Are They The Same?

So, the story is that One Republic front man Ryan Tedder was working with Kelly Clarkson on several songs when he began to co-write with Beyonce. Beyonce’s song “Halo” was released first, and when Clarkson heard it, she was none too happy.

You can listen to both songs below. But I’ll give you my impressions.

First of all, the melodies are different and the lyrics are different. And technically speaking, lyrics and melody are the only elements you can copyright from a song. But I can certainly hear how Clarkson might be miffed. The chord progression is virtually the same, the meter and tempo are quite similar and the feel and groove are definitely the same. It’s as if the guy took the same progression to both of these ladies and they just wrote whatever came to them on top.

So the question is, did he do this intentionally? Did he realize he’d given the same basic tracks to both people? Or did he perhaps mess up and forget that he had? He denies, left, right and centre, that he gave them both the same tracks…however, even he must hear the similarities. He’s a songwriter, for pete’s sake. I’m thinking that the poor guy didn’t realize what he had done until it was too late.

I’m also thinking that neither of these two ladies is going to trust his input in future, so he has pretty much screwed himself.

Have a listen to both, and see what you think: 

Write About What You Know

As the story goes, a Halifax band called Sons of Maxwell had a week-long tour of Nebraska last year.  They flew United Airlines for a quick turn-around in Chicago and were sitting on the plane when another passenger (who didn’t know they were musicians) yelled out that they were “throwing guitars outside”.

With a sick feeling in the pit of their stomachs, the band members looked out the airplane windows to see United employees throwing a bass guitar, which they recognized as theirs.  At the end of the flight and once they had claimed their baggage, they noted that a $3500 Taylor guitar had been badly damaged.

Dave Carroll, the prime songwriter for the group, tried a number of times over a nine month period to get some kind of compensation for the damage, but his cries fell on deaf ears.  Finally, he asked himself what Michael Moore might do if he were a musician in the same situation.  What he came up with were three songs, one called “United Breaks Guitars”.  His plan was to produce videos for each one and post them on YouTube, one after the other.  The YouTube video for “United Breaks Guitars” received over 15,000 hits after only a couple of days, and finally caught the attention of United Airlines who are now ready to compensate.

Well, duh.

So, folks…the key to success is to write about what you know   Success may be fleeting, but these guys could turn all of that attention (I just saw their story show up on CNN!) into all kinds of positive things like new gigs and CD sales.  Way to go!

IJ

A PBS Show You Have To Watch!

Last night I caught a wonderful PBS documentary called “The Music Instinct:  Science and Song”.  If you want to see excerpts from it, check out the website.

This documentary explores the connection between music and the brain and asks the question ‘is music something we invented or is it an innate part of our selves?’  Some of the more fascinating aspects had to do with how learning music actually physically changes the brain and where it can also be found in nature.  For instance, we look for visual symmetry in nature, so why wouldn’t it also exist in an auditory way?

One fellow, a practicing neuro surgeon, was talking on the phone one day when lightening suddenly zapped him through the wires.  He had no obvious effects from the incident until about three weeks after, when he suddenly began hearing music, waking up after having dreamed entire classical compositions, and for the first time in his life he had the desire to learn to play an instrument.  He was in his 60’s when this occurred and had always only been interested in rock music, and now he has become an accomplished classical pianist, but even more fascinating, he has become an accomplished composer!

There are arguments back an forth as to how important music is in our daily lives, how it can actually help people deal with varying ailments like Parkinson’s or a stroke, and how important it can be to learning in early child development.  Even the cosmos is humming, only it’s at a frequency that we can’t possibly hear…some 64 octaves below the lowest note we are capable of hearing.  But it’s a hum!

There are occasions when PBS puts an entire show online to view…but if you can’t find it that way, they often replay their documentaries a number of times, so hopefully you’ll catch it one way or another.  I promise, it’s worth the watch!

IJ