Expo theme song - blatent copy or chance similarity?

Corbett | April 24, 2010 1:17 PM

As a musician, I'm intrigued by the current copyright issue surrounding the Official Expo theme song sung by a cast of Mandarin pop stars and actors, and it's similarity to Mayo Okamoto's song "Stay the Way You Are."

It's easy on one hand to say that someone lifted it note for note, but to be 100% fair it's not exactly the same either. How much not alike is it? Well, the second phrase drops down like so many other pop songs, or Pachabel's Canon and a thousand other harmonically similar songs, while the original doesn't. Or you could count each note that is different - there are a few - but that'd be splitting hairs. In the end I think you have to listen to the entire verse as a whole and ask yourself copy or not copy.

In case you're wondering which side of the fence I'm on - well, c'mon this is China.

Listen for your self on NPR (about halfway down the page):
Tyranny Of High Expectations Plagues Shanghai Expo

Category: Music

Comments (0)

---

Add a comment

---

---

Name

Email Address

URL

Remember personal info?

Comments

Captcha:

Type the characters you see in the picture above.