Who doesn’t love a great pop hook — one so deliciously catchy, clever and (let’s face it) lucrative, maybe an artist couldn’t resist using it twice?
Today, Stereogum links to a splice (thanks, Final Cut Pro!) of laconic, Darth-voiced ’80s rapper Tone Loc’s two biggest hits, “Wild Thing” and “Funky Cold Medina” — revealing that they are, essentially, the same song.
Clearly, he’s not the first to get stuck on repeat, as last week’s kerfuffle over Beyonce’s “Halo” and Kelly Clarkson’s “Already Gone” handily proved (for the record, I’m sticking with Not So Much Alike At All on this one — same generic backbeat + different chord progressions, divided by two entirely divergent flavors of belting diva); so did the various plagiarism lawsuits against Coldplay for “Viva la Vida.”
Mostly, this entire post is an excuse to run this vintage (i.e. circa 2007) treasure: See Nickelback’s hits “How You Remind Me” and “Someday” in stereo, below — your Canadian goose is cooked, Chad Kroeger!:
But you tell us, readers: Which artists do you think have accidentally (on purpose?) Xeroxed their own hits — or pilfered best bits from others?
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Well, though not completely carbon copies, Janet Jackson and (especially)Whitney Houston 80s songs all sort of sound the same when you listen to them now.
But no one is more guilty of recycling the same crap over and over than Mariah Carey, she’s been singing the same song for the last 19 years and no one seems to mind.
Oh, but I mind. (-_-)
ACDC and Nickleback both have one song many different ways…The difference is ACDC ‘ song rocks and Nickleback’s is terrible.
The Nickelback thing is hilarious – and so true. You don’t need to go to such drastic measures to know that they just sing the same song over and over again. Can I add another group to the list? Becuase I think every song by The Fray sounds like every other song by The Fray.
The new Muse song, ‘Uprising’ sounds very similar to alot of their other songs. ‘Knights of Cydonia’ comes to mind. You could even pick up a bit of ‘Supermassive Black Hole’ in there too.
First thing came to my mind is precisely that every song from nickelback sounds the same… Dude, they suck big time!
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Beyonce’s If I Were A Boy lifts the backing track directly from One Of Us.
Neil Young’s Train Of Love and Western Hero, both from Sleeps With Angels album have the same tune.
The Kinks: You Really Got Me & All Day and All of the Night. They may sound like different versions of the same song, but they’re both incredible!
Believe it or not on one of the greatest rock albums ever released Pearl Jam’s Ten “Alive” and “Evenflow” contain the same guitar riff played slightly differently. It is almost unnoticeable unless you actually look at the sheet music / Tablature for the two songs.
They are not exact but pretty much all Ramones songs have the same guitar part.
Here’s the deal. The music industry is just as unoriginal as the movie industry. Somethings are knowing tributes, some are recycled for dollars, and others are “revisionings.” I think it is a 60/40 split between garbage and brilliance in both realms. Which is 60 and which is 40 is subjective.
The new Mika single, “We Are Golden” sounds exactly like Belinda Carlisle’s “Heaven Is A Place On Earth”.
For the classic rock fans: Neil Young’s “Mr. Soul” and the Rolling Stones “Satisfaction” – is that the same guitar riff? And then there’s the Kinks – “Destroyer” recycles “All Day And All Of The Night” (with a lyrical reference to “Lola”) and “Catch Me Now I’m Falling” steals from “Jumping Jack Flash”. Meanwhile, back over in pop – Whitney Houston’s new single sounds like every Clive Davis-approved ballad she (and other Arista artists) have ever recorded. Make it stop!
That Nickelback clip was such a discovery…. three or four years ago when it was first posted. A little late on this one, EW.
The only time I’ve deigned to sign a Britney Spears song was to prove that “Hit Me Baby One More Time” and “oops I Did It Again” were the same song.
Thank you. Now I only have to feel guilty about liking one Nickelback song.
