Influence.

handmade type

Topics

topics for book:

1] Visual Arts

[shepard fairey]

2] Performing Arts

3] Music

[successful/unsuccessful cases]

4] Movies

[style, directing]

5] Television

[commercials, genres]

6] Internet

[facebook, myspace, aol, twitter, friendster, etc)

Musical Plagiarism

In addition to focusing on the Shepard Fairey dispute and law suits, I've explored other areas of plagiarism in the arts. The music industry has many situations of plagiarizing and appropriating.


Successful Suits

_One of the more recent and startling cases, one that has remained below the radar, is where, in 2007, music publishers BMG and Universal settled out of court with Worcestershire-based songwriter Clive Edwards. Mr Edwards had formally charged S Club 7’s songwriters (Simon Ellis and Shep Solomon – NB it is not known exactly which songwriter was charged) with plagiarising his original song in order to create “Don’t Stop Movin’”. The action was halted just days before the hearing in May 2007 and, although neither party has disclosed details of the settlement, it is believed within the industry to involve very substantial sums.

_George Harrison was successfully sued in a prolonged suit that began in 1971 for plagiarizing the Chiffons' "He's So Fine" for the melody of his own "My Sweet Lord."

_In autumn 1984 and throughout 1985, Huey Lewis successfully sued Ray Parker, Jr. for plagiarism, citing that Parker stole the melody of the song "Ghostbusters" (the theme from the movie of the same name), from Lewis's 1983 song "I Want A New Drug". Lewis had been approached to compose the main theme song for the "Ghostbusters" movie, but had declined due to his work on the soundtrack for Back to the Future. It was reported in 2001 that Lewis allegedly breached an agreement not to mention the original suit, doing so on VH1's Behind the Music.

_In early 2007, Timbaland was alleged to have plagiarized several elements (both motifs and samples) in the song "Do It" on the 2006 album Loose by Nelly Furtado without giving credit or compensation.

_In early 2006, the writers of Lee Hyori's song "Get Ya" were accused of plagiarizing Britney Spears' 2005 song "Do Somethin'". This eventually led Lee Hyori to stop promoting the song and contributed to the failure of the song and its album, Dark Angel.

_In 2005, Belgian songwriter Salvatore Acquaviva won a judgment against Madonna, claiming that her 1998 hit, "Frozen" had been lifted from his early-80s song, "Ma View Fout L'camp". The judge declined to award damages, but did order the withdrawal of all remaining discs for sale and barred the song from airplay on Belgian TV and radio.



Unsuccessful suits

_During the mid-1930s, Ira Arnstein became convinced that major pop songwriters had been illegally copying his work. During 1936-46 he brought forth five plagiarism lawsuits though none proved successful.

_In 1994 John Fogerty was sued for self plagiarism after leaving Fantasy Records and pursuing a solo career with Warner Brothers. Fantasy still owned the rights to the Creedence Clearwater library and sound. Saul Zaentz, the owner of Fantasy, claimed Fogerty's song "Old Man Down the Road" was a musical copy of the Creedence song "Run Through the Jungle". The court made a precedence-setting decision when it ruled that an artist cannot plagiarize himself.

_In 1993 Killing Joke sued Nirvana alleging that the riff for the latter's song "Come as You Are" was copied from the riff for their song "Eighties". The lawsuit was dropped after the sudden death of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain.

_In 2003 Cottrill claimed that Britney Spears’s "Can’t Make You Love Me" also misappropriated substantial melodic material from their "What You See is What You Get". The court was skeptical on the question of defendant’s access to the plaintiff’s work.

_Ronald H. Selle, sued the Bee Gees, alleging their 1977 hit, "How Deep Is Your Love", stole the melody of his own never-released 1975 song, "Let It End". The Bee Gees eventually prevailed after an appeal.




Unsettled, alleged, forgiven

The following are accusations of plagiarism appearing in notable media:

_A lawsuit filed by 70s pop band Rubinoos alleges Avril Lavigne stole one of their songs and reworked it into her bestselling single "Girlfriend".

_A portion of the Bruce Springsteen single, "Radio Nowhere." sounds similar to Tommy Tutone's 1982 hit, "867-5309/Jenny." Tommy Heath's response was "I'm really honored at a similarity, if any, I think there's too much suing in the world now"

_The New York Post reported remarkable similarities between the Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Dani California" and Tom Petty's "Mary Jane’s Last Dance" could turn into a lawsuit. Petty responded in a Rolling Stone interview:

...a lot of RocknRoll songs sound alike. Ask Chuck Berry. The Strokes took "American Girl" [for their song "Last Nite"], and I saw an interview with them where they actually admitted it. That made me laugh out loud. I was like, "OK, good for you." It doesn’t bother me.

_In the hollywood industry, accusations of plagiarism are so high that several websites exist solely to archive public accusations, of which very few receive legal attention.

_In December 2008, American guitarist Joe Satriani filed a copyright infringement suit against Coldplay, claiming that "Viva la Vida" incorporates "substantial original portions" of his instrumental track "If I Could Fly" from his 2004 album Is There Love in Space?. The band has denied the allegation. Coldplay was also briefly accused of copying portions of the song from "The Songs I Didn't Write" by American alternative band Creaky Boards. Creaky Boards later retracted the accusations and speculated that both songs may have been inspired by the video game The Legend of Zelda.

