Commercial Tracks based on/blatantly copying Game Music

[Lampje4life]

Didn't see a topic about this yet, only VGM based on real life songs, not vice versa.

So today I was watching some Slam.FM (a popular TV/radio station here in The Netherlands) and I was disgusted. There was a track playing by Afrojack, named "Rock the House", and the melody was a copy/paste from FF8's The Landing (and even some Zanarkand in between).

I wonder why Square/Sony (I don't know who holds the rights) doesn't sue them, cause it's clearly a huge copy/paste.

Afrojack - Rock the House:

(Starts with the chords from Zanarkand)

(1:00 = The Landing, the main riff in the whole track)

(3:50 = Zanarkand again)

The Landing Original:

To Zanarkand Original:

Another one I found earlier, Adrenalize - Voices of Passion. It's a copy/paste (although there's a LITTLE more variation) of DKC2's Bayou Boogie.

Adrenalize - Voices of Passion:

Bayou Boogie Original:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsbV5mkNLsE

I wonder if you guys have any more examples.

Maybe it's weird but I feel sad in a way that the original composers / games don't get credit. It would be -ideal- to have them play at huge Clubs/Festivals and have the crowd known about the game they are from

[Annie Felis]

There's this bubbly-as-hell American pop song (I'm assuming) that played in a Wegmans while I was shopping this year, that had the melody of Fancy Mel from Drew Prism/Threads of Fate, but the rest of the song was unremarkable other than that plagerised bit. I have no idea who ripped that song, but it annoys me when plagerism happens in music.

Too bad it happens all the time, just google "plagerism" paired with "Beatles" or "Oasis" to see how much of their stuff was lifted from somebody else. I mean Oasis ripped off an iconic tune from a classic Coca-cola commercial and got away with it, just what.

[ad.mixx]

I don't think I have to even post this one, but

it's schala's theme for those who don't know

[ambient]

I don't think I have to even post this one, but

it's schala's theme for those who don't know

Like, seriously? This wouldn't even pass as a remix here... straight ripoff...

[Dj Mokram]

Didn't see a topic about this yet

I think there was already a topic called: "VGM with real-life counterparts", but I can't find it anymore...

Like, seriously? This wouldn't even pass as a remix here... straight ripoff...

Yeah, people keen on source interpretation might be upset about it. But this is how sampling has always worked in hip-hop music.

Legality of source usage is what concerns me, since this is a song from his latest album that also has an official music video and stuff.

Video which I will not link out of respect, because it's unsurprisingly NSFW and in no way related to Chrono Stripper ...er, I mean Trigger. ;P

Bottom line, he's proly making money off of SE's beloved property, most likely without being licensed nor paying royalties.

[Melbu Frahma]

Bottom line, he's proly making money off of SE's beloved property, most likely without being licensed nor paying royalties.

Which I'd imagine they can't be happy about. And I wouldn't blame 'em.

[Bahamut]

I like how the only good parts of that Afrojack song are the ripped off parts.

[Xenon Odyssey]

People complaining about Wiz Khalifa

Never Been was released on a mixtape called Kush & Orange Juice, which is available for free. The legality of it is no more than what we do here and the millions of tributes on YouTube. I'm sure he's probably gotten some schmucks to give him money for it, but it was released for free.

Same for this track (source), which is was released on his latest free mixtape, Taylor Allerdice.

However, he was signed to Warner Bros. Records in 2009 when he released this track,

, however I feel as if he actually sampled the Sonic tune in question, rather than his lazier attempts with Never Been (whether or not he released the record for free is debatable; I can't find too much info on that).

He also did

(

), however, this was after leaving Warner Bros. Records earlier in 2009, and we all are pretty familiar with Nintendo's stance on music usage.

That concludes your Wiz Khalifa video game sampling lesson for today, since this topic comes up all the time when these threads are posted, and this honestly took me 5 minutes on wikipedia; it took longer finding links for everything.

[Lampje4life]

Like, seriously? This wouldn't even pass as a remix here... straight ripoff...

I really don't get how they can get away with this :')

Kickstarter gets burned down, whining about piracy, seems they don't really care about plagiarism.

Also funny how some comment "it's inspired by <insert song title>". Yeah, copy/pasting is so inspiring lol. Atleast they should give proper credit.

