Yes, the songs sound very familiar.
For one, the rhythm of the melody has the same basic foundation. They both begin with a pickup one beat before the measure - one eighth followed by two quarter notes. This alone wouldn't be too great a similarity, however the reason they ring so familiarly is because both melodies begin on the seventh degree of the scale.
More significantly, the chord progressions are nearly identical. In the verses, "Viva la Vida" follows a IV V Im7 vii pattern strictly. In "The Songs I Didn't Write," we see a similar foundation of ii V I vi pattern, with the occasional V/vii chord in place of a V chord during the chorus (resolves to V/iii, which resolves back to the ii again to begin the next verse).
However, the similarity of these songs doesn't mean that Coldplay is guilty of anything. Listen to "The Foreigner" by Cat Stevens and "If I could Fly" by Joe Satriani. Music repeats itself over and over and over again. Consequently, being an 'incredibly good plagiarist' is a pretty useful skill, don't you think?
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For one, the rhythm of the melody has the same basic foundation. They both begin with a pickup one beat before the measure - one eighth followed by two quarter notes. This alone wouldn't be too great a similarity, however the reason they ring so familiarly is because both melodies begin on the seventh degree of the scale.
More significantly, the chord progressions are nearly identical. In the verses, "Viva la Vida" follows a IV V Im7 vii pattern strictly. In "The Songs I Didn't Write," we see a similar foundation of ii V I vi pattern, with the occasional V/vii chord in place of a V chord during the chorus (resolves to V/iii, which resolves back to the ii again to begin the next verse).
However, the similarity of these songs doesn't mean that Coldplay is guilty of anything. Listen to "The Foreigner" by Cat Stevens and "If I could Fly" by Joe Satriani. Music repeats itself over and over and over again. Consequently, being an 'incredibly good plagiarist' is a pretty useful skill, don't you think?
Techdirt has not posted any stories submitted by jakehohsfield.
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