once there's a big pot of money and everyone comes calling.

I think this is great:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FaCO7pNx08

ok actually giving paramore a credit for "good 4 u" is the biggest stretch yet lol? like is there any sort of similarity at all beyond pop punk with the same chords in the chorus because that is not worth a writing credit

they did that now? ugh

My conspiracy theory is that Olivia Rodrigo is an industry plant with the purpose of pushing the boundaries for songwriting credits by making it even more acceptable to sue over moderate similarities in songwriting, instead of outright rips, in this post-Blurred Lines world.

Also, just want to add that there is a guitar tag in there that is a ripped-straight-from-the-pages-of-a-1995-Guitar-World rendition of Welcome to Paradise by Green Day. You think I'd get a finders fee from Reprise if I turned her in?

it sounds to me like the same chords in the chorus with the same melody sung over it with a similar cadence (in the beginning). it does diverge after the beginning. it sounds so clear in the mashup that I don't understand how people feel this is breaking new ground (but maybe this mashup makes drastic changes to either song that I don't recognize). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YB-rn6f--XY

my first thought when i heard that song was hey this sounds like misery business... sounds way more like misery business than that other song sounds like pump it up

maybe this is just bound to happen for a pop star that mines all these different eras of rock music instead of r&b/rap/pop/disco/whatever

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qX7a2p5_JsM

The Taylor Swift/Paramore mashup coulda been a hit

great video

Yeah, I thought that was very well done. It initially persuaded me that the songs were more similar than I was perhaps willing to admit, but then confirmed my suspicion that their similarity isn't particularly exceptional.