Nelsongate
Alright... has anyone ever had the sensation, where they're hearing a song, some music which is presumably "new", and they KNOW they've heard it before?
I get that a lot.
Most often, it's the sensation that some song, supposedly "new", MUST have been out since 2002 at least, since I know I've heard it a few years ago. It's just this general unimpressed-ness with the song, and the insistence that it is truly nothing new. I've never been able to get to the bottom of that feeling, but my assumption is usually (to calm the cognitive dissonance) that perhaps the song IS older, but is just now being radio-released.
However, this is something altogether different.
This **new** sensation first occurred to me at some point last year, when I bought The Afters' album, I Wish We All Could Win and could have SWORN that the opening riff and lines were a loose rip-off of a song that I at first couldn't place, but eventually attributed to a semi-obscure Sixpence None The Richer song entitled "Brighten My Heart", which appeared on the collective worship project Exodus. However, after finally dragging this information out of the dustiest corners of my brain (it haunted me for weeks!), I discovered that the similarities were only tonal, thematic, and mostly, imagined. So my great song rip-off conspiracy theory died that day.
Today, however,I felt that prickling "I've heard this before" feeling creep up the back of my brain once more... and this time, my instincts were not wrong! Taking a listen of Hawk Nelson's album, Letters to the President (which, in my opinion, is a shamefully copped-out album title for a Canadian band just breaking on the American music scene), the song "Take Me" struck me, and the second line in particular stuck out like a sore thumb.
"Can you hear me, does anyone around me
Feel the way that I feel now?"
I was ON to something here! A little brain-searching, and I had the line tagged to the Dashboard Confessional song "Saints and Sailors", which opens with these lines:
"This is where I say I've had enough,
and no one should ever feel the way that I feel now"
I know, I know what you're thinking - that 7 words does not a conspiracy make. However, you'd have to be familiar with Dashboard's song to appreciate the feeling that rushes through you when you hear Hawk Nelson sing the line, 2nd line into the song in both cases, following the exact same melody and rhythm, even including suspending and delaying the delivery on the word "feel", that Dashboard made trademark (in my humble opinion) 4 years earlier. (Dashboard's The Places You Have Come To Fear The Most was released in 2001, while Hawk Nelson's Letters came out in 2005.)
So, what constitutes a rip off? Is this excusable? "Take Me" is a decent song, for what it's worth. Strong melody, although whether or not their style is a Relient K rip-off is an entirely different conversation; meanwhile, Dashboard's "Saints and Sailors" is classic for Carrabba fans. Or, alternately, is taking a line from someone's song, note for note, an appropriate and catchy "inter-musical reference"? Supposing the Hawk Nelson boys groove, as I do, to the sounds of Dashboard, is this nothing more than a musical "tip of the hat"?
I, for one, am not convinced. It's a pretty gutsy and presumptuous move for rookies like Hawk Nelson to make; besides the fact that they look about 14 years old, it makes them seem like they can't even write their own shaz. However, I'm interested to see where others weigh in on it... should I give Hawk Nelson the benefit of the doubt here?
Their musical careers have thus far produced nothing even faintly approaching blistering genius; however, there's time for that... geesh, let them get through puberty first! (tee hee... actually, they're probably my age.) And their album, while nowhere near worth the street cred of Relient K, is not half bad.
What's your take on the incident I've creatively dubbed "Nelsongate"? Leaving the legal implications aside, unless you have more information than I do, which is certainly not difficult given that I have taken about 5 minutes to investigate this before shooting off this post, how do YOU feel about Nelsongate? Does it anger you? Offend you? Confuse you? Perhaps make you bored or drowsy? Whatever your opinion, I'd love to hear it... give the tracks a listen if it's humanly possibly for you... just to get the gist of the rip-offage.
Your faithful reporter for all things useless,
~Kelly
I get that a lot.
Most often, it's the sensation that some song, supposedly "new", MUST have been out since 2002 at least, since I know I've heard it a few years ago. It's just this general unimpressed-ness with the song, and the insistence that it is truly nothing new. I've never been able to get to the bottom of that feeling, but my assumption is usually (to calm the cognitive dissonance) that perhaps the song IS older, but is just now being radio-released.
However, this is something altogether different.
This **new** sensation first occurred to me at some point last year, when I bought The Afters' album, I Wish We All Could Win and could have SWORN that the opening riff and lines were a loose rip-off of a song that I at first couldn't place, but eventually attributed to a semi-obscure Sixpence None The Richer song entitled "Brighten My Heart", which appeared on the collective worship project Exodus. However, after finally dragging this information out of the dustiest corners of my brain (it haunted me for weeks!), I discovered that the similarities were only tonal, thematic, and mostly, imagined. So my great song rip-off conspiracy theory died that day.
Today, however,I felt that prickling "I've heard this before" feeling creep up the back of my brain once more... and this time, my instincts were not wrong! Taking a listen of Hawk Nelson's album, Letters to the President (which, in my opinion, is a shamefully copped-out album title for a Canadian band just breaking on the American music scene), the song "Take Me" struck me, and the second line in particular stuck out like a sore thumb.
"Can you hear me, does anyone around me
Feel the way that I feel now?"
I was ON to something here! A little brain-searching, and I had the line tagged to the Dashboard Confessional song "Saints and Sailors", which opens with these lines:
"This is where I say I've had enough,
and no one should ever feel the way that I feel now"
I know, I know what you're thinking - that 7 words does not a conspiracy make. However, you'd have to be familiar with Dashboard's song to appreciate the feeling that rushes through you when you hear Hawk Nelson sing the line, 2nd line into the song in both cases, following the exact same melody and rhythm, even including suspending and delaying the delivery on the word "feel", that Dashboard made trademark (in my humble opinion) 4 years earlier. (Dashboard's The Places You Have Come To Fear The Most was released in 2001, while Hawk Nelson's Letters came out in 2005.)
