Alright, in case you haven't heard, Joe Satriani is suing Coldplay for allegedly taking credit for part of his song "If I Could Fly" released in 2004.

Have a listen.



Interview with Satriani: http://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/joe-satriani-speaks-about-coldplay-lawsuit-185914

Coldplay's Statement: http://www.coldplay.com/newsdetail.php?id=242

I think it's really damn close. I've been a fan of Joe for years, having seen him in concert back in 04, the year he released this song. If this is shown to a jury, who knows what may happen.

What are your opinions?

Reminds me of the Nickelback controversy a couple years ago.

I don't know...I find it hard to believe that such a big-name band would knowingly rip off another big name on such a large scale, on such a large stage. I believe them. But you're right, we'll see what happens.

Over the Hills / Wet Sand OMG OMG OMG

Viva la Vida is essentially a 4 chord song. Those 4 chords (3 exact, one just about) happen to be incorporated in a Joe Satriani song as well. This is the problem with only having 4 chords in your song.

Surprisingly enough every punk band in the world hasn't sued each other yet.

It's also kind of silly because those four chords are kind of an obvious fit to each other. I think Coldplays downfall was the simplicity of it's song. If the song was more complex I'm almost positive less people would have recognized the similarities.

So did Coldplay rip off Satriani? No. They ripped off three people! OMG! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyNN4LFsW74

To be honest, this is a stupid lawsuit, simply because Viva la Vida is clearly it's own song. Many many songs use the same chords, and just by listening to the songs, even though you can hear the similarities, you can tell there is no malicious intent. One is Joe Satriani being Joe Satriani, dissolving fret-boards with his fingers, while Coldplay is being Coldplay, giving out a nice synthy simple melody.

Did you listen to the samples? The parts they're arguing about are very similar in Melody.

That said they're fairly rudimentary and its probably just coincidence. Satch should take more of a Tom Petty approach.



No. Just no.
That wasn't a punk way of thought.

There are only 12 notes. And millions and millions of songs. Any melody or chord progression you can possibly think of probably has already been thought of somewhere in the world.

i wrote that song in 2001. i should sue both of them.

this kind of **** is silly. yeah, they're really very similar. but like vin said, there are only a finite number of combinations of notes in music. its a really big number, but still finite. this kind of **** happens all the time. anyone else remember the big to do with george harrison being sued over "My Sweet Lord" ?

Or Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Tom Petty

For even a single voice there's actually an inexhaustible supply of melodies, if you do the math it's 12 x 12 x 12 by however many notes are in the phrase, not taking into account variations in rhythm. In most musical compositions there are multiple voices in addition to chords, so the true number is even bigger.

The real problem is popular musicians aren't particularly creative in thinking up novel melodies that sound good. The creative process of many musicians is heavily influenced by a shared culture, so they come up with what they think sounds good based off of what they've heard before and liked--shared influences create similar music.

well, actually, if we're only talking about popular music, then I concede that the unique melody+chord set is very tiny. This is because popular music phrases and chord progressions are extremely short and they usually only choose the most obvious notes and chords.

This is why I prefer the atonal polka deathcore genre

sounds like Satriani is being an ***.

that was the awesomest thing ever MB.

or vanilla ice and bowie!? eh? eh!?:ninja:

I think Joe has every right to try and sue, the similarities are pretty significant.

I was going to post the pachalbel video

Oh well, try unchained melody - it's everywhere too.

yeah.. i considered the pachelbel thing, but i figured it was old news and people would internetyell at me

haha, not as bad as when sum 41 ripped off of coldplay's "the scientist". left channel plays coldplay, right channel plays sum 41. strangely, it doesn't sound half bad.

[mp3]http://www.steel-reserve.com/random/coldsum.mp3[/mp3]

that is awesome

I think it's total coincidence.

Every musician knows how easy it is to accidentally write an existing song with only a few chords. In the past I've written stuff that turned out to already exist, and I wasn't even aware of it. I've also 'discovered' a lot of songs that were absolutely similar in chord progression, lead melody and rhythm, and a lot of people don't even notice it unless you point it out to them.

Like someone else said, the chord progression in Viva La Vida is very cliché, it just so happens to be in the same key as Satriani's song. The lead melody on top of it is also a very 'logical' thing to come up with. Hell, you could even play this chord progression in an entirely different key and it would still sound similar.

I think Satriani's song is a little less special and unique than he'd like to believe.

Nickelback definitely ripped off some stuff though, as did The Offspring.

Also, it's: Plagiarism

I wouldn't say it's finite considering theres no limitation on time.

The chord progression is irrelevant because those aren't protected by copyright. The youtube video doesn't work for me but if the melody is plagiarized (either intentionally or not) good luck proving it to non-musicians in a courtroom, Joe Satriani.