A song from comedy band Axis of Awesome showing the similarity of multiple pop songs using the same simple musical progression has resurfaced following Ed Sheeran's copyright trial win.
In a video clip of the group performing at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in 2009, members Jordan Raskopoulos, Lee Naimo and Benny Davis explain that "all the greatest hits from the last 40 years just use four chords."
They then show how easy it is for music to fit into a similar structure by playing the same chord progression over and over again while singing 47 different pop songs. The performance begins with Journey's "Don't Stop Believin' " and then goes on to snippets from James Blunt's "You're Beautiful," the Spice Girls' "2 Become 1," Toto's "Africa," and Avril Lavigne's "Complicated."
The song's reemergence comes on the heels of a jury concluding Thursday that Sheeran didn't steal key components of Marvin Gaye's classic 1970s tune "Let's Get It On" when he created his hit song "Thinking Out Loud."
The verdict follows a two-week trial that featured a courtroom performance by Sheeran as the singer insisted that the trial was a threat to all musicians who create their own music.
"I feel like in the songwriting community, everyone sort of knows that there's four chords primarily that are used and there's eight notes," he said, according to the Independent. "We work with what we've got, with doing that."
Filed in 2017, the lawsuit took six years to finally reach a Manhattan federal court.
Sheeran has repeatedly denied plagiarizing "Let's Get It On," with his lawyers arguing that many pop songs used common song construction.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.