Did Dua Lipa ACTUALLY Plagiarize Levitating?

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Song Exploder Episode on Dua-Lipa

wayne marshall twitter thread Rosa Parks comparison

Dua Lipa - Levitating

Artikal Sound System - Live Your Life

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[TrapGod_JackofAllTrades]

Let's hope that no one ever actually manages to copyright a musical concept, because that would set back musical progress for decades.

[RICHFOW]

As a song writer myself, I find it virtually impossible to find a melody or chord progression that sounds good and has not been done before.

[gregarmstrong]

I can attest to how easy it is to accidentally copy a song. My band wrote a new song a little while ago and we were excited to play it live. A week before the show, I listened to an album in a similar genre and the main riff in our song was a note for note copy of one of the songs on that album.

Literally no one in the band had noticed (despite it being a pretty popular album in the genre that we had all probably heard before at some point).

Musical genres sound the way they do because of patterns and tropes. If enough people are writing in the same genre, it's more or less guaranteed that those patterns and tropes will eventually manifest in the same way more than once.

[connormccartney]

The better question is, why do so many songs that were written using the charleston have "moonlight", "starlight", and "all night" in them.

[andrlop]

every time there's a plagiarism I think to myself "oh boy can't wait for the adam neely video"

[roomofmirros]

Litterally 80% of musical plagiarism controversies sound absolutely ridiculous when you actually know music theory lmao

[rustee.shackleford]

Given the degree of similarity, it is highly unlikely that the Artikal Sound System "Smoke & Mirrors" album art was created independently from "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City".

[kitecorbin]

If you've ever gotten into a genre of music that you've never listened to before, (country, classical, etc.) And listen to a whole playlist by different artists . . . the songs all sound extremely similar, especially if you haven't heard the songs before or don't know the genre. That overall sound is what MAKES the genre, and your ears cannot differentiate because you are not yet 'trained' to hear the difference.

[DorianDeLuca]

How lucky are we to be alive in a time when this kind of thoughtful, reasoned exploration of topics with broad influence is available to anyone and everyone? Outstanding work, as always, sir.

[cvillalta]

from an improvisation standpoint i actually believe the story they told in the podcast, you could compose levitating without conciously plagiarizing any of the other songs. They took a common chord progression and rythmic pattern in the genre they were aiming for and they played a little with it. It is a huge coincidence, but it's possible

[dontbanmebrodontbanme]

This is similar to when Katy Perry got sued for "Dark Horse". I loved the song, but when I heard the "original", I was certain she plagiarized. Until I heard the 15, 000 other songs that used the same beat she did. Simply put, there are only so many chord progressions and chances are good, every song is a slight modification of another song already created.

[crazyfun]

I've seen this happen more often lately. In most cases, the less successful artist or band are the ones suing for "infringement". With that being said, I'm certainly no musical expert, but it sounds to me like several songs use similar musical keys and notes. It's one thing to be influenced by other songs, but it's another to say someone ripped off your song because of a similar musical arrangement. Because all music is ripping off of other musical influences and sounds in some manner. There should be millions of lawsuits if the basis to sue is that one song sounds like another.

[Kamex]

When I was studying sound and music tech in college and I had to study copyright infringement cases in music business (already having a bit of background of music theory beforehand) I couldn't help but be furious at watching lawyers grasp at straws to try to manipulate people in the courtroom. This is no different. Thank you for breaking it down in a way that's easily understandable.

[guynakash]

What's fascinating about this is that people are still claiming copyright infringement for the most basic chord progressions and melodies as if they invented them, yes, it's 2020 and you're the first, brilliant, brilliant musician who thought about this sound and melody!
Nobody else has ever heard of it before you came along, it took millions of years of evolution, thousands of years of music and countless artists to get to you, you wizard of notes and chords, to hook these 4 bars and improvise this, oh my god indeed, bravo.

[yaanno]

How on earth an incredibly simple chord progression can be "owned" by someone never ceases to amaze me. Maybe we should go into details like how they used a Roy Ayers vocal riff?

[berries.f.blu]

Keep in mind the Star Spangled Banner has the Charleston rhythm multiple times (in Clarinet, it’s high F, high D, high Bb in Charleston as the first notes)
Honestly, people these days

[finnen]

Dua's album is called "Future Nostalgia" because it deliberately utilizes common motifs from earlier popular music (causing nostalgia) while combining it with modern music trends (from the future)...

[thCenturyPox]

I think we need a musicologist to explain how this Artikal Sound System song was ever on a Reggae chart

[mateusbez]

Great take.
The only thing I still don’t understand is how that generic pop-dance song could be called “Reggae” in any universe.

[aidyleemusic]

This is why song writers must record every writing session be it voice recorder or video. Awesome analysis & channel dude.