So I don't know if you guys have heard, but there was recent controversy over the Sam Smith song "Stay With Me." It has a very similar tune to Tom Petty's "Won't Back Down." Because of this, Tom Petty has gotten a certain percentage of the profits. Is Sam Smith a crooked plagiarist or an innocent musician? Judge for yourselves and feel free to share your opinion. [YOUTUBE]pB-5XG-DbAA[/YOUTUBE] [YOUTUBE]nvlTJrNJ5lA[/YOUTUBE]
I saw this somewhere before. I honestly don't think that Petty should get a chunk of the profit. There have been songs that have sounded more similar and nobody bats an eye.
Coincidence is the only reason why these songs sound remotely similar. Petty's song shares sequences where the melody sounds alike especially at the hook of Smith's song. Smith is still pretty talented, lyrically ingenious, and very emotionally soulful so this controversy doesn't disparage my bearing on him as a fan. This particular song is good, but not his best. Check those out if you haven't. So my final verdict: innocent musician. I'm a bit inflamed over the deal that forces him to pay Petty a portion of the song's profit. It's unfair and justified with very poor evidence. The need for doubt in civil cases is much lower than with criminal cases, but nonetheless I hate it. Petty's irrelevant to me.:tantrum:
From what I've read, it was settled out of court and it's only like 12%. Also, Tom Petty and one other guy are now officially "co-writers" of Sam Smith's song because of this whole debacle.
I think this is purely ridiculous! To me, the only thing that seems remotely similar is the melody on the chorus and I don't think Sam would steal it from an other artist. There are only so many combinations of musical notes that one can invent, and this was a simple coincidence. Tom shouldn't have any profit from this... but that's just my opinion.
Agreed. There is a fleeting part of the song where there is a similarity, but it is down to coincidence, not plagiarism. The likelihood of Tom Petty and this one particular song being known to someone way outside his generation is pretty darn slim. Lets face it, Tom Petty isn't really a household name, I've never heard of his and I consider myself reasonably good with musical knowledge. They should have given him nothing, he does not deserve royalties when there has been no obvious sampling or plagiarism.
Erm, I don't know where you're from, but Tom Petty is really famous. Not to mention Won't Back Down is a very popular song. Popular enough that even Johnny Cash covered it. (His version is amazing, btw)
I honestly didn't know either. Actually I stumbled upon Sam Smith's Instagram account but didn't know what he was so famous for, lol.
Am I the only one who finds this entire thing ridiculous? I've heard songs that sound so much more similar but no one bats an eye. Reading some of the comments on facebook links to this debate are ridiculous. Are people so judgemental that as soon as there's any similarity in a song, Sam Smith becomes an "unoriginal hack"? So dumb...
Innocent. Only the chorus has the same chord progression, and it even drifts from that. This reminds me of when 1D had their controversy over whether "Best Song Ever" was plagiarized from "Baba O'Riley" and Pete Townshend was like "meh, it's no biggie. I actually like 1D and they're doing what I did anyway".
Despite there being literally limitless rhythms and sounds there really are so many viable ones. Sometimes things will sound similar. I don't think Tom Petty is owed anything. But. Oh well.