Barbados Times

Barbados, Caribbean & World News
Friday, Mar 29, 2024

Coincidence or theft? Rise of music streaming can make it hard to judge

Coincidence or theft? Rise of music streaming can make it hard to judge

Analysis: plagiarism row between Ed Sheeran and Sami Chokri is latest in surge of lawsuits against musicians
They may only be two words, but they are worth tens of millions of pounds. The ascending one-bar phrase “Oh I” from Ed Sheeran’s Shape of You became the focus of a plagiarism row that threw into question the very art of songwriting itself.

Over the course of an 11-day trial, Sheeran and his co-writers, John McDaid and Steve McCutcheon, faced accusations that they had ripped off the 2015 song Oh Why by the grime singer Sami Chokri and songwriter Ross O’Donoghue.

Central to Sheeran’s defence was his argument that the segment in question was “a basic minor pentatonic pattern”, which is “entirely commonplace”. The superstar even took the stand to hum musical scales from Blackstreet’s No Diggity and Nina Simone’s classic Feeling Good to demonstrate how common the melody of Shape of You was.

The argument convinced Justice Zacaroli, who ruled that Sheeran had “neither deliberately or subconsciously” ripped off Chokri’s song. But the case showed how difficult it is to differentiate between coincidence, inspiration and theft, especially when our music consumption has changed with the evolution of streaming.

In an age of YouTube and Spotify, how do we know if one artist heard another artist’s song, especially if they are relatively unknown, or if they both had the same idea?

“The judgment is an emphatic vindication of the creative genius of Ed, Johnny and Steve,” said Sheeran’s lawyers on Wednesday. “As they have always maintained, they created Shape of You together, without copying from anyone else.”

But the debate over copyright infringement in pop continues to rage, as a surge of lawsuits against some of the world’s biggest pop stars are brought to court.

The most significant, experts agree, was the 2018 lawsuit in which Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams were found guilty of copying “the feel” of Marvin Gaye’s song Got to Give It Up and ordered to pay $5m (£3.8m) to Gaye’s family and future royalties.

“The kind of borrowing that was at the heart of the Blurred Lines case has generally not been found to be a copyright violation in the past,” said Dr Tim Hughes, a senior lecturer in music at the University of West London.

“Blurred Lines is an example of what might be called a pastiche: a song consciously written in the style of another. Musical history is full of examples of that practice (although generally not so blatant). But the publicity and the damages awarded in that case were so extreme that it has clearly helped encourage further lawsuits.”

Other recent litigations include two against Dua Lipa over her song Levitating, one against Katy Perry over her song Dark Horse, and one against Taylor Swift over her 2014 hit Shake It Off by two songwriters who claim she lifted their phrases.

Sheeran himself settled a $20m plagiarism lawsuit for his song Photograph in 2017, after he was accused of copying former X Factor winner Matt Cardle’s Amazing.

Olivia Rodrigo added two members of Paramore to the writing credits of her hit single Good 4 U, after fans noted similarities to Paramore’s Misery Business. She’s also been accused of copying the riff from Elvis Costello’s Pump It Up in her song Brutal.

But as Costello noted when he came to her defence, this is part and parcel of the process of making music. “It’s how rock & roll works,” he said. “You take the broken pieces of another thrill and make a brand new toy. That’s what I did.”

According to Joe Bennett, a forensic musicologist at Berklee College Of Music in the US, “opportunistic plaintiffs” are exploiting a common musical error that listeners can make, which is to assume that plagiarism is the only explanation for one melody being slightly similar to another.

“There are 60,000 songs uploaded to Spotify every day, with more than 82m recordings in the catalogue,” Bennett said.

“Right now, we’re in an era of mainstream pop where a lot of songs are based on two- and four-bar chord loops … So once in a while a short coincidental similarity occurs, and the plaintiffs are so struck by the similarity that they believe the only explanation must be plagiarism. They are often mistaken.”
Newsletter

