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Katy Perry's Dark Horse Lawsuit Makes Waves in Music Industry

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Re: Katy Perry's Dark Horse Lawsuit Makes Waves in Music Industry

#61

Post by CalChris »

52-6F-62 wrote: post #49
dwohnitmok wrote: post #31

I wonder at what point similarities with past works becomes inevitable. There's only a finite amount of original music out there, especially if you're talking about the length of an average riff or motif, leave out a lot of the more extreme attempts of contemporary art music, and stick to what sounds pleasing in popular music genres. And the output of number of musical compositions seems only to be increasing. An int…

Punk rock would be a minefield. And that's all only come out of the blues (skipping some historical points) which relies heavily on "standards". So many of the compositions along that tract are made up of three to five notes in a limited variety of voicings and arrangements. I - III - V - IV Try Johnny Be Goode. Chuck Berry has his reputation but he could have pulled a move like this a large number of times by now [a…

Country music, three chords and the truth, has it worse.

Re: Katy Perry's Dark Horse Lawsuit Makes Waves in Music Industry

#62

Post by 52-6F-62 »

CalChris wrote: post #61
52-6F-62 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Punk rock would be a minefield. And that's all only come out of the blues (skipping some historical points) which relies heavily on "standards". So many of the compositions along that tract are made up of three to five notes in a limited variety of voicings and arrangements. I - III - V - IV Try Johnny Be Goode. Chuck Berry has his reputation but he could have pulled a move like this a large number of times by now [a…

Country music, three chords and the truth, has it worse.

Also from the blues! But [usually] in the pocket instead of syncopated.

But definitely. Especially modern pop country (gag) as even all the themes are the same! Red truck, light beer, America. Am I missing anything?

Anyway yeah—all the way back to Hank Williams you could form the basis of a case that any song that progresses Gmaj - Amaj - Dmaj on an acoustic guitar with a mournful vocal tone and downtrodden lyric content is a "rip off".

Re: Katy Perry's Dark Horse Lawsuit Makes Waves in Music Industry

#63

Post by dnjdrbdhdbs »

The problem is using juries for this. Music copyrights should be adjudicated by a panel of professional musicologists, funded by a cut of the awards. That way there’s at least some consistency. The concept would extend to other disciplines.

Of course a purely functional improvement to governance is a political nonstarter in today’s environment.

Re: Katy Perry's Dark Horse Lawsuit Makes Waves in Music Industry

#64

Post by ModernMech »

sitkack wrote: post #51
gregmac wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The video is absolutely worth watching, but one of the more relevant bits is this: > [...] in Dark Horse it's just the background texture for one of the verses. It has the same musical function as a chord progression or a drum groove: it serves to highlight the melody but it's not the song itself. Up until this point it seemed like only melodies could be copyrighted in the composition of song, however the recent cour…

I don't understand why a Jury of Peers [1] wouldn't be comprised of domain experts and not just random people off the street. And it seems like having domain knowledge is likely to get one NOT selected for jury duty. Can any lawyers chime in on this (even armchair hn lawyers)? [1] https://criminal.findlaw.com/criminal-procedure/what-is-a-ju...

I always assumed it's peers as opposed to superiors. I.e. Your jury is not the king and queen but other commoners like you.

Re: Katy Perry's Dark Horse Lawsuit Makes Waves in Music Industry

#65

Post by human20190310 »

dnjdrbdhdbs wrote: post #63

The problem is using juries for this. Music copyrights should be adjudicated by a panel of professional musicologists, funded by a cut of the awards. That way there’s at least some consistency. The concept would extend to other disciplines. Of course a purely functional improvement to governance is a political nonstarter in today’s environment.

It was the opinion of a professional musicologist, presented to a jury, that resulted in the lawsuit being successful. At least with a jury there's a chance of calling bullshit, even though it did not occur in this case.

Re: Katy Perry's Dark Horse Lawsuit Makes Waves in Music Industry

#66

Post by Theodores »

dwohnitmok wrote: post #31

I wonder at what point similarities with past works becomes inevitable. There's only a finite amount of original music out there, especially if you're talking about the length of an average riff or motif, leave out a lot of the more extreme attempts of contemporary art music, and stick to what sounds pleasing in popular music genres. And the output of number of musical compositions seems only to be increasing. An int…

It is precisely because of this that there are thousands of songs based on the 'Amen Break':

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amen_break

By using it you can play safe and not be accused of accidental copying, even though copying is exactly what is being done by using the 'Amen Break'. Sing over the top of it and you are good to go, nobody can accuse you of being insufficiently creative.

As a consequence of this there are similarities between the thousands of songs using the 'Amen Break'. If you were a DJ you could play the longest set ever mixing them in.

Re: Katy Perry's Dark Horse Lawsuit Makes Waves in Music Industry

#67

Post by TremendousJudge »

52-6F-62 wrote: post #49
dwohnitmok wrote: post #31

I wonder at what point similarities with past works becomes inevitable. There's only a finite amount of original music out there, especially if you're talking about the length of an average riff or motif, leave out a lot of the more extreme attempts of contemporary art music, and stick to what sounds pleasing in popular music genres. And the output of number of musical compositions seems only to be increasing. An int…

Punk rock would be a minefield. And that's all only come out of the blues (skipping some historical points) which relies heavily on "standards". So many of the compositions along that tract are made up of three to five notes in a limited variety of voicings and arrangements. I - III - V - IV Try Johnny Be Goode. Chuck Berry has his reputation but he could have pulled a move like this a large number of times by now [a…

Chuck Berry had one of his songs plagiarized note for note though. Sweet little sixteen and Surfin USA are the same song

Re: Katy Perry's Dark Horse Lawsuit Makes Waves in Music Industry

#68

Post by xxs »

redm wrote: post #23

This reminds me of Under Pressure and Ice Ice Baby, the latter also having to pay up.

https://xkcd.com/159/ Leading with that relevant xkcd

Under pressure likely features the most recognizable bass line of the 20th century. So even claiming new art would be deeply influenced by the former

Re: Katy Perry's Dark Horse Lawsuit Makes Waves in Music Industry

#70

Post by blang »

dwohnitmok wrote: post #31

I wonder at what point similarities with past works becomes inevitable. There's only a finite amount of original music out there, especially if you're talking about the length of an average riff or motif, leave out a lot of the more extreme attempts of contemporary art music, and stick to what sounds pleasing in popular music genres. And the output of number of musical compositions seems only to be increasing. An int…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOlDewpCfZQ
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