As I continue my research, I am realizing that plagiarism and appropriation are very big in "the arts". Whether it's performing artists, or visual artists, its around us every day. People tend to make it a bigger deal to the visual artists rather than the performing artists. I was out one night and Britney Spears' version of "I love rock & roll" came on, and someone next to me thought that was the one and only version of that song. Granted, that person wasn't playing with a full deck, but that is Obviously an appropriated version of the original that was written in 1975 by Alan Merrill and Jake Hooker of The Arrows. The song was later covered by Joan Jett and Britney Spears, who both had international chart success with their versions of the song. Hmm..

Shepard Fairey on Plagiarism

To say that Shepard Fairey is a plagiarist, is to that Space Balls plagiarized Star Wars. He is making a parodical statement to a particular genre of vintage propaganda and relating it to modern day political controversies. Anyone who was to read Fairey's words would realize that in the particular pieces in question, he is blatantly and openly referencing popular instances and styles of propaganda throughout the history of graphic design while making it his own by adding his well known graphic style. While it is true he has created several pieces in which this is the prevalent means of communication with the viewer, people neglect to realize that Fairey does also create original, thought provoking examples of graphic design and illustration. Regardless of rising opinions about the validity of his work, Fairey has developed a seamless personal style that is instantly recognizable throughout the world. It is undoubtable that Fairey has gained what seems like overnight fame in the art world largely due to his subculture following and of course the Obama Campaign poster from the 2008 election.

My project will be focused on plagiarism vs. appropriating.
When does it cross the line?

I started off by focusing on the plagiarism conflict of S.F. After reading an art critique by artist, Mark Vallen I was able to see the side of people/or creatives having a problem with what he has made a living off of. I collected photos of his work, and work that some people think he has ripped off. S.F. calls it 'referencing'.


WORKS by Shepard Fairey and ones some think
hes plagiarised/appropriated/referenced (take your pick):



Right: Ranger Naturalist Service: Yellowstone National Park - Artist unknown.
Silkscreen. Circa late 1930s. Created for the Works Progress Administration (WPA)
in order to promote travel to America's national parks.





Left: Black Panther - Pirkle Jones. Photograph. 1968. Portrait of an anonymous
Panther at a political rally in Oakland, California. The Panther photos of Ruth-Marion
Baruch and Pirkle Jones are internationally famous and have long been available in book form.





Right: Original street poster from Czechoslovakia’s, Prague Spring - Artist unknown 1968.
The poster depicts a Soviet Red Army soldier in 1945 as a liberator, then as an oppressor in 1968.







Left: Political power comes from the barrel of a gun - Artist unknown. 1968.
Chinese poster from the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution period.
The title of this poster quotes the famous pronouncement made by Mao Tse-Tung.




Left: Meeting - Vladimir Kozlinsky. Linocut. 1919. Kozlinsky’s depiction of workers
listening to a revolutionary agitator. Right: Have You Volunteered? - Dmitry Moor.
Famous recruitment poster for the Soviet Red Army. 1920.
Middle: Shepard Fairey's Works.




Left: Still from director Michael Anderson’s 1956 film adaptation of
George Orwell’s cautionary story of a dystopic future, 1984.



QUOTES collected on S.F. plagiarising:

His imagery appears as though it's xeroxed or run through somecomputer graphics program; that is to say, it is machine art that anysecond-rate art student could produce.

In fact, I've never seen any evidence indicating Fairey can draw at all.

It's not surprising such pointless twaddle passes for a weightyaesthetic statement of purpose - these days any amateur with aminimally written crackpot manifesto can make waves in the world ofart - but I still can't imagine a more juvenile-soundingrationalization for an art project, especially when current conditionscry out for art that is socially engaged and introspective.

When a will to plagiarize and a love for self-promotion are the onlyrequirements necessary for becoming an artist, then clearly the artsare in deep trouble.

The expropriation and reuse of images in art has today reached soaringheights, but that relentless mining and distortion of history willturn out to be detrimental for art, leaving it hollowed-out andmeaningless in the process.



NEXT EXPERIENCE:
Research on people/artists who think Fairey is "appropriating" or has S.F. thinks of it as "referencing".

bike land

Sculpture

i started by taking random things that were around me and gluing them together. i used paper, straws, cups, mulch, and coffee filters. a few sculptures that got me thinking. i like nature. i'm an outdoors kind of girl. and i tend to see a lot of "green" in my work. [flowers, plants, grass, birds, etc].





i also noticed my sculptures being very circular and linear. as i was playing around with straws and i started making a shape of a bike. bikes have become a new hobby in my life lately. it has its own little underworld culture and its something ive been trying to get into to in my spare time.

after a few tries, here is what i came up with.




might be hard to ride...

exploring color with food

I started out this experience with taking personal objects that I use on a daily basis and matching color chips to them. After exploring different things, I narrowed it down food that I eat. I'm going to document a week of food I consume and see where it goes from there. Being Italian, I can see a lot of RED already.