It's funny to see a videoclip with thousands of people going crazy on a (bad) FF8 remix, though.

[KyleJCrb]

It goes the other way (game composers ripping off non-game songs) much more frequently, but there are a few examples of this:

- @1:27, they pretty clearly ripped a sample from the

album.

- Totally rips

.

- Dragonforce pretty handily ripped music from Double Dragon. They also

the intro to the song 'Winning Run' from Super Hang-On.

[Dj Mokram]

Never Been was released on a mixtape called Kush & Orange Juice, which is available for free. The legality of it is no more than what we do here and the millions of tributes on YouTube. I'm sure he's probably gotten some schmucks to give him money for it, but it was released for free.

I don't really know the guy or his music, so all these precisions are welcome. Thanks Xenon.

[zircon]

Afrojack sucks. No innovation or creativity in his music or most other popular electronic artists, sadly. Decent production at least. Pro tip: Supersaws or single buzzy overcompress saw waves being pitched around aren't cool.

[AngelCityOutlaw]

I find it hilarious that 9/10 of the people in popular music blatantly stealing from good music, often outside the mainstream, are terrible rappers.

Vanilla Ice blatantly stole from Queen

MC Hammer blatantly stole from Rick James

Wiz Kahlifa stole from Chrono Trigger's soundtrack

Tone Loc stole the guitar riff from "Jamie's Cryin'"

What pisses me off the most is how such douchebags call it "sampling".

[DaMonz]

Pendulum's Granite always reminds me of super mario world's castle music in the first 30 seconds.

I think this one is likely to be accidental, but still. It sounds VERY similar to me xD

[avaris]

Here's a list of Mitsuda songs sampled:

http://www.whosampled.com/sampled/Yasunori%20Mitsuda/

[2manygentlemen]

I've seen the beginning of Bliss by Muse compared to Top Gear's

.

[Meteo Xavier]

Here's a list of Mitsuda songs sampled:

http://www.whosampled.com/sampled/Yasunori%20Mitsuda/

That Devlin one isn't too bad IMO.

[Tensei]

I would pay good money for an entirely Wiz Khalifa'd Chrono Trigger OST. Just the idea of him rambling about doing drugs over this track would make it worth it to me.

[Zerothemaster]

While we're on the subject of rappers sampling video games, 50 Cent has a song that samples Kirby's Epic Yarn, according to a SPIN article I read a while back...

...I wish I was kidding

(OJ by 50 Cent Feat. Kidd Kidd)

I have no clue what the original is.

[Moseph]

Another one I found earlier, Adrenalize - Voices of Passion. It's a copy/paste (although there's a LITTLE more variation) of DKC2's Bayou Boogie.

Adrenalize - Voices of Passion:

Bayou Boogie Original:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsbV5mkNLsE

An interesting thing about Bayou Boogie is that the percussion intro is basically the same as the percussion intro to the Phil Collins song "In the Air Tonight."

[BlackPanther]

An interesting thing about Bayou Boogie is that the percussion intro is basically the same as the percussion intro to the Phil Collins song "In the Air Tonight."

So we've just been inspiring one another through time...

[Lampje4life]

So we've just been inspiring one another through time...

It's absolutely true that DKC music was often based on / inspired by excisting tracks. Like Ice Theme from DKC2 was based on Antartica by.. forgot the name.. It was in the other thread running here on the forums ^^

But that's inspiration, it's different from plagiarism!

[Radiowar]

wait till you see this youtube video i found of beethoven sampling daft punk for his unfinished tenth symphony, and then the related videos of the progression of art as a dialogue among creators

[zircon]

Sort of a reverse situation, but there's a part of FF5's "Battle on the Big Bridge" that has almost exactly the same chords as the intro to "Hotel California" by the Eagles.

http://zirconstudios.com/music/wips/FF5_HotelCalifornia.mp3

Only one chord is totally different, another is just the relative minor in FF5. Cool eh?

[KyleJCrb]

Sort of a reverse situation, but there's a part of FF5's "Battle on the Big Bridge" that has almost exactly the same chords as the intro to "Hotel California" by the Eagles.

http://zirconstudios.com/music/wips/FF5_HotelCalifornia.mp3

Only one chord is totally different, another is just the relative minor in FF5. Cool eh?

...That's it, now someone has to remix Battle on the Big Bridge in the style of The Eagles.