When you consider the “Blurred Lines” lawsuit, you must start thinking about rhythm and groove. Of course, there are many other aspects to music. If it’s easier to recognise the plagiarism, the plagiarism becomes worse. Perhaps it seems better as melody is much more recognisable than a chord sequence. It’s very conceivable I would’ve ended up with it anyway, so is that so bad? In my mind, it’s about the same as poor Ed and Johnny. Is that so bad? It was a very simple VII-IV-I progression, which can be found in many rock and pop songs. Then, I thought that the underlying chorus chords she was using were quite nice as well, so I took them. So I decided to use the melody of those three words – is that so bad? It’s only two notes. But even if you know you haven’t, does it matter? Recently, I was writing a song after having listened to Lorde’s new single “Green Light” on repeat for a while. Thinking about the chorus, I decided that the melody Lorde sings on the line “Cos honey I’ll”, when the song enters the chorus, was very nice and fitted the exact movement of chords that I was writing. It’s very difficult to know whether you have been truly original with your melody. Were Ed and Johnny aware of this while writing it, or did they again subconsciously plagiarise a catchy jingle they’d heard a couple of years before? Either way, it further strengthens the idea that melodies are inherently copiable. If you compare the chorus to that of rather-more-forgettable X Factor winner Matt Cardle’s single “Amazing”, they are pretty much identical. A more recent example would be everyone’s favourite ginger dreamboat, Ed Sheeran, and his hit “Photograph”. When he heard the two side by side, he is said to have remarked “Why didn’t I realise?” (although given the financial gravity of the situation, his language was probably more choice). This happens quite a lot – George Harrison was ruled to have ‘unconsciously plagiarised’ Ronnie Mack with the track “My Sweet Lord”. In fact, you probably thought up that catchy little melody because you heard part/all of it in a song two years ago and have subconsciously internalised it and spewed it out again. There are only twelve notes – if you think up a catchy little melody, chances are part or all of it has been thought up/recorded/written down before. Of course there are many other aspects to modern popular music, but let’s start with these. Every chord sequence, every combination of these two. There are twelve notes in music, and out of these every single melody ever written has sprung. I would argue that in the traditional sense, there isn’t. So why hasn’t Childish Gambino been sued? Should he be sued? Should Robin Thicke & Pharrell have lost all those millions (and made millions more)? These questions ask a bigger one is there any such thing as originality in music? Before I do, I’ve made a Spotify playlist* of “Awaken, My Love!” and its various influence tracks, so check that out here: However, I do want to use this as a touchstone to explore the whole idea of originality in music, living as we are in an age of sampling and odd plagiarism lawsuits. This is not to critics Gambino at all he has been very up front about where he draws his influences and inspirations, and I think he’s done something wonderful with them. “Redbone”, for example, sounds EXACTLY the same as Bootsy Collins’ “I’d Rather Be With You”. There’s actually only one sample on the album, Riot, which takes the groove from Funkadelic’s “Good to Your Earhole”, but frequently the influence Gambino has taken is remarkable. Many of these actually come from Maggot Brain, but Gambino’s influences spread around the 70s, from Sly & The Family Stone to Jimi Hendrix and Earth, Wind & Fire. Listening closely, it’s possible to match up almost every song on “Awaken, My Love!” to its 1970s precursor. Gambino has spoken of his love for 70s funk music, especially the 1971 Funkadelic album, Maggot Brain (just look at the two album covers, above). This album, incidentally my favourite of their repertoire, is a sprawling mass of funk and psychedelic rock. If you haven’t listened to it yet, please go do so now as it’s rather fucking brilliant.Īnyway, regardless of its genius, it is an unashamed retrospective. As I’m sure everyone knows, this year Childish Gambino took a little bit of a left turn, eschewing his rap past and releasing a pretty much straight funk/soul album.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |