Quote:
Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud
If you can't hear or understand these facts, then your opinion is absolutely invalid:
1. Joe Satriani is known worldwide and has sold ten of millions of records.
2. Satriani's song was released four years prior to Coldplay's.
3. The main melody is identical.
4. The key of the song is identical
5. The arrangement is nearly identical
6. The tempo is exactly the same.
7. The simple fact that you can lay one song over the other and they're in perfect time and pitch is an excellent indicator of plagiarism.
Again, the Letter of the Law states "Lyric and Melody". Lyric being 50% and Melody being 50%. There is no statute for chord progressions or percussion or production or anything else. Lyric & Melody.
In my professional opinion (backed up by nearly 40 years in the music business, more than a decade spent in music publishing including copyrights, royalties, business affairs and creative), Joe Satriani deserves his day in court.
PERIOD.
And as far as originality is concerned, if you don't think that original and creative music is being recorded everyday across the globe, you're either not exposed or you just have absolutely no clue as to what you're talking about.
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Man. You really like to win, don't you? If Joe thinks that Alvin and the Chipmunks stole something from him, then he deserves his day in court. I'm offering my opinion here. Now, of course, my opinion DOES have merit, despite what you say. Yours does too. If you think the songs are too close then Satriani might want you to be the judge in this case. But I'm not backtracking on my opinion just because you disagree man. So, lets take your argument. Line by line.
1. I know who the guy is. I know he's popular. But that's not exactly relevant.
2. Obviously his song came out first. If it hadn't then this would all be a really dumb argument.
3. The main melody is NOT identical. It contains the same first three notes, and then it is completely different. Further, each song doesn't even have consistent "endings" to the phrase. Each time through the changes, both songs vary what they do over the G and Emin chords. But since the first three notes are the hook for both songs, that's what the listener's ear latches onto.
4. The key of the song IS identical. That's true. But, news flash. There are only 12 keys. Of those keys only 8 of them get used on a regular basis. That includes EVERY song that has been written in the western hemisphere that any human has ever heard. The key of G (these songs) is probably the tied for the most popular key with the key of C.
5. The arrangement isn't just "nearly" identical. It's exactly identical. It's a four chord progression that's been used since the invention of the piano on zillions of songs. (IV-V-I-vi) in the key of G. But if we outlawed anybody else to play any progressions that have been played before... We need to stop making music right now.
6. The tempo is most certainly not the same. The "Meshup" was doctored so that you could hear the two songs together. Satriani's tune is about 15 BPM slower at 128 BMP on average. Coldplays is significantly faster at 142. Both would be considered pretty up-tempo tunes, even for rock. But if you played the two cds together you're not going to get anything like that youtube vid.
7. Your last point only proves that when you take two songs of the same key and slow one down to make it the same tempo as the other, that they will sound good together. Well, that's the whole point of a key! It's so that I can play in the same key as somebody else and always harmonize with them. These are two songs that have the same chord progression and the same first three notes in the melody. That happens a lot, as I tried to show below. But you just don't want to hear my opinion, and for some reason want to bash my reasons and appeal to your authority on the subject. I'm just talking about the songs.