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.
i wish they'd get over themselves.