Katy Perry Dark Horse - Joyful Noise Flame Song Comparison

Katy Perry lost a 2019 lawsuit in which Christian rapper Flame accused Perry of copyright infringement. She was ordered to pay $2.78 million to Flame. Perry later appealed the court's decision and won. Listen to our side by side comparison of the songs in question and let us know what you think.

[scottconnorzzzzz]

Elvia Costello got it right.
In 2021, Elvis Costello defended teenage star Olivia Rodrigo over an accusation by a Twitter that she copied one of his songs.
"This is fine by me, " Costello
replied. "It's how rock and roll
works. You take the broken
pieces of another thrill and make
a brand new toy."

[sofiaahmed]

Sounds a little similar to me but not enough to say Perry copied it.

[cjmittele]

Yeah, this was a bogus case. Both songs are so simple that there’s not much to copy... they are different enough, and both songs have one lead instrument. Lol. But that’s what happens, when music gets this simple everything sounds the same.

[justintallen]

Anyone in the late 90’s and early 2000’s trance/techno era has heard that sound well before this rapper. Someone could argue he could have even been inspired by something similarly.

[ficheye]

Songs are getting more and more simple. There are bound to be collisions, but the jury decision was reversed by the judge, and rightfully so. I don't care about Katy Perry at all, but I'm a musician and I think the suit is bogus. I'd like to see the notes written out and make a comparison of that, but you'd really have to be obsessed to think that she was ripping off anything about the song by Flame.

[RWJP]

If you have to modify the pitch and speed to get them to sound alike, then it's obviously not copied.

[kt]

This is so simple that you can find many songs like that...

[davidrileynyc]

And the chord progression is entirely different

[RobertWilliams-euvb]

Soon, artists will be able to sue each other for using a similar tempo. This seems to be the direction we’re headed in.

[HereticPharaoh]

A federal appeals court on March 11th 2022 said Katy Perry and her team were not liable to Flame. The Pasadena, California-based court said the eight-note pattern, known as an ostinato, consisted 'entirely of commonplace musical elements' that lacked the 'quantum of originality' needed for copyright protection.

[edmundfeingold]

No. Joyful noise uses three notes with a drop at the end that actually seems indeterminate were it not for the fade (decrescendo) on the drop. Perry uses a distinct four pitch pattern (with no portamento ambiguation). That the conform to a metric pattern is not significant as much of western music conforms to just a few metric patterns. Finally the sample size of the music is well within any sample length accepted in hip-hop/sampled music these days. Artists often then transform that sample to form a new substructure to their own beat. I believe this would put it well within fair use. I also think that Katy Perry's argument that the claimed "original" itself was a fascimile would nullify a claim to copyright. The jury got this wrong and I think the appeals court made a good call in overturning the verdict.

[rodneylama]

Perfect example of why a jury should never decide cases like this. Ignorant af jurors have no clue what copyright laws are. This is nowhere close to being a copyright infringement in any form or fashion. Federal judge who reversed the jury decision. There needs to be a federal copyright board made of knowledgeable people from the music business to decide these cases.

[MoonStarr-]

I used to listen to both of these songs growing up and never have I ever heard anyone of ever thought that these songs sounded similar this lawsuit is ridiculous 🗿

[k-leb]

They're definitely similar, but not similar enough to warrant such a lawsuit in my opinion (although it's an opinion I think everyone should have, because it's just stupid for anyone to believe that Katy Perry's production team stole enough of a song for her to lose $550, 000 and the record label $2, 230, 000).
Flame didn't deserve almost 3 million dollars just because of Dark Horse's existence. The exposure Flame got from this probably already improved his profits by notable amount.
Both songs kinda suck anyway.

[erickiam]

“Joyful no’ise stole it from “art of noise “ as their song “moments in love “ it’s more clear in Perry’s version

[thestonethatthebuilderrefu]

How many just watched Viva Frei on the over turning of this case and came looking to hear the two songs

[itsmartha]

This was a reach… congratulations to Katy for winning this money hungry lawsuit 💕💕

[maximedupre]

Man, there is one same rhythm and they say she stole the all music and have to pay 2.8 millions $ wtf
I mean, Rihanna stole every single song she has, like word for word

[CurtisCameron]

Bet he’s not so joyful now he’s lost his court case 😂

[DCSquirrel]

An appeals judge just reversed the case.