I’m pretty sure Chris Brown’s song “With You” did same thing with Beyonce’s “Irreplaceable”. Play them together and you have the same track. Being both on Sony (just like with Kelly Clarkson and Beyonce), there’s obviously not a lot of active listening goin’ on over there at that label.
First of all this is such an unoriginal article, everyone and their mother knows about stuff like this.
Second, its to keep that distinctive sound. Look at AC/DC, they’ve been going at it for 15 years and counting. But their hasn;t really changed. If it aint broke, don’t fix it. The writer needs some original material, this article was stale!
AC/DC despite having a signature sound did not sound like they were playing the same song over and over. For instance “Hell’s Bells” is different form “Back in Black” and “Back in Black” sounds different than “You Shook me All Night Long”. All of Nickelback’s songs sound exactly alike and so do The Fray’s songs. The reason it hasn’t changed is because people keep buying the stuff. They don’t really care which is why I don’t see things changing. They are just trying to listen to something catchy on the way to work or while at the gym. I can’t fault someone for that.
Doesn’t this kind of thing happen a lot nowadays? Crappy films on Broadway? Older songs and film remakes? BAD older song and film remakes at that, worse than the original – 20 yrs+ earlier.
Yet people are still paying (overpaying) for media they can find or see cheaper. Or free! Hell, old bands are going out and doing their hits with the integrity of a tribute band. Sorry. But tweens through baby boomers are idiots for paying for the mangling of their own recycled memories.
I agree with The Frays songs all sounding alike, They all sound alike and are all usually depressing.
And to think poor George Harrison had to shell out millions and face the embarrassment of plagiarism charges because “My Sweet Lord” sounded a bit like “He’s so Fine”. Times have changed. Now slugs like Kid Rock “All Summer Long” are invited to rip off tunes from Lynrd Skynyrd “Sweet Home Alabama”
It reminded me of Bon Jovi’s “It’s My Life” in 2000. On his next album he had another hit called “Have a Nice Day” and it awfully sounded the same.
i’ve been saying this since nickelback hit the scene! i can’t tell one song from another!
another band that can’t write more than one chord progression was Everclear. i always felt that Art Alexakis was a great poet, but desperately needed someone else to write the music.
Not a fan of either, but “Holla Back girl” by Gwen Steffani, and “London Bridge” by Fergie are the same damn song.
Everclear music was kind of redundant but atleast Alexakis had something to say. Pop music is disposable and shallow and it’s only going to get worse because people will buy anything these days.
Both How You Remind Me and Someday sound so alike with the chords and choruses, yet they both sound good. I’ll predict that Chad Kroeger and his band Nickelback didn’t even notice it when they recorded Someday. Many bands are like that, even AC/DC. But it’s to keep their distinctive and familiar sound to listeners without trying to attempt something newer out of left field. But they know what their fans and newer listeners want. Babyface did it a lot on his ’80s/’90s hits for himself and his productions for other artists. People like those hooks and familiarity in pop songs and they don’t care if two songs sound identical or the same. Doesn’t Beyonce’s Halo, Kelly Clarkson’s All I.. and even Kristinia DeBarge’s Speak Up sound alike? But Ryan Tedder is a good pop music producer and musician on these songs!
No one talked about Coldplay’s Viva La Vida and New Kids On the Block and Ne-Yo’s Single last year. NKOTB sings the same verse style as on the Coldplay song. No one even went after those two songs this time last year.
Nice pick up Preston, i only just noticed it! (But what song of Coldplay’s didn’t get them in controversy last year, hehe…)
The two Nickelback songs normally do not sound a thing alike. Someone had to have edited it or something, like slowed it down. The two songs aren’t even in the sam key and just don’t sound alike to me. They are two very different songs with different harmonies and things like that. Use your brains, haters, and quit wasting your time making/looking up things about bands you dislike!! It makes no sense. But why should I care? It’s YOU’RE time you’re wasting, not mine!!