Hey Radiohead... Once you win this lawsuit, give Lana 1% of the publishing back for bothering to write new lyrics to your awesome melody...
Lana Del Rey, Radiohead, and the Difficulty of Making Original Music
121–130 of 149 posts
Re: Lana Del Rey, Radiohead, and the Difficulty of Making Original Music
#122Everything is a remix video series is worth watching in this topic. It covers how every musician from Led Zeppelin to recent artists "remix" existing melodies. Also, how remix is done in other genres (e.g. movies): http://www.everythingisaremix.info/watch-the-series/
People have accused me of being creative. But I always told myself I just mixed from more sources. For example, your average high-schooler might try to re-do a particular scene from a movie. Meanwhile, I would copy the camerawork from one movie, the comedic tone from another, and the special effect from another. People would tell me, you're so creative, even when the title of the home video clearly reflected its influences (something like "The Umpire Strikes Back").
What I love about the open-source movement is its embrace of letting others take what they want from your work, be it the entire program, just a function, or just a principle (not actually copying a single line verbatim). Maybe this is because you learned early on that it was never "your" work in the first place, but that you too had learned and copied from others.
It seems to be that society doesn't understand the creation of art. To most people the artist is a wizard behind closed doors, creating works of genius from nothing. This is why our copyright laws are too strong and too strict. In truth, I think not just some but all artists work how I do: taking something they like, bending it with something else that they like, and adding a pinch of something else they thought was cool.
Further differentiation happens in the execution. For example, if you're making a movie, a character you wrote may have been more obviously a rip-off in the script, but now that you have this new actor playing it, it naturally diverges further. Or you try to do a camera move you saw in movie, but your own skill keeps you from executing it perfectly, and it takes on its own character. Differences in the location and lighting further obscure the shot's influence.
Re: Lana Del Rey, Radiohead, and the Difficulty of Making Original Music
#123For anyone who doesn't play the guitar, 'Creep' and the Hollies track is is derived from come feature a rather obvious chord progression. Physically it is the result of sliding an open E chord down the neck to produce higher notes then, la piece de resistance, taking a finger off. Radiohead added a killer feature of turning the gain up on the amplifier for the chorus, genius. It's the kind of thing teenagers everywhe…
If I was a lawyer I'd strum those 4 open E chords on a guitar then play all three songs. The Hollies - The Air That I Breathe, Radiohead - Creep, Lana Del Rey - Get Free Then maybe I'd make some argument about anyone who made 3 left turns and a right turn to get to the court house today owes me a royalty for using my elegant route without my permission. If you want to get to the court house tomorrow you have to figur…
Add the Steven universe theme song to the list!
Re: Lana Del Rey, Radiohead, and the Difficulty of Making Original Music
#124It id absurd to copyright a melody IMO. Consider flamenco. It has about 10 base styles each with a specific scale, melody (yes you are reading right!), beat, and structure. Then there are a variety of variations, that perhaps change the structure or mix in another melody. Between the base melody parts, there are falsetas which are unique melodies. These are also shared between guitarists. Some are considered popular…
I can imagine that some street flamenco artists were fighting over that others were copycats. Probably you won't know about this because it is not international drama and money involved are quite small.
But that is never about specific verses, melody nor chord progression, because those are ALWAYS shared. So there no objective way to tell the difference between a variation and an attempt to copycat.
Re: Lana Del Rey, Radiohead, and the Difficulty of Making Original Music
#125I read this article and have to admit that I instantly sided with Radiohead because I have a natural bias toward them and against Lana. I'm just not a fan of her music. Then I listened to her track. I'm very familiar with the Radiohead track. Radiohead is just plain wrong on this one. Here's the problem - your average jury/judge/lawyer does not have the required music theory knowledge to understand how asinine Radioh…
The rest of your post aside, Radiohead are still touring internationally and writing great music... their latest album was released less than two years ago
Re: Lana Del Rey, Radiohead, and the Difficulty of Making Original Music
#126This really reminds me of a short story someone on HN recommended a while ago: "Melancholy Elephants," written by Spider Robinson. http://spiderrobinson.com/melancholyelephants.html
This really opens the conversation, for me, at least, to Lorde.
I'm not following how the linked story relates to Lorde. Probably there's some news I've missed. Could you fill me (us) in?
Re: Lana Del Rey, Radiohead, and the Difficulty of Making Original Music
#127Earlier quoted context omitted.
The judge doesn't need to play guitar. S/he could just summon in court an independent party that can play guitar and ask questions relevant to the case.
I think the OP was making a joke. Radiohead had a contemporary song to Creep called 'Anyone can play guitar'
Not only that - they wrote at least two songs that referenced how much they hated "Creep" and how it had become a crutch. It's why I find it hard to believe that "Radiohead" are making the infringement claim here and it's much more likely the record label who own the rights to the recording who are making the claim.
Re: Lana Del Rey, Radiohead, and the Difficulty of Making Original Music
#128For anyone who doesn't play the guitar, 'Creep' and the Hollies track is is derived from come feature a rather obvious chord progression. Physically it is the result of sliding an open E chord down the neck to produce higher notes then, la piece de resistance, taking a finger off. Radiohead added a killer feature of turning the gain up on the amplifier for the chorus, genius. It's the kind of thing teenagers everywhe…
Does the copyright infringement focus on the chord progression or the chord progression + melody? The melody being sung over the chords is a combination that seems subject to license.
Re: Lana Del Rey, Radiohead, and the Difficulty of Making Original Music
#129Earlier quoted context omitted.
(Fellow guitarist here) I agree, there are only so many chord progressions that work in a pop song.. perhaps 30 or even less? But the chords are not the only problem here. Listen to the voices‘ melodies of „my modern manifesto“ (Lana) vs „I‘m a weirdo“ (Radiohead) - that’s so blatantly copied I almost can’t believe it. If she were a hobbyist, I might believe that her subconscious sneaked it all in without her noticin…
Yeah, I think there's more similarity than just the chord progression. Part of it is the vocal timbre. Lana Del Rey's relaxed, under-enunciated consonants is similar to the vocal style in grunge when Creep came out. But she does that in almost all her songs. The chorus is completely different, and so is the instrumentation and musical style. It is a close call whether I'd call that plagiarism.
The melody of the chorus is almost identical.
Re: Lana Del Rey, Radiohead, and the Difficulty of Making Original Music
#130For anyone who doesn't play the guitar, 'Creep' and the Hollies track is is derived from come feature a rather obvious chord progression. Physically it is the result of sliding an open E chord down the neck to produce higher notes then, la piece de resistance, taking a finger off. Radiohead added a killer feature of turning the gain up on the amplifier for the chorus, genius. It's the kind of thing teenagers everywhe…
Listening to the Lana Del Rey & Radiohead tracks just now, I noticed that to my ear they also resemble yet another song, "The Impossible Dream". Similar chord progession and similar melody in some places.
Where does it end, LOL...