More on Unfortunate Sonic Coincidences.

The other day I wrote on the ridiculous “Blurred Lines” plagiarism controversy.  Today, the Telegraph picks up the thread of unfortunate sonic coincidences that cause excitable people to scream “RIP OFF!”

Most new songs that sound like older ones come about through unintentional means.  With only so many sequences of notes to choose from in the idiom of rock’n’roll, it’s inevitable that people are going to make the same tonal discoveries independently and without knowledge anyone having discovered the same thing.

Take the case of Radiohead.  I’m sure they did not set out to rip off the Hollies’ 1973 hit “The Air That I Breathe” when they wrote “Creep.”  But when the similarities were pointed out to them, they did what they felt was the right thing:  offering a cowriting credit to Albert Hammond (father of the Strokes’ Albert Hammond Jr.) and Mike Hazelwood (writers of “Air”) and mentioned them in the liner notes for Pablo Honey.

Have a careful listen and you’ll see what I mean.  And then go back to the Telegraph article for more examples.