Musicology

Only a few weeks ago, I was dismantling the well trodden idea that Radiohead oughta be suing Sam Smith over “Midnight Train.” This month all the chatter is about Radiohead suing Lana Del Rey over her personal manifesto, “Get Free.” It’s true about the lawsuit. Although I know my song wasn’t inspired by Creep, Radiohead …

Disney Just Got Hit With Lawsuit For Allegedly Ripping Off ‘Let It Go’ From ‘Frozen.’ Jamie Ciero is complaining that “Let It Go,” (written by the very competent Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez) and his track, “Volar,” include note combinations and structures, hooks, melodies, lyrics, themes, production, and textures that are at least substantially similar. And …

Don’t hold your breath waiting for Radiohead to sue Sam Smith over “Midnight Train.”   Back in 2014, when Sam Smith’s had his mega-hit with “Stay With Me” (which won him four Grammy’s including the two biggies, SOTY and ROTY, and made Smith a star) it was widely observed that “Stay With Me” sounded a …

80% of a college Music Theory 101 class. Chord scale theory, terminology, the stuff that makes music. A semester of study in the time it takes to drink a coffee.

Oct 6, 2017 Oral arguments begin today in the appeal of the “Blurred Lines” case. And any forensic musicologist worth their salt has to care. Any modern day composer or songwriter has to care. One needn’t necessarily root, but you gotta care, because it matters a great deal, not whether Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke …

What’s the difference between plagiarism and copyright infringement? It’s largely a matter of what’s immoral as opposed to what’s illegal. Let’s take plagiarism first. When we throw out the term “plagiarism,” we mean “taking and passing off another person’s words or ideas as your own, without attribution (crediting the source),” and it’s considered wrong, immoral, …

Is this just another frivolous lawsuit? How can we tell? accessToday we learned that canadian songwriters, now plaintiffs, Ronald McNeill and Georgia Lyons-Savage are suing Carrie Underwood and claim to have composed the chorus, melody and lyrics to “Something In The Water.” Carrie Underwood’s begins her greatest hits record (hard to believe she has one already) …

“Chance The Rapper” sued by the songwriter of Lonnie Smith’s “Bridge Through Time” — a jazz record also sampled by Jay-Z and others. Chance The Rapper is reportedly being sued for copyright infringement over his track, “Windows” which was on Chance’s 2012 mixtape 10 Day. The mixtape wasn’t directly sold at retail, so one might say, “The 10 …

The three legged stool and why you need a musicologist before you write that complaint. I don’t know. But looking at the court decision that threw this out, I’d have to say the plaintiff, Timothy Arnett, didn’t engage a musicologist, and didn’t have his ducks in a row before filing his complaint. In it, he makes …

The Blurred Lines verdict was wrong in my opinion, but… Blurred Lines needn’t be quite as unsettling as it’s being made out to be! Yes, I’m having conversations where attorneys are putting it in perspective: “We are operating in a ‘post-Blurred Lines world’ now, so my client and I have to consider…”  And I get …