Reason.com: The only obvious similarities between [plaintiff Sean Hall's Playas Gon' Play and defendant Taylor Swift's Shake It Off] is that Playas Gon' Play contains the lyrics "Playas, they gonna play / And haters, they gonna hate," and Shake it Off contains the lyrics "'Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play / And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate." The lynchpin of this entire case is thus whether or not the lyrics "Playas, they gonna play / And haters, they gonna hate" are eligible for protection under the Copyright Act.
2 comments:
These court documents are really interesting. Obviously Taylor Swift has lawsuit after lawsuit after her because of her derivative lyrics along with her popularity. In this case I don’t think there was any legal basis whatsoever to suing her. The lyrics are the same but they are also very rudimentary and obvious.
The title lead me to believe that this piece would be about Taylor Swift’s repeated offenses in a lack of creativity. She has a sort of derivative nature that lacks a direction and instead comes off as copying other artists who have had success in markets that she hasn’t. For instance, in Wildest Dreams she mimics Lana Del Rey’s musical style, even down to her wispy and breathy voice. Upon hearing the song for the first time I was almost confused, until I heard the lyricism and recognized Swift’s poetic style.
This raises another question: when do we cross the line from artists to performers? I would never call what Taylor Swift does art because of its derivative and uninspired nature. Obviously legality plays no stake in that but I think it’s an important question that artists need to raise about pop culture of the 21st century.
This case draws me to question what originality is. Especially when it comes to music, there seem to be only so many things you can do and create through music that are truly original. I used to fully believe this, but lately with music from people like Bon Iver and Kendrick Lamar, I’m realizing that originality in music is not dead. As technology continues to evolve, all the different ways in which we can use it are increasing as well. However, since commercial pop songs are focused more on appealing to the masses and not so much on creativity and making art, many rely on the same strategies to bring in the plays. I kind of feel like, with pop songs, does it matter if they have similar lyrics? I know that the answer is yes, it has to matter, so that all music is protected equally. But sometimes it just seems like the people who write Taylor Swift-y music are not trying to be original...
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