Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before
Are Coldplay Guilty of Plagiarism?
Coldplay are refuting claims that the melody from ‘Viva La Vida' was copied from a song by indie rockers the Creaky Boards. The Brooklyn-based band state that Coldplay ripped off the melody from their ironically, and perhaps prophetically, named track ‘The Songs I Didn't Write' and they've put together a video comparing the two to prove it. In the video, Creaky Board frontman Andrew Hoepfner also claims that Chris Martin was spotted in the crowd at one of their gigs in 2007. In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine last year, Chris Martin has admitted to plagiarising many, if not most, of the songs he wrote.
"We're definitely good, but I don't think you can say we're that original," he notes. "I regard us as being incredibly good plagiarists."
They're not the first British band to get in trouble for borrowing melodies. Coldplay's former label mates Radiohead settled out of court with 60s beat band The Hollies over their top ten hit ‘Creep'. Albert Hammond and Mike Hazelwood claimed the Radiohead song ‘Creep' followed a similar chord pattern to The Hollies' ‘The Air That I Breathe'. Hammond and Hazelwood now share a similar portion of the songwriting credits and royalties.
Similarly, as Gwyneth said, "if you poke Chris Martin with your knob you're gonna get bitten"
What goes around comes around.
Theres no such thing as bad publicity.
Look at the Coldplay fans comments, this is just winding them up and making them EVEN more likely to buy the album!! whatever it sounds like.
Anyway loads of songs sound the same if you dont listen to the words and just take note of the music BEING PLAYED. Theres only so many chords to be played and its going to happen that they will be played the same way.
I would'nt call myself a Coldplay fan but Coldplays sounds better
As George Harrison discovered to his cost, it is possible to hear something and then later inadvertently reproduce part of it and have to pay up.
If this were to go to court, I believe that it will be interesting. Such legal cases centre around how close the top line (melody) is when the two works are placed in the same key. If they are deemed to be close enough, the owner of the earlier work has a claim.
My guess is that a musicologist would agree they are similar - BUT - such cases are never won on similarities alone. The big thing in their favour is proof of ownership of the first work.
Finally, as for the suggestion that Creaky Boards should 'get over it' - consider this: IF copyright IS proven to have been breached (while the Coldplay recording subsequently sells hundreds of thousands through downloads, albums and singles), they'll certainly want their royalties - when it could run into tens of thousands with TV and radio airtime!
Shame they can't use their own material.
Hope Creaky Boards Get their Royalties.
I AM GONNA BE FAMOUS WHEN HE RELEASE'S IT ON HIS NEXT ALBUM!!
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