A Song is a Song

What’s in a song? Melody? Rhythm? Harmony? These three basic elements alone have countless possibilities in making a song. But as I saw in the news today, Guitar virtuoso Joe Satriani has sued the band Coldplay for their supposed infringement of their song “Viva La Vida” on one of Satriani’s songs. Viva La Vida is also the title of their new album. The cover features a piece of artwork called “Lady Liberty Leading the People”. The subject is a woman carrying the French flag while leading soldiers. Did Coldplay run out of ideas about album art as well? I digress.

Upon first listen, Viva La Vida is a good song. In fact it has all the workings of a great song. It’s catchy simple and has nothing too out of place. Then when the Joe Satriani song started to play, it sounded almost the same. The beat was similar, the tempo, even the melody of the song sounded really really similar. It almost seems as though it was intentionally copied. This probably raised a red flag for Joe Satriani and motivated him to file a lawsuit against Coldplay.

However infinite the possibilities of music are, our minds don’t have access to the infinite. There bound to be some crossroads where two seemingly unrelated sounds converge. That being said, it would seem that no one has the right to copyright arrangements of notes. Music shouldn’t be a wargame of capture the flag. It should be free in a sense that people can play or listen to whatever they want, claim whatever they want, be as sloppy as they want, as long as its good and has passion.