In J
uly 2007, Avril Lavigne was accused of the act of plagiarism for her first hit off her new CD, The Best Damn Thing. “Girlfriend” has been claimed to be too similar to the Rubinoo’s hit “I Wanna be Your Boyfriend” in 1979. Even though Avril said she had never heard this song before, many believe she plagiarized it. Did she subconsciously steal this song or did she plagiarize it on purpose? In my opinion this argument can lean both ways. When most people hear the two songs they probably think that they have nothing in common and that Avril did not plagiarize, at least that is what I thought at first. You have to take everything into consideration: lyrics, rhythm, tempo, instruments and more. The lyrics “hey, hey, you, you” are the same in both songs, and the song meanings are very similar. Except for the fact that the Rubinoos talk about how they want to be someone’s boyfriend, and Avril talks about how she does not like a boys girlfriend and thinks that she is much better for him. The rhythms of the two songs are similar but Girlfriend has a much more up-beat tempo.
In my opinion I think that Avril Lavigne has not broken copyright law, she was able to use 10% of others songs without it being plagiarized but if she was going to use more then 10% she would have had to ask for permission. Avril is a huge star in this day and age, so why would she need to steal others peoples songs? Especially when she doesn’t write her songs completely by herself so she and her song writer should have no problem coming up with new songs. The song “I Wanna be Your Boyfriend,” might have been used for a bit of inspiration, but I do not think Avril and her co-writer, Luke Gottwald, copied this song 100%. This case obviously affected Avril’s career, but not a lot. I had never even heard of this case until this case study, and I’m sure many fans of Avril haven’t. Considering her fan base mainly consists of young teens, they usually do not pay attention to what the media says about their favourite artists.
Personally I had never heard about the Rubinoos before this, so I would think they would be kind of thankful Avril did this? She did bring a part of them back, and now more and more people have heard of them. Although I can understand why the Rubinoos would sue Avril, after all she is making way more money off her hit then they ever did. With this all being taken into consideration, I still stick with my opinion that Avril Lavigne did not plagiarize the song “Girlfriend”, and that she used the Rubinoos' song for inspiration.
uly 2007, Avril Lavigne was accused of the act of plagiarism for her first hit off her new CD, The Best Damn Thing. “Girlfriend” has been claimed to be too similar to the Rubinoo’s hit “I Wanna be Your Boyfriend” in 1979. Even though Avril said she had never heard this song before, many believe she plagiarized it. Did she subconsciously steal this song or did she plagiarize it on purpose? In my opinion this argument can lean both ways. When most people hear the two songs they probably think that they have nothing in common and that Avril did not plagiarize, at least that is what I thought at first. You have to take everything into consideration: lyrics, rhythm, tempo, instruments and more. The lyrics “hey, hey, you, you” are the same in both songs, and the song meanings are very similar. Except for the fact that the Rubinoos talk about how they want to be someone’s boyfriend, and Avril talks about how she does not like a boys girlfriend and thinks that she is much better for him. The rhythms of the two songs are similar but Girlfriend has a much more up-beat tempo.In my opinion I think that Avril Lavigne has not broken copyright law, she was able to use 10% of others songs without it being plagiarized but if she was going to use more then 10% she would have had to ask for permission. Avril is a huge star in this day and age, so why would she need to steal others peoples songs? Especially when she doesn’t write her songs completely by herself so she and her song writer should have no problem coming up with new songs. The song “I Wanna be Your Boyfriend,” might have been used for a bit of inspiration, but I do not think Avril and her co-writer, Luke Gottwald, copied this song 100%. This case obviously affected Avril’s career, but not a lot. I had never even heard of this case until this case study, and I’m sure many fans of Avril haven’t. Considering her fan base mainly consists of young teens, they usually do not pay attention to what the media says about their favourite artists.
Personally I had never heard about the Rubinoos before this, so I would think they would be kind of thankful Avril did this? She did bring a part of them back, and now more and more people have heard of them. Although I can understand why the Rubinoos would sue Avril, after all she is making way more money off her hit then they ever did. With this all being taken into consideration, I still stick with my opinion that Avril Lavigne did not plagiarize the song “Girlfriend”, and that she used the Rubinoos' song for inspiration.
Not Listed. "Avril Lavigne” No date. Online image. Musicbox. http://musicbox.sonybmg.com/files/imagecache/grand_square/files/artist_images/avril.jpg.
Phillips, Gary. "Rubinoos” No date. Online image. Gary Phillips Memorial Page. .
No comments:
Post a Comment