Related Articles

Barbados Times
0:00
0:00
Close
Paper straws found to contain long-lasting and potentially toxic chemicals - study
FTX's Bankman-Fried headed for jail after judge revokes bail
Blackrock gets half a trillion dollar deal to rebuild Ukraine
Israel: Unprecedented Civil Disobedience Looms as IDF Reservists Protest Judiciary Reform
America's First New Nuclear Reactor in Nearly Seven Years Begins Operations
Southeast Asia moves closer to economic unity with new regional payments system
Today Hunter Biden’s best friend and business associate, Devon Archer, testified that Joe Biden met in Georgetown with Russian Moscow Mayor's Wife Yelena Baturina who later paid Hunter Biden $3.5 million in so called “consulting fees”
Singapore Carries Out First Execution of a Woman in Two Decades Amid Capital Punishment Debate
Google testing journalism AI. We are doing it already 2 years, and without Google biased propoganda and manipulated censorship
Unlike illegal imigrants coming by boats - US Citizens Will Need Visa To Travel To Europe in 2024
Musk announces Twitter name and logo change to X.com
The politician and the journalist lost control and started fighting on live broadcast.
The future of sports
Unveiling the Black Hole: The Mysterious Fate of EU's Aid to Ukraine
Farewell to a Music Titan: Tony Bennett, Renowned Jazz and Pop Vocalist, Passes Away at 96
Alarming Behavior Among Florida's Sharks Raises Concerns Over Possible Cocaine Exposure
Transgender Exclusion in Miss Italy Stirs Controversy Amidst Changing Global Beauty Pageant Landscape
Joe Biden admitted, in his own words, that he delivered what he promised in exchange for the $10 million bribe he received from the Ukraine Oil Company.
TikTok Takes On Spotify And Apple, Launches Own Music Service
Global Trend: Using Anti-Fake News Laws as Censorship Tools - A Deep Dive into Tunisia's Scenario
Arresting Putin During South African Visit Would Equate to War Declaration, Asserts President Ramaphosa
Hacktivist Collective Anonymous Launches 'Project Disclosure' to Unearth Information on UFOs and ETIs
Typo sends millions of US military emails to Russian ally Mali
Server Arrested For Theft After Refusing To Pay A Table's $100 Restaurant Bill When They Dined & Dashed
The Changing Face of Europe: How Mass Migration is Reshaping the Political Landscape
China Urges EU to Clarify Strategic Partnership Amid Trade Tensions
Europe is boiling: Extreme Weather Conditions Prevail Across the Continent
The Last Pour: Anchor Brewing, America's Pioneer Craft Brewer, Closes After 127 Years
Democracy not: EU's Digital Commissioner Considers Shutting Down Social Media Platforms Amid Social Unrest
Sarah Silverman and Renowned Authors Lodge Copyright Infringement Case Against OpenAI and Meta
Italian Court's Controversial Ruling on Sexual Harassment Ignites Uproar
Why Do Tech Executives Support Kennedy Jr.?
The New York Times Announces Closure of its Sports Section in Favor of The Athletic
BBC Anchor Huw Edwards Hospitalized Amid Child Sex Abuse Allegations, Family Confirms
Florida Attorney General requests Meta CEO's testimony on company's platforms' alleged facilitation of illicit activities
The Distorted Mirror of actual approval ratings: Examining the True Threat to Democracy Beyond the Persona of Putin
40,000 child slaves in Congo are forced to work in cobalt mines so we can drive electric cars.
BBC Personalities Rebuke Accusations Amidst Scandal Involving Teen Exploitation
A Swift Disappointment: Why Is Taylor Swift Bypassing Canada on Her Global Tour?
Historic Moment: Edgars Rinkevics, EU's First Openly Gay Head of State, Takes Office as Latvia's President
Bye bye democracy, human rights, freedom: French Cops Can Now Secretly Activate Phone Cameras, Microphones And GPS To Spy On Citizens
The Poor Man With Money, Mark Zuckerberg, Unveils Twitter Replica with Heavy-Handed Censorship: A New Low in Innovation?
Unilever Plummets in a $2.5 Billion Free Fall, to begin with: A Reckoning for Misuse of Corporate Power Against National Interest
Beyond the Blame Game: The Need for Nuanced Perspectives on America's Complex Reality
Twitter Targets Meta: A Tangle of Trade Secrets and Copycat Culture
The Double-Edged Sword of AI: AI is linked to layoffs in industry that created it
US Sanctions on China's Chip Industry Backfire, Prompting Self-Inflicted Blowback
Meta Copy Twitter with New App, Threads
The New French Revolution
BlackRock Bitcoin ETF Application Refiled, Naming Coinbase as ‘Surveillance-Sharing’ Partner
×