Stealing the Music

[Adam]

Jessica Simpson's" Public Affair" strongly resembles the beat of Madonna's early hit "Holiday".

[EricMontreal22]

Everyone mentiosn that Public Affair Holiday thing--i hear more of Madonna's Dress You Up especially int he backing vocals at the end--still for me it's more of a "hommage" to early madonna than a direct steal. Pastiche isn't illegal

Whatabot all the songs that have ripped off Giorgio Moroder/Donna Summer's I Feel Love (somethign Madonna basically admitted by mixing I Feel Love with her Future Lovers at her last tour)

Madonna was sued over Frozen and had to pay royalties but I forget the specifics. I honestly think it's something that's hard to prove and prob pretty common--of course when you write songs phrases you've heard all your life pop in. Look at classical--Mozart's famous Requiem lifts whole pages out of Haydn (the younger Haydn)'s Requiem

[Sylph]

Mika used the main chord from Figaro's Largo al factotum (Gioacchino Rossini The Barber of Seville) for his Grace Kelly. He admitted it.

[EricMontreal22]

Well nwo if we're talking about people ripping off and borrowing uncredited classical music bits no longer copyrighted this list would be endless (down to stuff like Go West--the Village People original and the PSB remake is buitl around the chords of Pacchabel's Canon etc etc etc)

[Sylph]

Why wouldn't we talk about ripping the classics? Bur just without the Canon because the list is endless.

[EricMontreal22]

That's the one that uses the Canon the most though I think--the most directlya nd throughout

We can disucss ripping off the classics I just think the list will be endless--plus in a way I think pop musicicans consider it their preorgative--the way sampling a folk melody would be when a tune's been aroudn that long. So it's not as shocking

[Sylph]

Yeah, now I can't remember the name of the film composer who stle Macedonian folk melodies...

[EricMontreal22]

Well James Horner has been criticized for plagiarism a LOT... I LOVE Jerry Goldsmith but a lot of his action cues sound liek Stravinsky--not sure if anything specific or just general Stravinsky (listen to his underated Secret of NIMH score for obvious examples-)

[EricMontreal22]

Hands down my fave working film composer is Jo Hisaishi, the Japanese composer. His relationship with master animation directo Hayao Miyazaki echos Spielberg's to Williams though I honestly prefer their films. ANyway when he was starting--his first movie, 1984's Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, he had never before worked with an orchestra on traditonal movie music, only havign done minamilistic electronic music before which is why the movie uses both styles--and there's a big chunk, maybe cuz it was new to him, that rips off Bernstein/Sondheim's Somewhere from West Side Story--lol always makes me smile as it's at one of the big climactic parts.

[Sylph]

So far, Timbaland “sampled” from the following Middle Eastern artists (source: Wikipedia):

1. Mayada El Hennawy Alouli ansa became Aaliyah's More Than a Woman
2. Warda Al Jazairia's (Algerian Rose) Batwannes Bik became Aaliyah's Don't Know What To Tell Ya
3. Sherine's Aal Saaban Aleh became Ne-Yo and Fabulous' Makes Me Better
4. Aitha Al Menhali's Meshkeltek became Utada Hikaru's Exodus ’04
5. Abdel Halim Hafez' Khosara became Jay-Z's Big Pimpin
6. Muhlis Akarsu's Allah Allah Desem Gelsem became Nelly Furtado's Wait For You
7. Acidjazzed Evening -> Do It

You can check all these songs on YouTube!

[JackPeyton]

Does Destiny's Child "Bootylicious" sample Fleetwood Mac's "Edge of Seventeen"?

just the begining part. listen to it

[Sylph]

He also supposedly settled to an undisclosed amound a suit from India's record company. He sampled Thoda Resham Lagta Hai for The Game's Put You On The Game.

[titan1978]

Yes, and Stevie Nicks appears in the very begining of the video. It's her song though, not one of the one from Fleetwood.

[titan1978]

Other known thefts-

The classic Vanilla Ice Ice Ice baby vs Queen's Under Pressure. Queen won.

The Verve asked permission of the Rolling Stones for the opening of Bittersweet Symphony, they declined, the Verve did it anyway, and lost all royalties from the song. I think that is how it ended up, but I do remember they were not supposed to use it and did anyway.

Didn't Beyonce have to recall the initial release of B'Day because she covered a song, or heavily sampled a song and the original artists didn't approve? Her team didn't get clearance. Maybe it was a limited edition or something?

[Sylph]

I forgot that The Phantom of the Opera plagiarises themes from Echoes by Pink Floyd.

I also read somewhere that Alicia Keys borrowed from classical composers, possibly Chopin, being her favourite, but I couldn't find anything on that. There was also talk of Mariah ripping off Mozart.