Plagiarism & interpolation in pop music

[Quijote]

Quite an interesting TV programme here from European culture channel Arte about why pop music sometimes sounds the same. It's mainly in German with English subtitles.
https://www.arte.tv/en/videos/106757...iting-special/

[Sorrano]

Quite an interesting TV programme here from European culture channel Arte about why pop music sometimes sounds the same. It's mainly in German with English subtitles.
https://www.arte.tv/en/videos/106757...iting-special/

Interesting, thank you! I only had time to watch a couple of minutes (I do have to go to work) but I am reminded of how many times some of our movies and TV series get re-written. For example, the Superman theme seems to get a new work over each 20 years or so. The Wyatt Earp is also the same thing. You would think that people are afraid to go new directions, perhaps out of fear of failure.

[Chris]

A good watch. Yes, a lot of it just comes down to repeating the same things being a safer investment. If you're going to spend a lot of money to record an album or a some songs, you want the best chance of it selling big. And yet, it no longer takes a lot of money to record an album. You don't have to rent an expensive studio anymore. You can make good quality stuff at home for a much smaller investment these days. And people do. It's just that that stuff isn't played on the radio. If you want a career as a pop star, yes, make the same stuff. But if you just want to create some great pop music, you can be as creative as you like... as long as you don't quit your day job. It's up to us, the listeners of music, to go seek out the more interesting things.

[Quijote]

Glad you liked that, Sorrano & Chris. Some of these bands were shameless in ripping off each other's material, those harmonies that they copied from each other were pretty blatant! Still, this plagiarism is big business it seems, especially when it goes to court and they have to bring in forensic musicologists to prove their case.