The Grammys < Big Fat Turd (The Coldplay Plagiarism Saga Continues)

I’m going to make this short and only write one post on the Grammys because I could rant for days on this subject.

Coldplay, the miscreants who are being sued by Joe Satriani for plagiarism won a truck full of Grammys for the same damn song that they ripped off. 

Here’s a roundup of my past posts on the subject:

http://geekwhisperin.wordpress.com/tag/coldplay/

Now, I know that they have not been found liable for anything yet, but they couldn’t find a single other band or album to bestow the following awards upon:

• Pop performance by a duo or group with vocals
• Song of the year
• Rock album of the year

There isn’t a single other band out there that isn’t being sued by a world renown expert in music theory for plagiarism? Give me a freaking break!

We live in a world of brilliant musicians. Most of them never make it big, and this institution has continuously honored from within the current ranks of musical stardom, even when it is woefully undeserved. 

This is why I didn’t watch this circus.

OK… I feel better now.

Coldplay & EMI Music Enter Panic Mode

I really thought I was going to let this one go until the Coldplay / Satriani plagiarism case was either settled or reached a verdict, but Coldplay and their record label EMI Music have really ticked me off.

As many of you know, I have written about this case a couple of times already: Tag – Coldplay

I’m not going to bother recapping the story. If you care to know, feel free to check out the previous entries.

I am a little on the OCD side when it comes to web design… and few things make me more irritated than links and functionality that do not work properly.

So, when one of my readers emailed me pointing out that my favorite YouTube video comparing both Viva La Vida & If I Could Fly, and then layering Coldplay’s vocals over Satriani’s guitar had been removed by order of EMI Music, I was pretty annoyed.

I just cannot stand having dead links… o boy does it tick me off that when you click on those videos all you see is, “This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by EMI Music.” 

This is a clear admission that there is something to this case because EMI Music hasn’t pulled all of the videos that play Viva La Vida, they just pulled the damning one. 

And since I am now committed to not letting this go because EMI and in turn, Coldplay have created dead links on my blog, I am going to retaliate by posting this, even more damning video that explains using music theory that Coldplay is in some seriously hot water. Have a look while you can. See the video before the control freaks at EMI censor this guy too.

EMI – You cannot stop the spread of information on the Internet, and trying is futile. If you take this video down, someone will make another, and taking the video down doesn’t change the truth. The easy answer to this problem is to encourage the bands on your label to either write their own material, or cite the material that they copy and pay the proper royalties.

Coldplay Writes a Response… All By Themselves

Coldplay finally decided that this whole plagiarism lawsuit against them might actually be a problem. As I wrote a few days ago, guitar virtuoso Joe Satriani has filed suit against Coldplay for stealing one of his riffs and using it in their hit song Viva La Vida.

Their response on their web site reads (Thank you Jackie V for emailing this to me):

“With the greatest possible respect to Joe Satriani, we have now unfortunately found it necessary to respond publicly to his allegations. If there are any similarities between our two pieces of music, they are entirely coincidental, and just as surprising to us as to him. Joe Satriani is a great musician, but he did not write or have any influence on the song Viva La Vida. We respectfully ask him to accept our assurances of this and wish him well with all future endeavours. Coldplay.”

I have a few thoughts here.

First, from a social media/ business perspective, this response took them way too long. When bloggers and twitterers get bent out of shape over something, response times should be measured in hours, not days.

The YouTube video that I had posted earlier, (and will repost because I like it so much) has had 1,611,590 views as of (7:07 EST on 12/9). That’s a lot of views and I’ve seen plenty of other posts and articles about the issue. My father tells me he even heard Satriani interviewed on NPR. This will be yet another case-study in poor reputation management. 

My other point has to do with the age-old practice of major artists ripping off lesser-known innovators.

For decades black blues pioneers were ripped off by their producers, and the musicians that they influenced. This isn’t something unique to bands that I don’t like such as Coldplay, even Led Zeppelin (who I really like) pulled this bullshit. 

While Satriani isn’t a black bluesman, and he clearly has earned a healthy living off of his music, it doesn’t change the fact that Coldplay is a huge pop act that has ripped off a lesser-known innovator. 

The similarities between Viva La Vida and If I Could Fly are just too substantive to simply brush off and ignore.

I’ve Always Said Coldplay Were a Bunch of Hacks

So it seems that Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida” has been plagiarized from guitar virtuoso Joe Satriani’s “If I Could Fly.”

“Satch” has filed suit against the members of Coldplay for copyright infringement, and I think that the suit has legs.

Listen to this youtube video that plays portions of both songs, then layers Coldplay’s vocals over Satch’s guitar.
  

Two things to note: the chord progression is the same and Coldplay’s rip-off is boring as hell.

Satch gets my support on this one because he’s right, a crazy guitarist, an excellent composer, and a fellow geek.