Did Nirvana steal?! We were working in our cubicle the other day, filing TPS reports, when our iPod played "Eighties" by Killing Joke and "Come as You Are" by Nirvana back to back. After a brief philosophical contemplation about iPods and ESP, we realized how eerily similar the songs' guitar riffs are. Though Nirvana never officially copped to "borrowing" the Killing Joke riff, it made us think about how many songs have been slightly tweaked -- or flat-out stolen -- over the years. Led Zeppelin was famously accused of stealing lesser-known songs and reworking them into Zeppelin "originals." What isn't as commonly known is the conspiracy about Jimmy Page's dubious recording legacy. Whether or not Page was actually an innovator may forever be debated, but song similarities will always be a fact of life in the music business.  However, what should never be tolerated is when musically-challenged friends announce how much they love Vanilla Ice after hearing the opening bass lines of "Under Pressure" by Queen and David Bowie. Drop them as fast as you dropped that whole lines-shaved-in-the-head fad of the early 90s. Suggested Sites... YouTube: Led Zeppelin - Rip-off Arists - Led Zeppelin versus the originals: You decide! YouTube: Metal That Sounds Like Other Metal - hear song comparisons from the wonderful world of Heavy Metal. Lifted Tribute - compare songs that sound like other songs -- with audio. Songs Alike - similar sounding songs in pop music, mash-ups, samples, and sound-alike melodies.

Directory categories: Nirvana, Led Zeppelin, Killing Joke, Queen, Extrasensory Perception (ESP)

Archived under: Entertainment, Heavy Metal and Hard Rock, Led Zeppelin, Music, Nirvana, Plagiarism, Rock and Roll

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