Shameless Rip-offs

[maelzoid]

The Strokes Last Nite and Tom Petty's American Girl.

Kudos to Petty for having some perspective and not suing. I gather he had them as a support band on tour.

Ed Sheeran seems to be a repeat offender. His Photograph ripping of Matt Cardle is dreadfully embarrassing.

I understand that one can accidentally plagiarize a song when writing it ie. have a melody go round your head, you've forgotten you'd heard it and think you wrote it. But Sheeran's people should have been wise to this and dealt with it before release.

[maelzoid]

Triple post! I always felt The Verve were particularly hard done by with regards to Bittersweet Symphony. I know that the sample is quite long, but literally not a single note of it was written by Jagger/Richards, and bears no similarity at all to their original composition. They seem to have ironed it out, but I wonder if the Verve will get any back royalties, or have the Stones only acquiesced now that the song's income stream is much lower. 

[Fred Zepplin]

Led zeppelin ripping off Taurus for stairway to heaven  is pretty blatant even though Taurus lost the court case. 

[chibukushakeshake]

Not a band but Hugo Boss ripped off The XX a few years back for a sunglasses ad

 

[Spider43]

Long Road Home by Charlie Simpson has more than a passing likeness to Head Home by Midlake..

[stuartbert two hats]

2 hours ago, chibukushakeshake said:

Not a band but Hugo Boss ripped off The XX a few years back for a sunglasses ad

 

That one is utterly, shckingly shameless.  I thought it must have been authorised, it's so similar, but apparently not!

https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/rzp93r/we-spoke-to-a-music-lawyer-about-the-xx-and-hugo-boss-beef

EDIT: It's the drums which really seal the deal. Pretty much identical rhythm.

Edited July 22, 2019 by stuartbert two hats

[Mouseboy11]

The Weeknd asked for permission to sample ‘Machine Gun’ by Portishead, when Geoff Barrow refused he ripped them off instead.

Shameless ripping off starts at 2:30

 

Edited July 22, 2019 by Mouseboy11

[zero000]

16 minutes ago, Mouseboy11 said:

The Weeknd asked for permission to sample ‘Machine Gun’ by Portishead, when Geoff Barrow refused he ripped them off instead.

Shameless ripping off starts at 2:30

 

That is shameless - "Add another beat before the breakdown and you'll be fine mate"

[stuartbert two hats]

22 minutes ago, Mouseboy11 said:

The Weeknd asked for permission to sample ‘Machine Gun’ by Portishead, when Geoff Barrow refused he ripped them off instead.

Shameless ripping off starts at 2:30

 

Wow, after a few potential plagiarism cases, we've started to hit a real goldmine of proper, cynical ripoffs.

[maelzoid]

I don't think anything came of this one... A couple of hits from the 80s.

 

[CajunMoon]

Every time 'China Girl' comes on the (relatively quiet) radio in work I immediately think of 'Made of Stone' from the Roses.
Roses lending this from Bowie/Iggy doesn't appear to be 'a thing' from what google tells me but I think the similarities are uncanny. 

Edited July 22, 2019 by CajunMoon
Missed Iggy credit

[CaledonianGonzo]

Most people would point out Made of Stone being somewhat similar to Velocity Girl.

[stuartbert two hats]

4 hours ago, CajunMoon said:

Every time 'China Girl' comes on the (relatively quiet) radio in work I immediately think of 'Made of Stone' from the Roses.
Roses lending this from Bowie/Iggy doesn't appear to be 'a thing' from what google tells me but I think the similarities are uncanny. 

Which bits? I'm singing them in my head now and nothing is springing to mind. Something about the verses?

[CajunMoon]

12 hours ago, stuartbert two hats said:

Which bits? I'm singing them in my head now and nothing is springing to mind. Something about the verses?

It's the baseline and the beat. I clearly hear something different to everyone else because nobody has ever agreed with me. ?

[Rose-Colored Boy]

23 hours ago, maelzoid said:

The Strokes Last Nite and Tom Petty's American Girl.

Kudos to Petty for having some perspective and not suing. I gather he had them as a support band on tour.

Ed Sheeran seems to be a repeat offender. His Photograph ripping of Matt Cardle is dreadfully embarrassing.

