What the Ed Sheeran case can tell us about 70 years of pop music
What the Ed Sheeran case can tell us about 70 years of pop music
Musical plagiarism or inspirationDr Jadey O'Regan, a pop music expert and lecturer in Contemporary Music Practice at Sydney Conservatorium of Music, explains why the Ed Sheeran copyright case matters when thinking about musical inspiration, influence or theft.On 5 May, 2023, a US court ruled in favour of singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran, agreeing his song Thinking Out Loud did not breach musical copyright.
The high-profile court case, brought by the estate of soul singer Marvin Gaye, claimed Sheeran’s song was too similar to Gaye’s song Let’s Get It On.
On the stand, Sheeran defended his songwriting process, stating: “I draw inspiration from a lot from things in my life and family.”
Sheeran’s case brought up some difficult questions around what we understand as inspiration and influence, and what we may hear as theft.
Musical copyright cases are part of songwriting history. Radiohead’s Creep was found to be too similar to the Hollies’ The Air That I Breathe, and in 2018, Lana Del Rey’s Get Free was found to plagiarise Creep.
Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars altered the credits to Uptown Funk to acknowledge the similarity to The Gap Band’s Oops Upside Your Head.
Here in Australia, the flute solo in Men at Work’s Down Under, which quoted the melody of folk song Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree, was ruled as plagiarism.
In this case against Sheeran, the song’s chord progression was at the heart of the claim. The prosecution argued Sheeran’s chord progression was too similar to the chord progression of Gaye’s.
But can we copyright a chord progression if it is used extensively in other pop songs?
Gaye’s song uses four chords that gradually move upward (I-iii-IV-V). These same chords can be heard in the Beach Boys’ I Can Hear Music, the Seekers’ Georgy Girl, the Beatles’ I Feel Fine, in the Motown tune This Old Heart of Mine by the Isley Brothers, Elvis Presley’s Suspicious Minds, Cher’s Believe and ABBA’s Knowing Me Knowing You, among many others.
This chord progression and many others are part of the songwriting toolkit of rock and pop and have been heard continuously over the past 70 years.
On 5 May, 2023, a US court ruled in favour of singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran, agreeing his song Thinking Out Loud did not breach musical copyright.
The high-profile court case, brought by the estate of soul singer Marvin Gaye, claimed Sheeran’s song was too similar to Gaye’s song Let’s Get It On.
On the stand, Sheeran defended his songwriting process, stating: “I draw inspiration from a lot from things in my life and family.”
Sheeran’s case brought up some difficult questions around what we understand as inspiration and influence, and what we may hear as theft.
Musical copyright cases are part of songwriting history. Radiohead’s Creep was found to be too similar to the Hollies’ The Air That I Breathe, and in 2018, Lana Del Rey’s Get Free was found to plagiarise Creep.
Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars altered the credits to Uptown Funk to acknowledge the similarity to The Gap Band’s Oops Upside Your Head.
Here in Australia, the flute solo in Men at Work’s Down Under, which quoted the melody of folk song Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree, was ruled as plagiarism.
In this case against Sheeran, the song’s chord progression was at the heart of the claim. The prosecution argued Sheeran’s chord progression was too similar to the chord progression of Gaye’s.
But can we copyright a chord progression if it is used extensively in other pop songs?
Gaye’s song uses four chords that gradually move upward (I-iii-IV-V). These same chords can be heard in the Beach Boys’ I Can Hear Music, the Seekers’ Georgy Girl, the Beatles’ I Feel Fine, in the Motown tune This Old Heart of Mine by the Isley Brothers, Elvis Presley’s Suspicious Minds, Cher’s Believe and ABBA’s Knowing Me Knowing You, among many others.
This chord progression and many others are part of the songwriting toolkit of rock and pop and have been heard continuously over the past 70 years.
The “doo-wop” progression has appeared in pop music for close to 80 years, and is named because most doo-wop songs feature this chord progression – it was an essential part of its sound.
You can hear it in 1950s hits such as the Penguins’ Earth Angel and Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers’ Why Do Fools Fall in Love?
