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Sum 41, plagiarizing Coldplay?

PostPosted: Sat Feb 05, 2005 10:14 pm
by the_lizardqueen
Has anyone else noticed the freaky similarities between Sum 41's new single, Pieces, and Coldplay's The Scientist? I was oblivious until I stumbled across a website that mashed the two songs together:

http://www.jbarkerdesign.com/UML/coldsum.htm

In all fairness, Sum 41's song had to be slowed down, but the chords sound pretty identical. I'm really beginning to worry that the music industry is running out of new ideas... :eyebrow:

PostPosted: Sat Feb 05, 2005 11:48 pm
by agasfas
The cords and rhythm seem to be simliar but in all honesty in not the same. In my honest opinion Sum 41's version is much better, although I may be biased because I'm a huge Sum 41 fan. Also, it's a bit hard to distinctions between the two rhythms because they use Sum 41's most of the song. Plus, I think the lyrics for Pieces sound better and is much more soothing.

Though I will say that sometimes it seems like the beats of 2 different songs sound simliar. LIke Simple Plan's "Perfect" and Dashboard Confessionals "Vindicated" sound almost identical in the beginning.


Musicians have been paying royalties to artists for the use of their lyrics or song. For example, there have been a ton of modern artists paying Micheal Jackson royalties for some of this songs, "Smooth Criminal" is a perfect example; this is used a few times by random artists such as Alien Ant Farm and etc. Another example would be Limp Bizkits song "Behind Blue eyes." The original was released I believe in the 70's by "The Who." The older songs are classics in a sense, thus some of the artists who grew up on them want to re-create them for the modern listener.

Though I don't believe the music industry is running out of songs or ideas per-say... Though sometimes I wonder how many songs can they make about the same topics: love, sadness, drugs etc...

But yeah, as long as people continue to express themselves differently then I think the industry will be just fine for a while.

PostPosted: Sun Feb 06, 2005 12:10 am
by the_lizardqueen
I have to admit, I really do like Pieces, perhaps even a bit more than The Scientist. But then again, maybe that's just because The Scientist was played half to death. It is a cool song though.

The biggest issue here, in my eyes, is the fact that this song wasn't a remake and the artist wasn't sampling. I'm definitely willing to give the guys from Sum 41 the benefit of the doubt, that this probably was a honest to goodness coincidence (maybe I'm being naive).

There are only so many chord arrangements out there. It's kinda scary though when you think of it, there are a limited number of permutations, so are we eventually going to run out of new arrangements? Songwriters probably had it loads easier back in the 60's when there were more undiscovered ideas. Maybe the best thing to do is to continue revisiting the classics and start putting a new spin on them. They've been doing that in Celtic music for years, as well as in some of the other older genres.

PostPosted: Sun Feb 06, 2005 10:24 am
by Stephen
Considering how much I hate Coldplay...im fine with it. *grin*

PostPosted: Mon Feb 07, 2005 6:22 am
by Yamato145
is it wrong that i find this humorous

PostPosted: Mon Feb 07, 2005 3:17 pm
by Hitokiri
I don't know who these two bands are and coming from someone who doesn't know either songs, when put togteher...it sounds like a pretty good song :lol:

Like a real song.