Years ago, Hank Green made a video about the 50s progression (which he re-dubbed the Ice Cream Changes), where he talks about how many songs, from 'Earth Angel," to Rebecca Black's "Friday," to "Every Breath You Take'," to some Slip Knot song all use the same chord progression.
One groggy morning, during an early hour in 2013, my clock radio woke me with the melody from Robin Thicke's “Blurred Lines”. For a moment, I genuinely thought I was listening to Marvin Gaye's "Got to Give It Up" — a former hit which had become, by that time, an obscure track gone from our collective pop music rotation for 30 years or more. It also happened to be my most favorite track from Marvin Gaye's whole catalog, so when I heard it on commercial radio that morning, it was such a novelty for me that I immediately mentioned it to my girlfriend, who was also waking up — only to be corrected, incredulously, by news that the track we were listening to was actually *current*. I was horrified.
Thicke's career wasn't quite over by 2018, but I was happy to never personally hear from the man again. The judgment which awarded the Marvin Gaye estate the royalties it deserved from this lazy musical theft seemed to dissolve Thicke's reputation — although, by that point, he'd also self-inflicted a number of other PR disasters, which helped obscure him further. In the end, the track sold nearly 15 million copies based on its merits, but also because of its stolen melody, its association with a music legend — and thanks also in part to the "earned advertising" created by virtue of the lawsuit.
This morning, I'm hearing the same sort of thing from Taylor Swift — that is, I'm hearing exactly the same thing you're hearing. I know "Where Is My Mind". I know that melody, that tempo. That arrangement. That performance. I know what it sounds like. A lot of us do. Although Swift may or may not be compelled to pay Black Francis the royalties he deserves for this lazy musical theft — a theft which seems more like a manufactured publicity occasion than an aesthetic choice to me — I doubt her reputation will suffer in the same way Thicke's did.
She's just got too much of a foundation beneath her for that.
…
I love revisiting the great tunes from years and decades past as much as anyone and, in a way, I'm impressed that Thicke and Swift, along with every other artist who's ever sampled a famous melody or beat, also thought enough of these legacy tracks to latch onto their notoriety — but I think I'm like a lot of other people who enjoy hearing music styles that are genuinely brand new. It seems pop culture, and pop music culture particularly, has been stuck in the same post-modern loop for the past 40 years. "…old music has become more valuable than new music", as you note. Permitting the free re-use of copyrighted art discourages innovation — plus it's also a theft of notoriety, as mentioned, in addition to being an aesthetic theft.
I agree that newer music is more risky to release, but not because of legal reasons — it's because genuinely innovative new music requires a lot of expensive publicity to present for audiences — audiences which may or may not like the innovation. It's a risk, but a risk which must be taken for the sake of creating new valuable copyrights for current artists. It's a risk that the music business must be financially encouraged to take, since the business, along with their private-equity stake holders, are motivated strictly by money…
By the way, links to Spotify aren't useful for people without an account -- the Actually Romantic link plays starting in the middle. I find that YouTube is the best place to link for songs.
Years ago, Hank Green made a video about the 50s progression (which he re-dubbed the Ice Cream Changes), where he talks about how many songs, from 'Earth Angel," to Rebecca Black's "Friday," to "Every Breath You Take'," to some Slip Knot song all use the same chord progression.
https://youtu.be/F4ALd-Top2A?si=4KT6dwdwqSpAkH1k
YES!
One groggy morning, during an early hour in 2013, my clock radio woke me with the melody from Robin Thicke's “Blurred Lines”. For a moment, I genuinely thought I was listening to Marvin Gaye's "Got to Give It Up" — a former hit which had become, by that time, an obscure track gone from our collective pop music rotation for 30 years or more. It also happened to be my most favorite track from Marvin Gaye's whole catalog, so when I heard it on commercial radio that morning, it was such a novelty for me that I immediately mentioned it to my girlfriend, who was also waking up — only to be corrected, incredulously, by news that the track we were listening to was actually *current*. I was horrified.
Thicke's career wasn't quite over by 2018, but I was happy to never personally hear from the man again. The judgment which awarded the Marvin Gaye estate the royalties it deserved from this lazy musical theft seemed to dissolve Thicke's reputation — although, by that point, he'd also self-inflicted a number of other PR disasters, which helped obscure him further. In the end, the track sold nearly 15 million copies based on its merits, but also because of its stolen melody, its association with a music legend — and thanks also in part to the "earned advertising" created by virtue of the lawsuit.
This morning, I'm hearing the same sort of thing from Taylor Swift — that is, I'm hearing exactly the same thing you're hearing. I know "Where Is My Mind". I know that melody, that tempo. That arrangement. That performance. I know what it sounds like. A lot of us do. Although Swift may or may not be compelled to pay Black Francis the royalties he deserves for this lazy musical theft — a theft which seems more like a manufactured publicity occasion than an aesthetic choice to me — I doubt her reputation will suffer in the same way Thicke's did.
She's just got too much of a foundation beneath her for that.
…
I love revisiting the great tunes from years and decades past as much as anyone and, in a way, I'm impressed that Thicke and Swift, along with every other artist who's ever sampled a famous melody or beat, also thought enough of these legacy tracks to latch onto their notoriety — but I think I'm like a lot of other people who enjoy hearing music styles that are genuinely brand new. It seems pop culture, and pop music culture particularly, has been stuck in the same post-modern loop for the past 40 years. "…old music has become more valuable than new music", as you note. Permitting the free re-use of copyrighted art discourages innovation — plus it's also a theft of notoriety, as mentioned, in addition to being an aesthetic theft.
I agree that newer music is more risky to release, but not because of legal reasons — it's because genuinely innovative new music requires a lot of expensive publicity to present for audiences — audiences which may or may not like the innovation. It's a risk, but a risk which must be taken for the sake of creating new valuable copyrights for current artists. It's a risk that the music business must be financially encouraged to take, since the business, along with their private-equity stake holders, are motivated strictly by money…
By the way, links to Spotify aren't useful for people without an account -- the Actually Romantic link plays starting in the middle. I find that YouTube is the best place to link for songs.