Something I have spent much of the past four weeks looking at is music of the 60s. It makes sense since I’m in a 20th Century Music course studying British bands of the time period and making our way from the 60s to 90s and one thing that is apparent, is even those bands weren’t original. Had their music been different to the people who listened, yeah it was, but most of the music was rooted in early american soul, blues and r&b. This isn’t to say that they weren’t creative, because they definitely were and lyrically the content changed and evolved with that occurred in politics and society at the time, but the basic sound initially pulled from what was already in existence.
It should also be no surprise that most pop songs are rooted in the same chords (and other music follows this trend just in a different key), but again the important factor is what the artist does to make the song different. Yesterday, One Direction released their new single from FOUR and it was met with the usual fanfare and controversy. This time, New Found Glory called the band out for taking the same piano intro as their song ‘It’s Not Your Fault,’ but go back a bit earlier and we hit Journey’s ‘Faithfully.’ So did One Direction steal a sound from NFG, or were they just truly inspired by music of the 80s and pulling from Journey.
The point is, yes there are obvious similarities, but at the same time, the fan bases are all different to an extent and for that reason, what is the big deal. Sure, NFG may not have sold what Journey did or One Direction will (I didn’t check the stats so I might be wrong), but it also wasn’t originally their idea either and most likely Journey created that idea from somewhere else.
This is simply my opinion, not meant to stir controversy but only prompt discussion. For reference, find the three songs below –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3IpWRVS0uE
– AS
