So, another plagiarism debacle – and it’s
big. Has Ed Sheeran and Johnny McDaid (writers of the Ed Sheeran hit
‘Photograph’) plagiarized another song called ‘Amazing’?
If you listen to the two songs then there is
a similarity in the chorus and the similarity is extremely strong. But the
songs are different and ‘Photograph’ is the better and the more memorable.
If you go to the link below you can read some
thoughts about the matter. (I quote from this site below)
“The similarity between the two songs is
undeniable.
However, the lawsuit highlights a growing
concern in the music industry. Artists have been building on, remixing, and
sampling one another for well… always. The basis for creativity is stealing
ideas and transforming
them into something new. Sheeran’s Photograph, while similar,
is an entirely different song and creation. If we go around suing every artist
who builds on another’s work, we undermine art as we know it.
But creativity and the law are two separate things
entirely. It is still possible to be creative without ripping off another
artist’s work completely. And to add insult to injury, Photograph was a
wild success and Sheeran made a huge profit from it. It’s only fair that the
original artists are able to benefit from their own creation.” (Tylt)
What is missing from any debate about this subject
is a full understanding of how the creative process works and how the brain works. If you
had never heard any 20th century music, and you were left in a room,
would you at some point be capable of writing a ‘rock and roll’ song? No.
Writing such a song is reliant on having experienced a whole ‘history’ of
popular music.
Creativity does not occur in a vacuum, but builds
on and is a response to, what is ‘put’ into the person – the experiences of the
creative person. That person cannot ignore the input and has a whole lifetime
of influences to contend with.
I cannot believe there was malice in what Ed
Sheeran and Johnny McDaid did in the creative working out of their song. I can
only believe that there was a creative process, and that process took place not in a
vacuum but was influenced by everything these two artists had heard or
experienced.
So what is going on here? What is at the root of
all of this litigation? Money is at the root. The argument is that the writers of ‘Amazing’
deserve to have a slice of the huge pie that is ‘Photograph’ (and can they be accused of waiting two years until it was a big enough pie before they took legal action?). And if we look at
all that influenced their song ‘Amazing’, would that then entitle others to
have a slice of their pie? And is it only obvious and provable influence that
can be argued in such litigation?
I do not pretend to have the answers here, but I do
feel that if we do not understand fully how creativity works in the brain, the
process and the mechanisms, then calling something theft is jumping the gun.
What do you think?
