Songs that inspired Michael

That's called shuffle-rhythm and it wasn't invented by Tears for Fears. It comes from blues music, so I am not sure if MJ was inspired by Everybody Wants To Rule The World.

I did not say that Tears for Fears invented that type of rhythm.

I only addressed this similarity.
 
That's called shuffle-rhythm and it wasn't invented by Tears for Fears. It comes from blues music, so I am not sure if MJ was inspired by Everybody Wants To Rule The World.
Given that Katherine asked him to write a song with a shuffle rhythm, I doubt he was specifically inspired by Tears for Fears.
 
The list of music Michael has been influenced by is so large... It would be harder to find music that was not an influence... We are talking about a guy that would commonly get music from around the world sent to his house to study what people are listening to everywhere - find what is common and utilize it to draw in the most amount of listeners..

There is no secret that Motown, Blues, Jazz, classical music, Stevie, and the Bee Gee's were huge musical influences though..
 
Manu Dibango feat. Fania All Stars ~ Soul Makossa

The chant on Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' comes from here
 
Denny Jaeger

This is is a demonstration record released in 1981 called The Incredible Sounds Of Synclavier II. I have no idea if Mike heard this or not. But maybe Quincy Jones or Bruce Swedien had. Some producers of the past used sound effect records and they generally weren't listed in the credits. Go to 6:40 of this video
 
Yellow Magic Orchestra ~ Behind The Mask

This is a mostly instrumental track that came out in 1979. Mike later wrote some different lyrics to it and was recorded by Greg Phillinganes and then Eric Clapton. Greg plays on Eric's version too.
 
^ Later Ryuichi Sakamoto of the Yellow Magic Orchestra recorded MJ's version as well:

 
Re: Denny Jaeger

This is is a demonstration record released in 1981 called The Incredible Sounds Of Synclavier II. I have no idea if Mike heard this or not. But maybe Quincy Jones or Bruce Swedien had. Some producers of the past used sound effect records and they generally weren't listed in the credits. Go to 6:40 of this video
Wow, a great (albeit perhaps slightly disappointing) find, did not know about this one.
 
Since they used that gong sound for Beat It from a demo record, did they have to pay to use it?
 
Song credits were still pretty sloppy in the 80s. For example, MJ wasn't credited for Behind the Mask on Eric Clapton's album sleeve, as far as I know.
 
Since they used that gong sound for Beat It from a demo record, did they have to pay to use it?

No. See, the sound itself is actually produced by the Synclavier II so Quincy and Michael just used that sound on their own Synclavier II in the studio. They didn't sample the demo disc (although it seems like they were inspired by that, I can see Quincy/Bruce hearing that demo disc and basing the intro off that).

You can see Junkie XL also use it here and produce the exact same sound in this behind the scenes video for the Deadpool soundtrack:
(2m56s for reference)

Goddamn that's such a cool sound!!
 
Since they used that gong sound for Beat It from a demo record, did they have to pay to use it?
If they did actually use the demo, instead of replaying it, I think they do have to pay. At least that is the case with the sound effect (aka sound library) records. The companies who put out the sound effect records get paid a fee, but I don't think they get royalties, and don't have to be credited. If you hear saws, cars, animals, crowd noises, rain, etc. on a song, they usually come from these sound effect records. If the act or producer doesn't want to pay, they might record the sound themselves, like the water sounds on Yellow Submarine by The Beatles or the heartbeat on Smooth Criminal.
 
MJ’s ‘Fall Again’, which was recorded in 1999, is melodically similar to Sting’s ‘Shape Of My Heart' (1993):

[video=youtube;BcVkZfIXaG0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcVkZfIXaG0[/video]

[video=youtube;KAzV2PxbzvA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAzV2PxbzvA[/video]
 
mj_frenzy;4143448 said:
MJ’s ‘Fall Again’, which was recorded in 1999, is melodically similar to Sting’s ‘Shape Of My Heart' (1993):

[video=youtube;BcVkZfIXaG0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcVkZfIXaG0[/video]

[video=youtube;KAzV2PxbzvA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAzV2PxbzvA[/video]

Fall Again wasn't written by MJ.
 
I know.

But, it still annoys me when singers (MJ in this case) record tracks & the strong melodic resemblance (to previously released songs) is not rightfully credited.

It was not MJ's job or business to change the credits of a song he did not write.
 
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But, it still annoys me when singers (MJ in this case) record tracks & the strong melodic resemblance (to previously released songs) is not rightfully credited.
What about genres that have a standard sound and many of the songs in that genre sound similar like "drums n bass", house music, reggaeton, and rave/techno? I've heard many Tejano songs and a lot of them sound alike too, the same vocal style, the music, and even how the songs end. They don't usually fade out.
 
I think Darling Nikki could've influenced Dirty Diana. I mean the settings are very similar and they're both about groupies. Plus, both songs' music videos are of live performances.

There is a demo of Dirty Diana that is dated back to 83.
 
Sister Sledge

I know Quincy Jones said Beat It was inspired by My Sharona, but there's a riff during the verses of this 1981 Sister Sledge song that sounds a little like it. There's even breathing before the guitar solo.
 
What about genres that have a standard sound and many of the songs in that genre sound similar like "drums n bass", house music, reggaeton, and rave/techno? I've heard many Tejano songs and a lot of them sound alike too, the same vocal style, the music, and even how the songs end. They don't usually fade out.

I can understand what you mean.

It looks very strange to me why these genres you mentioned appear to be so lax when it comes to music plagiarism.

