El Chupacabra
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Another article on the Radiohead/Lana del Rey thing. I haven't listened to the Lana del Rey song, so I'll need to do that. Just last month I did a little three course workshop on music copyright and shit, so this will be interesting to review in that context.
http://www.esquire.com/entertainment/music/a14854037/radiohead-lana-del-rey-creep/
This stood out because when I listened to the Marvin Gaye/Robin Thicke thing, I didn't think anything was there. I'm a musician and have been listening/studying/performing music for like 35 years and have a pretty good ear. I had a friend of mine, pretty much same background, argue with me that it was obvious and blatant. It's a pretty weird debate overall.
http://www.esquire.com/entertainment/music/a14854037/radiohead-lana-del-rey-creep/
Did the Robin Thicke case screw everything up?
Very much so, most observers agree. “Robin Thicke was horrible. That was the worst decision ever,” says Harrington. There was no chord progression in common, no melody, no lyrics, no unauthorized samples. They argued that both songs used a cow bell, which is essentially musically meaningless in terms of protectable information. Instead, what the Gaye estate argued, was that Thicke and company had stolen the feel or the groove of the song. That has troubling implications for future musicians, and may play into the case against Del Rey, whose song is in fact similar-sounding in feel or mood to Radiohead’s.
“What was admirable about Thicke and Pharrell was they fought it,” Cronin says. “They said, no, we’re looking at larger picture, a precedent like this will make people increasingly vulnerable. The problem is it keeps feeding on itself.”
Indeed that has proven out over the time since that decision, he says, with at least 20 cases filed in court in 2017, a substantial jump over prior years. People see that there’s money to be made in these cases now, so why not try?
This stood out because when I listened to the Marvin Gaye/Robin Thicke thing, I didn't think anything was there. I'm a musician and have been listening/studying/performing music for like 35 years and have a pretty good ear. I had a friend of mine, pretty much same background, argue with me that it was obvious and blatant. It's a pretty weird debate overall.
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