Inspiration Comes In Many Forms: Did Usher Copy Homer Simpson?

from the wow-wow-wow dept

This one is a bit old, and I had meant to write about it during the holidays, but got busy with some other stuff. However, it's such an amusing story I can't resist writing it up, even if it's a bit late. Apparently, some radio DJs noticed some serious similarities between Usher and will.i.am's new song OMG... with a Homer Simpson song from a few years back. Of course, you have to hear it yourself: Of course, to be fair, this is a really simple song, and there's at least some chance that these songs were created entirely independently. Alternatively, it wouldn't be at all surprising to find out that someone had seen this Simpson's episode and without even remembering it, that little hook got caught in their mind, and was there subconsciously later on.

Either way, the real question should be: does it really matter? I mean, it's amusing, but is the world any worse off if Usher and will.i.am did blatantly copy Homer Simpson? Even if you don't like one song (or the other), copying doesn't do anything to harm the original, and obviously the Usher song is really quite different in overall tone and intent. The two are hardly competing. When this story first came out, lots of folks were quick to slam Usher and will.i.am -- and it may seem easy to mock them for supposedly copying a cartoon character -- but music is all about inspiration and creating and building off of a variety of influences. If one of those influences happens to be Homer Simpson... is that really such a problem?

Filed Under: homer simpson, inspiration, music, usher, wow wow wow