So, what constitutes a rip off? Is this excusable? "Take Me" is a decent song, for what it's worth. Strong melody, although whether or not their style is a Relient K rip-off is an entirely different conversation; meanwhile, Dashboard's "Saints and Sailors" is classic for Carrabba fans. Or, alternately, is taking a line from someone's song, note for note, an appropriate and catchy "inter-musical reference"? Supposing the Hawk Nelson boys groove, as I do, to the sounds of Dashboard, is this nothing more than a musical "tip of the hat"?
I, for one, am not convinced. It's a pretty gutsy and presumptuous move for rookies like Hawk Nelson to make; besides the fact that they look about 14 years old, it makes them seem like they can't even write their own shaz. However, I'm interested to see where others weigh in on it... should I give Hawk Nelson the benefit of the doubt here?
Their musical careers have thus far produced nothing even faintly approaching blistering genius; however, there's time for that... geesh, let them get through puberty first! (tee hee... actually, they're probably my age.) And their album, while nowhere near worth the street cred of Relient K, is not half bad.
What's your take on the incident I've creatively dubbed "Nelsongate"? Leaving the legal implications aside, unless you have more information than I do, which is certainly not difficult given that I have taken about 5 minutes to investigate this before shooting off this post, how do YOU feel about Nelsongate? Does it anger you? Offend you? Confuse you? Perhaps make you bored or drowsy? Whatever your opinion, I'd love to hear it... give the tracks a listen if it's humanly possibly for you... just to get the gist of the rip-offage.
Your faithful reporter for all things useless,
~Kelly
Labels: music, pseudo-rant
8:29 PM
Hawk Nelson is Canadian?? How maddening that they copped out on their roots! Like we need more bands crossing the border and feeding off American rhetoric in order to get cool! I listened to like half their album in the store one day, though, and thought most of it was pretty ordinary, not especially special.
I do love Relient K... can't help it. Always have... always will. Can't say the same for Dashboard. top
12:11 AM
Gate...gate.....hmm, I could have sworn I heard that somewhere before... Can't quite put my finger on it though.
Wait...is that a reference to a U.S. fiasco by a Canadian blogger?
Gaspé!
Interesting though, how this could (if you take a really long stretch) be seen as the culmination of two big "-gates" -- Watergate (U.S.), then Tunagate (Canada), and now, Nelsongate (U.S./Canada) has mired the fresh waters of northern North America as a whole.
I can't wait for Tazón de pescados gate to happen... :)
The moral of this comment is that it would be better for everyone involved if David had something other than politics and late-night blog reading to pass the time. Really. (ie. can I borrow some Dashboard?) top
12:20 AM
by the way, that would be a literary "wag of the finger" for the U.S. reference in there. top
12:24 AM
you do realize, I hope, that I just want to see what the page looks like when the comments reach the bottom of the post...and beyond!
I'll leave that to the other readers now, though. Take the torch and run with it, folks! :) top
1:30 PM
I think if it is right or wrong can only be determined on an individual case, and by the person/group whose lyrics/music were used. They are the only ones who could determine if it was done out of respect, or as a rip off. top
12:00 AM
Stuff is bound to repeat. There's just so much music out there that some of it is, by chance, going to sound familiar and similar to other songs/artists. Especially if the artists in question are of a similar genre. top
9:11 PM
Yah, but... Come on. You can at least TRY to be somewhat original. Look at Mutemath for instance...
There are an infinite number of note-combinations, just as there are an infinite number of letter- and word-combinations. There are lotsa new tunes out there; you just have to be smart enough to find them. top
11:23 AM
Um... I hate to pull this out, but there actually aren't an infinite combination of notes. I mean, technically I guess there are, because technically there are an infinite number of notes, but the human voice and instruments are limited to how many of them they can play.
Given the average human voice range, approximated at 2.5 octaves (?), there are only about 40 notes for each human voice to sing. If a melodic line has 8 notes in it, that would mean there are 6,553,600,000,000 possible combinations, not all of which sound good at all.
So, you see, repetition is, to some extent, inevitable.
But more importantly, David, now the comments have eclipsed the page. top
12:14 PM
Now my question is... do I deserve a 'tip of the hat' for my accomplishment? top
2:55 PM
Yes, I tip my hat to you, mister mvp.
So, in the end, the inevitability of repetition in music is based entirely on the decisions of a musician to limit them self musically by sticking with a limited number of instruments and adding vocals to their songs? top
6:06 PM
Not exactly... I was making an attempt at being coy...
While there aren't an infinite number of combinations, notice that the limit is set at about 6 and a half trillion.
I have my theories about how something like this can happen accidentally, but I am not nearly enough of a listener to these bands to know any context... therefore I shall cease with my commenting. top
9:37 AM
Yes David, however, there are bands that try to go beyond such narrow ideas like notes and instruments:
http://www.iheartnoise.com/mp3/controlcleansing.mp3
http://www.mechanoise-labs.com/mp3/ml/mn022-03.control.mp3 top
10:43 PM
Two thoughts: first of all, what are you doing listening to Hawk Nelson in the first place? And secondly, I'd say this "scandal" is just more indicative of the fact that there are very few creative artists in CCM (the Contemporary Culture of Mediocrity), and that anyone who shows creativity (like Carraba) in the "industry" (he was with Further Seems Forever) is endlessly ripped off (sometimes even by themselves). See all of the clones of Mercy Me now erupting, or Tooth and Nail's unfortunate glut of post-emo semi-indie bland rock following the successes of bands with personality and identity. Good ear, though. We'll have to chat more. top