It was all going so predictably well. Coldplay’s new album went straight to No 1 on Sunday, selling 300,000 copies in three days; concerts sold out; that iTunes ad was everywhere. Even their notoriously sniffy critics in the music press seemed, with the odd exception, unusually muted.
Then, things took a sudden turn for the worse – with a plagiarism row. Yesterday, the band was forced to issue a categorical denial of allegations that they copied the title track to their new record, Viva La Vida Or Death and All His Friends from a little-known US group, Creaky Boards. He blamed Chris Martin for the alleged artistic theft, saying that Coldplay’s frontman attended a Creaky Boards concert in New York last year. “We were flattered when we thought we saw Chris Martin in the crowd,” said Mr Hoepfner. “He seemed pretty into it… Maybe TOO into it?”
I think they owe this guy some money.
Im not surprised…..
“Talk” off their last album completely ripped off kraftwerks “computer love”
The accused song was demoed in march 2007, which well before these guys claim that Chris Martin came to see them. The songs sound similar, but not THAT similar.
#2. “The songs sound similar, but not THAT similar.”
Uh, you need to get your ears checked.
#3-mark,
Have you heard the full song? One part sounds similar to the whole of Creaky Boards monotonous and rather poor song. At least listen to the sample on iTunes. If they stole this song, they made it a lot better.
Not a huge Coldplay fan (truth be told I think they suck), but the melodies of these two songs are not, in my somewhat educated musical opinion, sound similar enough for it to be considered plagiarism.
In the video Andrew asks the viewer, “Which song do YOU think deserves to be on an iTunes commercial?”, immediately after informing the audience that the Coldplay song was about the Crusades. While the truth of this statement is an unknown in my mind, this immediately takes the debate away from the melody, where it belongs, and makes it about the lyrical content of the song. It does nothing to further the point Andrew was trying to make and is essentially an uncalled for ad hominem attack.
Yeah, I don’t buy it. The Creaky Boards’ version isn’t that similar and is pretty boring compared to Coldplay’s. It’s not like either song has an extremely unique melody that can be picked out.
No doubt the same thematics even though the sound is different. Coldplay should pay the guys to make this go away. It is too obvious and too close. But – plagiarism? Maybe not deliberate as the thematics is pretty obvious and could be something anyone could fall into in an inspired moment. What I don’t like though is the guys obvious hunt for a kill – and cash. He would have come out much stronger being a little more subtle…
That’s not the same song. There are similarities, but the three note approximation in the main line does not equal plagiarism. There are structural similarities, but there are plenty —PLENTY— of differences. And the Coldplay version is much, much more polished musically, and, of course, in its production.
I’ve heard pieces of music that captured my ear, and tried to noodle them out way after the fact on some instrument, coming up with something that satisfied me that I had recovered, only to find out much later when the original was in hand that I was only approximately in the ball park.
It sounds like Chris heard something in that Creaky Boards song that stayed with him, perhaps inspirationally, perhaps that three note lift/fall, but he worked it out much differently. They’re not even the same three notes transposed to a different key, they’re only close. And the rest of the structure was around long before Creaky Boards used it, too.
you can’t be serious. this is last place i thought i’d see this stupid video again. you guys actually believe the text of that youtube video?
There is no such thing as an original melody any more. Every combination of the scale, and every note length has already been used. They sound similar, but almost every song written sounds similar to a previous one. Ever listen to Oasis? LOL
Clearly a publicity stunt by a crappy band claiming another crappy one took their crappy song.
You know, last weekend I saw the iTunes ad, but I’ve not seen it since?
isn’t coldplay a ripoof of u2?
isn’t coldplay a ripoff of u2?
“Cut my Hair” from The Who’s Quadrophenia opens with this same lilting little melody but then it goes on to become a real rock song. I wanted to play them back to back but that guy’s mustache was way too 70’s porn for me to take a second look.
The first verse of the coldplay song is simular, but after that….