But, on the other hand, one could claim that such legal cases do arise (Tejano songs, for example) but many of them just never happen to come to light.
 
I can understand what you mean.

It looks very strange to me why these genres you mentioned appear to be so lax when it comes to music plagiarism.

But, on the other hand, one could claim that such legal cases do arise (Tejano songs, for example) but many of them just never happen to come to light.
The lyrics & melody might be copyrighted, but guitar/bass riffs and drum patterns can't really be. There's a lot of old blues songs that have the same guitar riff, same for reggae. Some types of music just have a generic sound that makes it readily identifiable to what it is. For any type of music, there's only so many notes, so is anything really unique? Maybe someone can do it with some kinds of avant-garde music, but that generally doesn't appeal to a wide audience. There's a video on Youtube where some guys demonstrate that a lot of pop hits have the same 3 or 4 chords and so are interchangable with each other. The only difference is that the songs have different lyrics or different instruments. I think the video is used for humor, but it still shows that a lot of songs sound alike.
 
DuranDuran;4187726 said:
The lyrics & melody might be copyrighted, but guitar/bass riffs and drum patterns can't really be. There's a lot of old blues songs that have the same guitar riff, same for reggae. Some types of music just have a generic sound that makes it readily identifiable to what it is. For any type of music, there's only so many notes, so is anything really unique? Maybe someone can do it with some kinds of avant-garde music, but that generally doesn't appeal to a wide audience. There's a video on Youtube where some guys demonstrate that a lot of pop hits have the same 3 or 4 chords and so are interchangable with each other. The only difference is that the songs have different lyrics or different instruments. I think the video is used for humor, but it still shows that a lot of songs sound alike.

This does not look to be far from reality.

It even also applies to one of my favorite songwriters/producers, Rodney Jerkins. Certain songs that Jerkins had a significant input sound (musically) very similar to previously released ones. For example, ‘Lose My Breath’ (2004) which is very similar to Justin Timberlake’s ‘Like I Love You’ (2002), or ‘I Got U’ (2005) which again resembles a lot Janet’s ‘My Baby’ (2004), etc.

Now, regarding songs that MJ had involvement in the songwriting/production aspect, I find the third verse from ‘You Rock My World’ (“And girl, I know that this is love… to have you here”) musically very similar to the third verse from ‘If I Told You That’ (“If we take this chance… for you and me”). ‘You Rock My World’ was released in 2001, while Whitney Houston’s ‘If I Told You That’ was released in 1998.
 
mj_frenzy;4187976 said:
It even also applies to one of my favorite songwriters/producers, Rodney Jerkins. Certain songs that Jerkins had a significant input sound (musically) very similar to previously released ones. For example, ‘Lose My Breath’ (2004) which is very similar to Justin Timberlake’s ‘Like I Love You’ (2002), or ‘I Got U’ (2005) which again resembles a lot Janet’s ‘My Baby’ (2004), etc.
He did that with Chanté Moore & Jennifer Lopez. You can hear Chanté talking about Puff Daddy (who was dating J Lo at the time) telling Rodney to give the song to Jennifer. Chante's song came out first, but she's not as well known as J Lo, even though Chante's recording career started when J Lo was still a Fly Girl dancing on In Living Color. You can watch 5:00 to the end of this video to hear about it
[video=youtube;jc208ExpyMQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jc208ExpyMQ[/video]
There's some oldies songs that literally uses the same music track, but are released as different songs, such as Am I The Same Girl by Barbara Acklin & Soulful Strut by Young-Holt Unlimited. Both songs came out on the same label. Some labels back then did this to save money. There's also the answer songs (aka reply songs). They often sounded like the song they were replying to, so the audience will easily know. Here's a short documentary that says that a lot of entertainment, not just music, is a copy of something before it.

[video=youtube;nJPERZDfyWc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJPERZDfyWc[/video]
 
DuranDuran;4188046 said:
He did that with Chanté Moore & Jennifer Lopez. You can hear Chanté talking about Puff Daddy (who was dating J Lo at the time) telling Rodney to give the song to Jennifer. Chante's song came out first, but she's not as well known as J Lo, even though Chante's recording career started when J Lo was still a Fly Girl dancing on In Living Color. You can watch 5:00 to the end of this video to hear about it


Chanté Moore’s slight bitterness (towards Rodney Jerkins) makes sense. I can completely understand how she feels about that.

But, if you ask me, Puff Daddy is to blame for that mess-up. He should not have intervened in the first place. Yet, Daddy’s avariciousness does not surprise me at all!

I also gather that Chanté Moore implies pressures from Jennifer Lopez’s camp (by mentioning that Lopez “had such a machine at the time”) for not releasing the song ‘If I Gave Love’ as her next single.

DuranDuran;4188046 said:
There's some oldies songs that literally uses the same music track, but are released as different songs, such as Am I The Same Girl by Barbara Acklin & Soulful Strut by Young-Holt Unlimited. Both songs came out on the same label. Some labels back then did this to save money. There's also the answer songs (aka reply songs). They often sounded like the song they were replying to, so the audience will easily know. Here's a short documentary that says that a lot of entertainment, not just music, is a copy of something before it.

When it comes to movies, I am firmly convinced that many filmmakers copy shamelessly other movies, & ‘pay homage to’ is merely a euphemism for ‘copy blatantly from’.

Take the horror movie genre for instance (which, by the way, is the only genre that appeals to me). I never understood what was so special about ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ to the point where so many subsequent horror movies keep taking elements from that one. I want original horror ideas.
 
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