Plagiarism in rock music is commonplace. Brutal rockers sometimes behave quite impudently, copying the introduction or refrain from colleagues in the workshop.
To admit this courage is not enough for everyone, so scandals based on musical theft have occurred, are happening and will happen.
10. Bon Jovi and Bonnie Tyler vs Ankie Bagger
In 1986, singer Bonnie Tyler recorded the song If You Were A Woman (And I Was A Man), the refrain of which in the same year used Bon Jovi in his song You Give Love A Bad Name.
In this case, there was no plagiarism and everything was by agreement of the parties. Both songs were quite successful (although the version of Bon Jovi still won), so the producer of the Swedish singer Ankie Bagger decided to take a cool chorus and record the single Where Were You Last Night for his ward.
This case is one of the most outrageous since singer Ankie Bagger became famous for this single. It is popular even now, and covers for it are present in the repertoire of many artists, for example - Nightwish.
9. Breaking Benjamin vs DEATHGAZE
The guys from Breaking Benjamin know every self-respecting fan of alternative rock, but this was not always the case: in 2006 it was not so easy to rattle the whole world as it is now.
The team released the track The Diary of Jane, which in the homeland of the artists did not become a hit, but in Asia no one heard it at all, since the Internet was not so widespread at that time.
This was used by the DEATHGAZE group, completely licking the whole song, posing as its own and calling it Forsaken.
Until now, many have been struck by the audacity with which this was done: the Japanese did not even try to somehow disguise the theft and process the music.
8. The Offspring vs Ranetki
All previous, as well as subsequent cases of plagiarism do not seem so terrible, because if we ignore the fact of theft, the songs turned out to be good. But this..
Taking the main, probably, hit of The Offspring Pretty Fly and creating “We Ranetki” on its basis is like stealing the Lamborghini design and creating “Zaporozhets” based on it.
7. “The King and the Jester” vs Scars on broadway
It is generally accepted that Russian rockers like to borrow a motive from their Western counterparts, but sometimes (rarely) the opposite happens. So it happened with the song Insane by Scars on broadway.
The composition of the side project of System Of A Down guitarist Daron Malakyan very much resembles the "Reflection" of our Chish.
Introduction, couplets, the drum rhythm and losses in the middle of the song - all this was clearly not composed by Malakyan.
6. New Model Army vs “King and the Jester”
And in this case, Pot and comrades can safely be blamed for plagiarism. One of their main hits, the song "Northern Fleet" is almost entirely "ripped off" from the Vagabonds track of New Model Army.
Even people whose ears are regularly walked by a bear will easily notice a similarity. It’s quite funny when listening to a foreign song you are tempted to shout “Hoi” because the motive is well known.
5. Sunny Day Real Estate vs Marilyn Manson
You have hardly ever heard of the American indie rockers Sunny Day Real Estate, but who exactly listened to them is the great and terrible Marilyn Manson.
In his composition Putting Holes In Happiness, he does not just refer to the SDRE Killed by Angel track, but brazenly copies the intro, motive and chorus. Due to the fact that no one really knows and remembers the affected indie group, plagiarism was not accompanied by a scandal.
4. Linkin Park vs Axxis
The Germans from the Axxis group have been playing power-metal music for three decades, and despite the fact that they have not gained worldwide popularity, the band is quite recognizable locally.
They are distinguished by their originality and in their work there is not even a hint of plagiarism, with the exception of one case. For their track More Than For One Day, they completely copied the chorus of Leave Out All The Rest alternatives Linkin Park. It is also funny that the rest of the songs have nothing in common: Axxis wrote their own composition, but for some reason inserted music from someone else's refrain into it.
3. The Beatles vs Chuck Berry
This story has been around for decades, but fans of early rock'n'roll probably heard about it. Chuck Berry, generally considered one of the founding fathers of the genre, often served as an object to follow: everyone wanted to be like him, so they wrote things as similar as possible, but still their own.
The cult group The Beatles went further, borrowing a lot from the creation of You Can’t Catch Me by Chuck Berry for his song Come Together.
In particular, the latter has the line “Here come a flat-top, he was movin’ up with me ”, and Lennon sings“ Here come ol ’flat-top, he come groovin’ up slowly ”.
Plagiarism was evident, but the matter did not come to court, since the parties were able to resolve the conflict and agree amicably. Apparently, the Beatles paid a decent amount in compensation.
2. Spirit vs Led Zeppelin
There are not many people around the world who remember, or even just know, the Spirit band, and even fewer who have heard their instrumental composition Taurus.
But once upon a time, in the 60s of the last century, the legendary Led Zeppelin performed at the opening act of Spirit.
In the 21st century, the remaining members of this group suddenly thought that Jimmy Page had stolen a guitar bust for Stairway To Heaven from their track Taurus.
By then, both groups had not performed for a long time, and Randy California, the Spirit frontman, had already passed away. The court left the plaintiffs with nothing, deciding that there was no plagiarism in this case.
1. The Hollies vs Radiohead
Underground rockers "Masha and the Bears" in the late 90s made a notable noise in Russia with the song "Lyubochka", which everyone knew then, as the chorus sings.
Not immediately, but gradually, music lovers noticed that the composition is very similar to Radiohead's Creep, but this is not the most interesting.
Well-known in the 70s, The Hollies sued Radiohead because they found Creep plagiarized from their 1973 track, The Air I Breathe.
Even more interesting is this case, and the fact that the court did not identify the winner and the true author: both groups were recognized as equal authors of the song, so now they also receive income from it equally.