Audio: The obligatory “Coldplay rips off Joe Satriani, maybe” clip
posted at 3:15 pm on December 8, 2008 by Allahpundit
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A palate cleanser via Patterico. Think of it as the musical equivalent of the Coleman/Franken ballot challenge, with Franken as a bald guitar wizard and Coleman an insufferably precious pop band. Satriani filed suit in L.A. last week; if you think he has no chance of winning, you don’t know very much about copyright law.
That said, I’m leaning towards “no infringement.” Yeah, there’s a “striking similarity” between those three notes, but it’s three notes. The rest of it’s in the ballpark but not so close that I’m willing to hand over the profits to a global hit because of it. Besides, do Coldplay look like they listen to Joe Satriani? Next case!
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I want to know why the ‘music’ can’t be copied, but the words can be. All remakes of songs are legal. As long as they change the music, they can keep the words.
And yet, Weird Al doesn’t have problems taking the music and changing the words (I know he get permission from the original artist, but wouldn’t he need the song writers permission instead?)
Besides, checking if the words are the same would be easy, but checking the music is very arbitrary.
Even if Satriani wins his case, doesn’t he have to prove damages? Does he think people didn’t buy his music because of the Coldplay version?
TechieNotTrekkie on December 8, 2008 at 10:45 PM
Years ago Canada’s version of MTV, MuchMusic, had a feature called “Too Close For Comfort” where they would play two songs, and a jury would decide if they sounded too much alike. So you would hear, say, a Heart song followed by a Roxette song which was identical.
But I know that there are only 12 notes to chose from (or 7 in each key with some exceptions). With thousands of acts writing millions of songs, of course some melodies are going to be repeated, it would be totally against the odds if they weren’t.
Johnny 100 Pesos on December 8, 2008 at 11:55 PM
Maybe this will inspire Joe to tour with them?
paulsur on December 9, 2008 at 12:15 AM
I think it is a clear case of infringement. And although I do like some of Coldplay’s music, Satriani is WAY more talented. Satriani got punked by these upstarts. I hope he wins.
JeffB. on December 9, 2008 at 1:20 AM
No, not an idiot.
Maybe a l’il Cing impaired.
;>
soundingboard on December 9, 2008 at 3:01 AM
Vanilla Ice ripped off David Bowie and got away with it. The similarities in this example are more significant, imo. Coldplay writes the same stuff over and over again anyway.
budorob on December 9, 2008 at 9:15 AM
Talentless? I would have to disagree. Original? Maybe not, but who can be. As a few have stated, music isn’t exactly limitless in compositional possibilities, and artists are often influenced a little too heavily by what they listen to.
I liked Coldplay’s first album, but everything after it has always sounded like a rehash to me. I thought this album was interesting, and I kind of enjoyed this song, with that driving bass beat, but it sounds like Satriani certainly has a case.
thequeball on December 9, 2008 at 9:35 AM
I used to wonder what would happen when musicians ran out of new melodies to write. I guess we are finding out!
rockmom on December 9, 2008 at 10:06 AM
That’s a direct rip-off. It isn’t three notes. It’s chord progression, melody, rhythm, the whole bloody song. Sad.
spmat on December 9, 2008 at 12:38 PM
Joe Satriani rocks. I guess now I know why I thought Vida La Vida was halfway decent when normally I don’t like too much new stuff.
VanPalin on December 9, 2008 at 1:22 PM
Ripoff. Pure and simple. May not be actionable, but seriously — any musical ear should be able to pick this out.
Prufrock on December 9, 2008 at 1:49 PM
IV-V-III-IV progression. Nope. The melody line is similar, but that progression has been used hundreds, if not thousands of times. Satch should let this one go.
INFDL on December 9, 2008 at 2:26 PM
INFDL I totally agree.
A given chord progression with a given tempo and rhythmic feel will produce a certain “natural” melody. It’s like an instant process of elimination for your ears. You don’t even need to be a musician to do it, as long as you’re not tone deaf.
I don’t think this case will stand up.
Still it is interesting how similar the instincts of 2 VERY different artists were.
beefytee on December 9, 2008 at 4:11 PM
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