Plagiarism

pla·gia·rism- noun- 1.The practice of taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as one's own.

                A truly plagiarized piece of music is the most identifiable beat in Queen’s song “Under Pressure”. It was taken, without credit to Queen, by Vanilla Ice, and it is believed that this beat is what generated the sales for his hit “Ice, Ice, Baby”. Popularity of a songs sales are usually directly correlated to the catchiness and memorability of the main riff. The case was never brought to court, but an out of court agreement between Queen management and Vanilla Ice was believed to occur, since Queen’s re-mastered CD features a caption for the song “Under Pressure” where it is stated that the beat was used in Vanilla Ice's single.

"David Bowie, Queen and Vanilla Ice." Vanilla Ice and Queen. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Apr. 2014.

"Famous Copyright Infringement Plagiarism Cases in Music." Famous Copyright Infringement Plagiarism Cases in Music. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Apr. 2014.

"Vanilla Ice Ice Ice Baby." WhoSampled. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Apr. 2014.

                An allegedly plagiarized song is the Red Hot Chili Peppers Hit, “Dani California”, which holds striking similarities in sound to the Tom Petty classic, “Mary Jane’s Last Dance. There was rumor that the similarities would result in a large-scale law suit. Tom Petty was interviewed for a Rolling Stone magazine segment in which he was asked about the theft. He explains that in rock and roll there are many similar sounding songs, and that he doesn’t find the similarities malicious, and that he doesn’t mind. Whether or not the similarities were completely intentional remains, to this day, unknown.

"Petty Turns Blind Eye To Chili Peppers 'Plagiarism'" Contactmusic.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Apr. 2014.

"Red Hot Chili Peppers Accused Of Plagiarism." Blogcritics. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Apr. 2014.

"Tom Petty Doubts Chili Peppers Similarity Had "Negative Intent"" Rolling Stone. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Apr. 2014.