Plagiarism or Just Rock & Roll?

When pop artist Olivia Rodrigo released her debut album “Sour” last year, millennials and Gen Z-ers alike were drawn to her. Millennials in particular were reminded of an early 2000s sound that they grew up with. However, Rodrigo’s album also faced some backlash in regards to plagiarism. Listeners were quick to draw comparisons between Rodrigo’s song “Deja Vu” and Taylor Swift’s “Cruel Summer” as well as “Good 4 U” and Paramore’s “Misery Business”. Rodrigo even ended up crediting Paramore band members Hayley Williams and Joe Farro along with Swift and collaborator Jack Antanoff as songwriters on these tracks. But when listeners drew a comparison to Rodrigo’s song “Brutal” and Elvis Costello’s “Pump it Up”, Costello took a different approach. “Fine by me. It’s how rock & roll works” he responded on Twitter. Costello: class act.

In 1965, as The Beatles were working on their album “Rubber Soul”, George Harrison drew inspiration from the 60s group The Byrds. On his song “If I Needed Someone”, Harrison took almost the same riff from The Byrds cover of “The Bells of Rhymney”, going as far as to send a copy of the album to band members Roger McGuinn and David Crosby along with a message stating they were his inspiration.

Costello as well is not shy about where his inspiration came from for “Pump it Up”, stating in many interviews how much his tune sounds like the Bob Dylan classic “Subterranean Homesick Blues” as Dylan’s song sounds like Chuck Berry’s “Too Much Monkey Business”. When asked if he thought The Escape Club’s 1988 track “Wild, Wild West” was another “Pump it Up” rip off, he defended the band even though he had not heard of them or the song.

Over the years, there have been many lawsuits about song plagiarism proving some people aren’t on the same page as Costello. Whether it’s Sam Smith’s “Stay With Me” versus Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down” or Lana del Rey’s “Get Free” versus Radiohead’s “Creep”, some artists demand credit where credit is due. As for musician Ed Sheeran, who’s song “Shape of You” had a plagiarism lawsuit of its own (which he won), he believes that “coincidences are bound to happen if 60,000 songs are released every day on Spotify”. Very true.

So what do you think? Is it plagiarism or is it just rock & roll?