Just hours after the release, Lady Gaga's hot new track 'Born This Way' stirred up a controversy with many listeners noticing similarities between the song and Madonna's 1989 hit 'Express yourself'.
But the scandal-prone pop star is not the first one and most likely wont be the last one to be tainted by the music plagiarism accusation.
At this level, Lady Gaga only faces the risks of disappointing her fans, losing the reputation as a creative artist and fueling her haters. But musical plagiarism could lead to court cases, which could drain the accused artist's bank balance. Even the high and mighty in the music business have some time in the past faced accusation of ripping of tunes including Johnny Cash, ex Beatles, U2 and Coldplay.
Starting from the latest row accusation against Lady Gaga, the slideshow recalls some of the high-profile cases:
As recently as November 2010, popular R&B singers Usher and Alicia Keys were slapped with a lawsuit.Wadena Pyatt, a songwriter, filed a lawsuit in the Eastern District of New York, stating that the Usher's 2004 hit song "Caught Up" was a plagiarized version of a tune she penned as an artist on Keys's MBK Entertainment label. ReutersColdplay single 'Viva La Vida' was hit with plagiarism accusations by three separate artists. However only one chose to sue.Guitar God Joe Satriani claimed that the track on Coldplay's fourth album, Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends (2008) was similar to his 2004 song 'If I Could Fly'.“…we're talking about a piece of art that I created, and that's something I feel is important. I'm just doing what I need to do as an artist, to protect what's mine,” Satriani told MusicRadar.com.“With the greatest possible respect to Joe Satriani, if there are any similarities between our two pieces of music, they are entirely coincidental, and just as surprising to us as to him,” replied Coldplay in an official statement.REUTERS/Gustau NacarinoEven when a portion of one song is looped to create a beat, or reused in another song, it is considered as plagiarism.In 2007, record producer Timbaland was accused of “knowingly and willfully” using production (both motifs and samples) from Finnish composer Janne Suni’s 2000 song 'Acidjazzed Evening' for Nelly Furtado’s 2006 track titled 'Do It'.“That mess is so ridiculous. Sample and stole is two different things,” Timbaland said after a YouTube video posted on January 2007 by an anonymous user first made the charge.REUTERS/Mario AnzuoniRapper Vanilla Ice came 'Under Pressure' for lifting the bassline line from the hit Queen and Bowie record for his track titled 'Ice Ice Baby'.The suit was based on the fact that no attempt was made by Vanilla Ice to license or credit the original composers of the song.Although Vanilla Ice managed to save his face with an out-of-court settlement, he was drained off the majority of the royalties from the sales of the 1991 hit single and album.REUTERS/Denis BalibouseIn an instance of many out-of-court settlements, English group New Order paid country legend John Denver for lifting parts of Leaving on a Jet Plane for their single Run 2 (1989).The settlement also prohibited the song from being re-released in its original form.Denver is now enjoys the credit as a co-writer of the track on the Singles compilation.ReutersTopping the most high-profile cases of musical plagiarism is the one involving former Beatle George Harrison's 'My Sweet Lord'.Based on Harrison's new found faith and the Hindu God Krishna, the first solo single of the ex-Beatle found huge success.However, the sweetness of success did not last long as similarities between 'My Sweet Lord' and The Chiffon's 'He's so Fine' were reported, leading to a court battle.The U.S. federal court observed that Harrison was found to have unintentionally copied passages from the song.The legal battle that stretched for ten years finally ended in 1981 with Harrison paying up $500,000 for his 'unintentional lift'.REUTERS/Phil McCartenBut not all artists take a rip-off as an insult, instead there have been instances where the idiom 'Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery' seems to have come into play.Rock gods Led Zeppelin chose to turn a deaf ear to the similarities between their 1971 track 'Going to California' and Pearl Jam's 'Given to Fly'.When questioned on this, Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready even admitted, “It’s probably some sort of rip off of it I’m sure…Whether it’s conscious or unconscious, but that was definitely one of the songs I was listening to.”However, Led Zep, which seemed to take it as a sing of respect, collaborated with Pearl Jam in 2005. At a benefit concert, Pearl Jam and Robert Plant performed 'Given to Fly' and then led into 'Going to California'.REUTERS/Fatih SaribasAnother similar instance is that of Bruce Springsteen single, 'Radio Nowhere', which was considered similar to Tommy Tutone's 1982 hit, '867-5309/Jenny'. Tommy Heath, the lead singer of the band, responded to it saying, "I'm really honored at a similarity, if any, I think there's too much suing in the world now."REUTERS/Alessia PierdomenicoTom Petty also did not seem to mind the reports on the similarities between Red Hot Chili Peppers' 'Dani California' and his 'Mary Jane’s Last Dance'.His response was, "...a lot of RocknRoll songs sound alike. Ask Chuck Berry. The Strokes took 'American Girl', 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."REUTERS/Alberto Lowe
