Hall & Oates, Michael Jackson and Why We Should Just Focus On The Music
So I'm listening to "The Very Best of Daryl Hall & John Oates" as I work today and "I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)" comes up in the track order. Suddenly, something I never noticed before becomes obvious. I've been playing the bass line to "Billie Jean" by Michael Jackson lately and this song is similar to it.
Hall & Oates released "I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)" in 1981 and it shot to #1 on the R&B charts. It subsequently became one of the most sampled songs for hop-hop.
Michael Jackson released "Billie Jean" in 1982 and it shot to the top of the charts as well.
In a recent Rolling Stone, Daryl Hall reminisced about how MJ told him he "stole" from "I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)" for his "Billie Jean". Hall said he told MJ he was cool with it because "creative borrowing is fair play".
This is what is so beautiful about making music. Take a little. Give a little. Bring people together. It's a fine line between "stealing" someone's work and "borrowing" from your influences. When Diddy (or whatever he wants to be called now) samples a complete loop of "Every Breath You Take" (cleared or not), I think it's a rip off. Make your own damn music, will ya? Borrowing from something someone else created and taking it further or making it into something new is another matter.
Of course, it gets tricky when you get down to the nuts and bolts of music and copyright law but all these lawsuits over copyright and plagiarism strike me as silly. Everyone seems to want their cut whether they need it or not. The music world has countless stories of someone who was truly ripped off and never saw a dime in compensation. But they go on because they do music for music's sake, not for money. It's something to keep in mind as Joe Satriani sues Coldplay or as some publisher buys the rights to a song from 1934 and proceeds sues Men At Work for supposedly plagiarizing a flute riff.
Check out the songs and hear what I mean:
I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)
Billy Jean
Hall & Oates released "I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)" in 1981 and it shot to #1 on the R&B charts. It subsequently became one of the most sampled songs for hop-hop.
Michael Jackson released "Billie Jean" in 1982 and it shot to the top of the charts as well.
In a recent Rolling Stone, Daryl Hall reminisced about how MJ told him he "stole" from "I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)" for his "Billie Jean". Hall said he told MJ he was cool with it because "creative borrowing is fair play".
This is what is so beautiful about making music. Take a little. Give a little. Bring people together. It's a fine line between "stealing" someone's work and "borrowing" from your influences. When Diddy (or whatever he wants to be called now) samples a complete loop of "Every Breath You Take" (cleared or not), I think it's a rip off. Make your own damn music, will ya? Borrowing from something someone else created and taking it further or making it into something new is another matter.
Of course, it gets tricky when you get down to the nuts and bolts of music and copyright law but all these lawsuits over copyright and plagiarism strike me as silly. Everyone seems to want their cut whether they need it or not. The music world has countless stories of someone who was truly ripped off and never saw a dime in compensation. But they go on because they do music for music's sake, not for money. It's something to keep in mind as Joe Satriani sues Coldplay or as some publisher buys the rights to a song from 1934 and proceeds sues Men At Work for supposedly plagiarizing a flute riff.
Check out the songs and hear what I mean:
I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)
Billy Jean
Labels: Copyright
posted by Guy at
12:53 PM
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