Cat’s in the Griddle

I saw a video article today that I thought was a pretty good example of knowing just enough to be dangerous.  The hosts of the video were explaining how Cat Stevens was accusing Coldplay of plagiarizing one of his songs from the ‘60s.  The hosts of the video play part of the Coldplay song and then go on to play part of the Cat Stevens song – the hosts were very surprised by the similarities.

For those reading who aren’t musicians, let me explain that this is complete nonsense.  The similarities between the songs were part of the chord progression and maybe half a bar of rhythm.  What the most non-musician-types don’t realize is that this particular chord progression could be found in, (I’m not exaggerating), thousands of songs.  It is one of the most basic and common chord progressions in Western music – (and I don’t mean Country Western music!)

Fans like to believe that the music in songs is original and created by some incredible stroke of genius.  This is crazy.  However, sometimes I see similar ideas hold artists back.  When a writer starts thinking that he or she needs to come up with something entirely original, they are doomed to either be in a weird denial or to create something that only they can understand.  (Wait a second, I sense some artistic egos drawing their pistolas… hear me out.)

When I was in my late teens, I was practicing the piano ten hours a day with the goal of going to a fancy music school.  After a while with this crazy regiment, I developed tendonitis in both of my arms and had to stop playing for several years.  So instead of giving up music altogether, I studied composition. 

My teacher would have me copy every note, staff and articulation on all sorts of Bach and Beethoven pieces and then we would diagram the form of the piece.  He said several times that every composer was standing on the shoulders of his or her predecessors.

One day I was in the music library at UNM and came across one of Bach’s children’s scores – (several of Bach’s children were composers).  I was very surprised to learn that the first sixteen or so bars of this Bach piece were nearly identical to a piano piece that I had played… by Beethoven.  The Beethoven piece must have been one of Beethoven’s learning exercises and he was building off and learning from Bach.  (If this weren’t an exercise, I think it would actually qualify for plagiarism). 

During these same composition lessons, my teacher broke some very bad news to me.  He explained that the Western music, that we’re all familiar with, is all out of options for new inventions.  There is nothing new to invent.  He compared it to a deck of playing cards which has limited variables and the variables have all been used up – no new games can be invented.  Soon after, I learned about other systems of music that were developed to enable the potential of “new inventions.”  We won’t be hearing any of these on our pop radio stations.

All of this to say, it’s a good thing to build off of a strong musical vocabulary from the past; there is no easy way to come up with a chord progression that is new; and Cat Stevens is really just trying to get some press with the hope of selling a few more CDs.