Comments on: Habitude Commercial Music - Seattle Jingle Composer - Chris Marx

By: Jason

Jason — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 16:57:32 +0000

The accompaniment is what is similar to Two Weeks. Not the melody at all. Nobody seemed to bitch when Madonna released “Hung Up” which CLEARLY uses ABBA’s “Gimme Gimme Gimme” as the background nor did anyone bitch when Mary J. Blige clearly used the Theme to The Young and the Restless for “No More Drama”.

So what’s the problem?

By: Chris Marx

Chris Marx — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 03:17:06 +0000

This is a good discussion.

Money is owed if there are 7 notes of a melody that is blatantly ripped off… its even worse if the same lyrics are used.

Music isn’t a perfect science so there is a lot of grey area in what is different and what is the same. I agree that there are similarities between the two and I should have changed a few other things a little more, but definitely no money is owed.

I would say this is an arrangement of the 2 weeks song or a mashup of two songs. As far as copyright is concerned, arrangements owe a royalty to the original composer.

By: cooje

cooje — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 01:41:43 +0000

But….the point is he didn’t really write it. It’s a blatant rip off.

You owe some people some money, or free haircuts.

lame

By: Michael

Michael — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 19:46:43 +0000

Nice theme Chris! Good job
And for all who posted negative comments:
STFU, guys
try to write something as good as this, AND find a person who will BUY it, and then you can write a comment like this. If not - well, eat shit and die (c) Duke Nukem :)))))))

By: Chris Marx

Chris Marx — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 23:58:22 +0000

Sorry it took me a while to post a response. I had a blast in Italy over the holidays and my birthday… and frankly had better things to do than deal with negativity.

By: Chris Marx

Chris Marx — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 23:57:00 +0000

Hi Noel,
Thanks for the comment!
There is a fair amount of copying involved in commercial music. My method for writing this was to incorporate some key components from the “2 weeks” song and key components from other songs that the client had picked out for me as the sound they were going for.

I listened to all the songs many times and then when I started arranging the 30 second spot didn’t listen to the music for a while. After going to back the the two weeks song, I was surprised at how many of the notes in my guitar melody are the same as the vocal melody for two weeks. I didn’t do that on purpose, but there isn’t really a reason to change it other than negative comments.

The rules of musical copyright infringement as far as I know… (and I received my degree in commercial music from Berklee College of Music) are that you can’t copy more than 7 notes of a MELODY. Melody is a key word. The following can’t be copyright protected -chord changes, - drum grooves -arrangments… non-melody type things. This is why you see so many songs use the blues for chord progressions. Another common chord progression is called “rhythm changes”.

An interesting side note is that in Rick James, “super freak” I think the bass line was copied by another artist and because the bassline is so unique in that song, it was considered the melody at that point of the song. So the melody doesn’t have to be sung or played by the piano…

Another interesting copy right note is that in movies, to keep costs down, a movie that wants to use a famous song will often re-record the song with a different artist because its usually cheaper than paying a licensing fee to the original artist to use the original recording. So the movie still pays some copyright fees for using the artists lyrics and melody, but it avoids paying copyright fees for using the recording of the artist’s performance. Those fees I’ve heard can be up to 100k or more sometimes… SO GET YOUR RECORDINGS INTO A MOVIE if you can!!!

Thanks!

By: Jonathan Negley

Jonathan Negley — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 22:06:21 +0000

Noel, I find it fascinating how grounded you are. You clearly have life all figured out.

What was that you were saying about life choices? Oh yeah that’s right, I’ll just mark that under ‘ Weak, Scared and Pathetic’ thanks again… prick.

By: Noel

Noel — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 05:59:02 +0000

You didn’t do any writing at all! Or arranging! Give me a break! And the fact they took it off their website is pretty telling.

By: chris marx

chris marx — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 10:45:41 +0000

Well Thanks Noel!
I spent a good amount of time on the arranging and writing of it.

Good luck with your life choices,
I hope your comments bring you much success in the new year.

By: Noel

Noel — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 09:00:49 +0000

What a slimy joke to say you “wrote” this, or did any “composing.” If you made money off this racket, then you’ve made bad life choices.