I understand that one can accidentally plagiarize a song when writing it ie. have a melody go round your head, you've forgotten you'd heard it and think you wrote it. But Sheeran's people should have been wise to this and dealt with it before release.

Photograph is properly rubbish as well, like the most dreary load of sap he’s ever written, so what a pointless shambles.

Edited July 23, 2019 by Rose-Colored Boy

[stuartbert two hats]

27 minutes ago, CajunMoon said:

It's the baseline and the beat. I clearly hear something different to everyone else because nobody has ever agreed with me. ?

Are we talking the famous Bowie version from Let's Dance?

[CajunMoon]

1 hour ago, stuartbert two hats said:

Are we talking the famous Bowie version from Let's Dance?

Listen at about 1min 50 onwards which is where I hear it most. I guess a 'shameless rip-off' it isn't but it still sounds similar to me.
 

 

[Skoo]

Feel it still by Portugal the man is such a rip off of Please Mr Postman! Annoys me every time I hear it:

 

 

 

[Joe Shez]

Jet - are you gonna be my girl and lust for life grates me every time

also pretty much every oasis song

[MrZigster]

On 21 July 2019 at 12:00 AM, stuartbert two hats said:

I'll tell you what isn't a rip off and should never have even gone to court - Blurred Lines.

I know the song and the artist were problematic in other ways, but not for ripping off Marvin Gaye.

Totally. It was Oops Upside Your Head by The Gap Band that I thought they had ripped off.

...

Elasticas Waking Up has to be one of the most blatant, how did they think they'd get away with that, rip offs ever. So obviously The Stranglers No More Heroes riff (settled out of court).

There's an Ed Sheeran song that I can't for the life of me remember the title of, but it was mega popular at Karaoke a couple of years ago, that for me totally ripped off of Extreme's More Than Words guitar chord progression and style. Really pissed me off that. Extreme were (and are) way more talanted and deserving of his money.

Talking of chord progressions, Hammer To Fall by Queen? It's Does Your Mother Know? by Abba, isn't it?

Noel Gallagher is The Master at this though, isn't he? I swear every time I hear a new NG track I'm going, "I'm pretty sure I've heard that refrain/lick/riff/melody from somewhere", and, before you can place where you've heard it before, the next few bars rip off another few bars from another classic and your brain gets overwhelmed by "Where have I heard that before?", type buggerness. I'm not talking about the proven stuff like Whatever is definitely How Sweet To Be An Idiot by Neil Innes and all that early obvious Beatleness. Just pretty much every thing else.

First time I thought "What a blatant rip off", was probably watching Robbie Williams on Jools Holland doing Gloria Gaynor's I Will Survive. But he called it Supreme. But that was in a cheeky acknowleged type of way.

I blame The KLF and The Manual.

[Jne___]

On 7/20/2019 at 9:46 PM, Rose-Colored Boy said:

The first 20 seconds of this one is so hilariously blatant, James Murphy could probably sue them. But I love both bands, so I don’t even mind

 

I guess it was on purpose going by this article https://www.nme.com/news/music/1975s-matt-healy-reveals-favourite-song-time-1860463 

my contribution: Breakbot and Bruno mars 

 

[y0ungtitan]

On the subject of 1975, Give Yourself a Try rips off Joy Division's Disorder, and although it's not as blatant, It's Not Living (If It's Not With You) gives me Belinda Carlisle's Heaven is a Place on Earth vibes.

[The Nal]

Hmmm

 

 

[shuttlep]

On 7/20/2019 at 11:25 PM, plaskins said:

Coldplay and computer love

Massive rip off, but looking at the credits Kraftwerk are down as the writers

[Fish Bulb]

On 7/22/2019 at 3:04 PM, stuartbert two hats said:

That one is utterly, shckingly shameless.  I thought it must have been authorised, it's so similar, but apparently not!

https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/rzp93r/we-spoke-to-a-music-lawyer-about-the-xx-and-hugo-boss-beef

EDIT: It's the drums which really seal the deal. Pretty much identical rhythm.

Volkswagen did this to Beach House too:

Apparently Beach House turned down an approach then an ad agency just found a soundalike band: https://www.spin.com/2012/05/beach-house-are-well-aware-car-ad-ripped-them/