Musicology

80% of a college Music Theory 101 class. Chord scale theory, terminology, the stuff that makes music. A semester of study in the time it takes to drink a coffee.

Oct 6, 2017 Oral arguments begin today in the appeal of the “Blurred Lines” case. And any forensic musicologist worth their salt has to care. Any modern day composer or songwriter has to care. One needn’t necessarily root, but you gotta care, because it matters a great deal, not whether Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke …

What’s the difference between plagiarism and copyright infringement? It’s largely a matter of what’s immoral as opposed to what’s illegal. Let’s take plagiarism first. When we throw out the term “plagiarism,” we mean “taking and passing off another person’s words or ideas as your own, without attribution (crediting the source),” and it’s considered wrong, immoral, …

Is this just another frivolous lawsuit? How can we tell? accessToday we learned that canadian songwriters, now plaintiffs, Ronald McNeill and Georgia Lyons-Savage are suing Carrie Underwood and claim to have composed the chorus, melody and lyrics to “Something In The Water.” Carrie Underwood’s begins her greatest hits record (hard to believe she has one already) …

“Chance The Rapper” sued by the songwriter of Lonnie Smith’s “Bridge Through Time” — a jazz record also sampled by Jay-Z and others. Chance The Rapper is reportedly being sued for copyright infringement over his track, “Windows” which was on Chance’s 2012 mixtape 10 Day. The mixtape wasn’t directly sold at retail, so one might say, “The 10 …

The three legged stool and why you need a musicologist before you write that complaint. I don’t know. But looking at the court decision that threw this out, I’d have to say the plaintiff, Timothy Arnett, didn’t engage a musicologist, and didn’t have his ducks in a row before filing his complaint. In it, he makes …

The Blurred Lines verdict was wrong in my opinion, but… Blurred Lines needn’t be quite as unsettling as it’s being made out to be! Yes, I’m having conversations where attorneys are putting it in perspective: “We are operating in a ‘post-Blurred Lines world’ now, so my client and I have to consider…”  And I get …

Macklemore and Ryan Lewis and their hit ‘Thrift Shop” have nothing to fear from “legendary jazz musician” Paul Batiste’s latest lawsuit. New Orleans jazzer Paul Batiste is evidently suing Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, claiming he hears his own work in their hit song “Thrift Shop.” So of course, I was anxious to see if there …

“Hey, that’s my song! They stole my music.” It’s a terrible feeling to believe that your music has been stolen. I often hear stories like, “I was listening to the radio, and I had to pull off the road!” Okay, maybe we don’t listen to a lot of radio anymore; instead, it’s Spotify, or you’re …

Could this be the biggest music copyright infringement payout of all time? I’ll put on the musicologists hat in a second and break it down but really the musicology over infringement or non-infringement is fairly simple, and unless there’s a rabbit up someone’s sleeve, we could pretty much head straight to the more interesting musicology …