Jahva wrote:I'm working on a song called "Falling apart"
Some of the members of my household are telling me I'm ripping off a _________ song.
There are no vocals recorded yet...any thoughts?
Jeff, First, I like the structure in general. In that structure , there is a similarity to Radio Head's " Karma Police". (Progression in the first to chords, takes it to a familiar direction, and the conclusive cornering to the middle part, share the same sense of phrase-summary)
I would not say its a rip-off, though. In fact I defy anybody to prove to me that a room with four walls is a rip-off of another builder's room of four walls. And, for what its worth, Radio-Head's Karma Police ripped off John Lennon's "Sexy-Sadie" in its piano break (Radio Head even admitted it)
I would be careful to articulate your melody (i.e the lyrics) so they don't lend specifically to the Radio-Head vocal signature. Beyond that , I'd say run with it. Tweak where necessary to satisfy the close friends, and 'phuck" the rest of the peanut gallery.
Finally, regarding the craft of songwriting; It aint plagiarism unless you outright steal the essence of a work and you are bold enough to claim it as your own. A few things need to be in place to call it a rip off:. Lawyers might refer to terms, such as "song-motif" to compare original and nicked work.
CASE: Harrison "My Sweet Lord" vs Chiffons' "He's So Fine":
http://abbeyrd.best.vwh.net/mysweet.htm
CASE2: Lennon "Come Together" Vs Levy "You cant Catch me"
http://abbeyrd.best.vwh.net/lenlevy.htm
CASE 3: Avril Levine "GirlFreind" Vs Tony Basil "Mickey"
http://www.aceshowbiz.com/news/view/00009927.html
I feel that musicians really need to learn the distinction between
principle of structure and musical form. Nobody has a monopoly on principle of structure. Consequently, its pretty likely that a musician will eventually (though un-intentionally) nick somebody else's parts of a work. It happens to everybody... But there are some distinctions, even with that...
You might recall, that when I first signed on to this forum, I got blasted and accused of doing a Beatles rip off: "Bench For two" That song illustrates my point. When I wrote it, I followed a musical principle of structure (that happens to be shared by many good musicians ). I'm not really sure that it actually sounds like anything the Beatles ever "did". But, I'm pretty certain that it contained elements, in principle that they might likely 'do' (if they were still around.) As Such I learned principles from them, (the masters). The outcome happened to ring bells of familiarity to certain listeners, who recognize the styles.
I would say this to all critics...and to all musicians, who write and compose...
You can't exceed what's construed as good, until you first meet up to what's construed as good. This is a very critical truth about song writing (IMO) .
So, with that, Jeff, keep on keeping on...I like your stuff and I actually 'get it"
Posted: Sun Aug 28, 2011 3:27 pm
