So.... Chris Young, a "country Artist" has "new" song called Young Love & Saturday Night.... sounds like, I mean exactly like.... riff, chorus melody, groove, to David Bowie's Rebel Rebel.
Copyright violation or licensed and just shamelessly ripped off? Have a listen and let me know what you think. I don't know if it was licensed..... too close to the original to think someone thought it would be fine to release it without the protection of a license.
"“Young Love & Saturday Nights” was written by Jesse Frasure, Ashley Gorley, and Josh Thompson. The late (David) Bowie is also credited as a writer on the song. As Thompson explains, the track was “Frasure's brainchild.” “I was honored to be invited into such a unique opportunity,” Thompson says.Aug 2, 2023" (c) American Songwriter
Apparently licensed. My gracious, lack of talent has brought us to " The Estate of ______" songwriters.
The industry will be using Bowie 'inspired' stuff for years to come .. /you heard it here first <grin> //"Everything old is new again" means we are getting old enough to notice .. but not too old to remember
This is a good songwriting exercise to use also. Take a familiar melody and write your own lyrics to it. Lots of writers do this actually. I think they did this, found out it works, got permission, listed Bowie as required and there you have it.
This is such a gray area, now made more difficult by AI.
But this practice of adding your own melody to a chord progression is normal, legal, and old. As mentioned, it's also a great teaching aid. For example, there are lots of tunes using the chords to I've Got Rhythm. More than a few of PG Music's own demo programs, that are themselves copyrighted, are based on the chord progression of a popular song. I recall reading somewhere that a list existed, but I don't know if that's true. Besides, while I could spot some of the jazz or Bossa Nova tunes, I wouldn't have a clue in many other genres, so the person who made such a list would have to be a master of all music.
Now you can have Frank Sinatra sing your song (and the estate is not happy about this). With court cases delving into the nuances of just one song, and musically ignorant juries weighing in, the effort to determine what is a violation of copyright becomes quite a challenge.
Matt Im using Suno ai as a brilliant tool to help with my songwriting..I had 9 songs copyrighted by the US Copyright office because I informed them they had human input ie extra verses etc.no problems from them YET! Also no way could I write a song with a Gregorian chant "Voices of Adoration"