The strength of these chords means they are used in pop music of all kinds, including ELO’s Telephone Line, Don’t Dream it’s Over by Crowded House, Destiny’s Child’s Say My Name, Blank Space by Taylor Swift, and Flowers by Miley Cyrus.
Despite its consistent use, these chords still cross genres and eras, and still catch our ears.
Comedy act Axis of Awesome use a similar progression in their video for 4 Chords, where they cleverly play almost 50 different songs with a variation on these four simple cho
The “doo-wop” progression has appeared in pop music for close to 80 years, and is named because most doo-wop songs feature this chord progression – it was an essential part of its sound.
You can hear it in 1950s hits such as the Penguins’ Earth Angel and Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers’ Why Do Fools Fall in Love?
The strength of these chords means they are used in pop music of all kinds, including ELO’s Telephone Line, Don’t Dream it’s Over by Crowded House, Destiny’s Child’s Say My Name, Blank Space by Taylor Swift, and Flowers by Miley Cyrus.
Despite its consistent use, these chords still cross genres and eras, and still catch our ears.
Comedy act Axis of Awesome use a similar progression in their video for 4 Chords, where they cleverly play almost 50 different songs with a variation on these four simple cho
Rock, pop, blues, doo wop and other musical genres can often be defined by their use of repeated chord progressions. These chord progressions are part of a songwriter’s toolkit in a similar way to how an artist may use different paint brushes.
As Sheeran’s lawyer Ilene Farkas noted, chord progressions are:
the letters of the alphabet of music […] these are basic musical building blocks that songwriters now and forever must be free to use.
It is how these “building blocks” are used, and in what combinations, that gives us a great variety of pop songs over many decades. The true craft of great pop music is to take these formulas and turn them into something unique (while simultaneously making it sound easy).
The ruling in Sheeran’s case supports the rights of musical artists to continue to use these progressions as part of a songwriter’s toolkit, and to build from the artists who came before them. It also acknowledges that influence and inspiration from previous works are part of the construction of the pop music we love.
Dr Jadey O'Regan is a Lecturer in Contemporary Music Practice at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and she is the co-author of "Hooks in Popular Music" (2022) with Dr Tim Byron (University of Wollongong), which combines pop musicology and music psychology to understand pop music in an interdisciplinary way. She teaches songwriting, production, performance, music analysis and music history, and her research interests include the musical analysis of pop music, genres, songwriting, and creativity.
This story was first published in The Conversation as Inspiration, influence and theft: what the Ed Sheeran case can tell us about 70 years of pop music.
Hero Photo: Coldplay singer Chris Martin and Eed Sheeran at O2 Shepherds Bush Empire, 12 October 2021.
Rock, pop, blues, doo wop and other musical genres can often be defined by their use of repeated chord progressions. These chord progressions are part of a songwriter’s toolkit in a similar way to how an artist may use different paint brushes.
As Sheeran’s lawyer Ilene Farkas noted, chord progressions are:
the letters of the alphabet of music […] these are basic musical building blocks that songwriters now and forever must be free to use.
It is how these “building blocks” are used, and in what combinations, that gives us a great variety of pop songs over many decades. The true craft of great pop music is to take these formulas and turn them into something unique (while simultaneously making it sound easy).
The ruling in Sheeran’s case supports the rights of musical artists to continue to use these progressions as part of a songwriter’s toolkit, and to build from the artists who came before them. It also acknowledges that influence and inspiration from previous works are part of the construction of the pop music we love.
Dr Jadey O'Regan is a Lecturer in Contemporary Music Practice at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and she is the co-author of "Hooks in Popular Music" (2022) with Dr Tim Byron (University of Wollongong), which combines pop musicology and music psychology to understand pop music in an interdisciplinary way. She teaches songwriting, production, performance, music analysis and music history, and her research interests include the musical analysis of pop music, genres, songwriting, and creativity.
This story was first published in The Conversation as Inspiration, influence and theft: what the Ed Sheeran case can tell us about 70 years of pop music.
Hero Photo: Coldplay singer Chris Martin and Eed Sheeran at O2 Shepherds Bush Empire, 12 October 2021.
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