Plagiarism?????

Junior Vagabond

Blue Star

Plagiarism- is the "use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work.

When I was in the 5th Grade I used to listen to different OPM songs from bands like Eraserheads, Rivermaya and Parokya ni Edgar. E-heads might be the most influencial and best selling band among this three. They are considered as the Philippine's version of The Beatles.

In one of their album named Cutterpillow, there is a song called "walang nagbago". This song caught my attention because somewhere in the middle, a very artistic way of chord shifting technique was made. The volume minimized a bit, the voice & the guitar lick also set a good mood which makes the sound quite impressive.

One day my brother went home from Manila and gave me a Rivermaya CD compilation. As I listen to the tracks, I came across a song called "Grounded ang girlfriend ko". This song made me raise my eyebrow, because the chord shifting part of Eraserhead's walang nagbago, seemed to have been sounded the same with it's chord shifting pattern. I asked my brother about it and he said, he noticed the same thing.

It was not a big deal to me at first,, but when I was in college, I heard lots of issues about plagiarism, ,,song rip offs,,, and all that kind of stuff. Especially when a song from a pinoy band Orange & Lemons ("pinoy ako") was said to be a rip off from the band The Care's ("Chandeliers"). It's super obvious. Everything sounded alike especially the intro, verses, and the chorus. It was like the notes of a famous song used for a nursery rhyme.

I've experienced studio recording in college with my former band WIZHFULLTINKERZ. On the day we scheduled the recording, we met Kuya Macoy, a famous drummer for the band SIN. He's the genius behind great record quality of famous Filipino bands especially the one's in the Philippine version of the World's battle of the band compilation CD. He recorded, mixed and arranged all our songs all by himself. And the price is reasonable. I didn't think that one day I will do a video, not against his band, but maybe will get them mad at me.

I have a World's Battle of the Band 2006 CD Compilation. The first track is Sin's famous song "Amorphisis". Yeah great song, awesome riffs and drum patterns. But one time, while I'm watching some music videos in youtube, I unthinkably clicked one of Unearth's song, "Endless". I found it a very interesting song,,,, but,,, there's a spot which I really played back a number of times, if I'm not mistaken, I heard a guitar variation similar to a riff somewhere in Sin's; Amorphisis. Well I don't know what to call it, but for me they sound almost exactly the same, and I can't call it plagiarism alone. So I made a list of some songs I heard that sounds similar enough that it can be called a rip-off. I ended up making 4 videos, and the Eraserheads- Rivermaya thing is in part 4, while SIN-Unearth is in part 1. Enjoy!!!!

part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yRtHm2F06w

part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79Hp01uhWcc

part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKNQiX5LpqU

part 4:

I would suggest that you make your own review about this topic, just make sure, no foul plays, what I mean by that is, you're not saying directly that the bands ripped some songs and represent them as theirs. But leave the answer to the people to whom you're gonna show your reviews, like me, I made this for viewers to have the idea so they can make their own researches and analogies.

Now I'm asking you, Plagiarism, or Coincidence???