2015 Fall Grand Valley Magazine - (Page 27) When it was released in 1971, Led Zeppelin's iconic hit "Stairway to Heaven" became part of a proverbial soundtrack to a generation, driven by a powerful melody, stirring lyrics and a strong harmonic foundation: the immediately recognizable lead chord progression. Perhaps that chord progression sounded familiar to members of a lesser-known band, Spirit, who wrote a song, "Taurus," with a very similar sound two years earlier. The songs were similar enough that the heirs of Spirit founder Randy California have filed a lawsuit over the songs in Pennsylvania. The 2014 lawsuit over the similarities between "Taurus" and "Stairway to Heaven" is one of many between artists who think another artist has used their intellectual property in a new song. Pop artist Sam Smith recently agreed to give co-writing credit to rock superstar Tom Petty over similarities between Smith's hit "Stay With Me" and Petty's "I Won't Back Down." Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams, who performed 2013's massively popular song "Blurred Lines," must pay $7.3 million, a judge ruled, for infringing on the copyright of Marvin Gaye's 1977 track "Got To Give It Up." Kurt Ellenberger, professor of music, said the problem with some of these lawsuits is that they are litigated over the parts of a song that can't be copyrighted. He said a piece of music that falls into the pop, rock, country or folk genres is made, essentially, of four parts: the chord progression, which is the harmonic foundation for the song; the melody, which is the unique musical part of each song that's comprised of 27 Grand Valley Magazine Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of 2015 Fall Grand Valley Magazine Campus News Research Athletics Arts Scientific symbiosis Focal Point Seidman College expanding EMBA Sailing at 1/12th scale Same song, different verse Q&A Lynn 'Chick' Blue Off the path International Education 2015 Fall Grand Valley Magazine http://www.nxtbook.com/gvsu/GVmagazine/GVMagazineSpring2017 http://www.nxtbook.com/gvsu/GVmagazine/GVMagazineWinter2017 http://www.nxtbook.com/gvsu/GVmagazine/GVMagazineFall2016 http://www.nxtbook.com/gvsu/GVmagazine/GVMagazineSummer2016 http://www.nxtbook.com/gvsu/GVmagazine/GVMagazineSpring2016 http://www.nxtbook.com/gvsu/GVmagazine/Spring2016GVMagazine http://www.nxtbook.com/gvsu/GVmagazine/Winter2016GVMagazine http://www.nxtbook.com/gvsu/GVmagazine/2015FallGVMagazine http://www.nxtbook.com/gvsu/GVmagazine/Summer2015GVMagazine http://www.nxtbook.com/gvsu/GVmagazine/GVMSpring2015 http://www.nxtbook.com/gvsu/GVmagazine/GVMwinter2015 http://www.nxtbook.com/gvsu/Grandvalley/GVMFall2014 http://www.nxtbook.com/gvsu/Grandvalley/grandvalleymagazine http://www.nxtbook.com/gvsu/GVmagazine/spring2014 http://www.nxtbook.com/gvsu/GVmagazine/winter2014 http://www.nxtbook.com/gvsu/GVmagazine/fall_2013 http://www.nxtbookMEDIA.com
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.