...Allegedly. I mean, the songs are similar for a whole 3 notes/chords in a row and otherwise completely different. And the lawsuit popped up right after the song got nominated for lots of Grammies...what a coincidence. I can't understand how this claim made it all the way to a lawsuit.

I don't really get why so many people think they're boring, but that sort of thing is pretty subjective.

Honestly, just about any song can be shown to be "plagiarized" from an earlier song in the same manner that Viva la Vida is from Satriani's song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEGGFJLpbu4&NR=1

That breaks it down pretty well...

and from the creator of that video

Well, considering that:
- The songs are only similar in certain parts, and otherwise completely different
- The chorus from Satriani's song (guitar) is similar to some of the verses from Coldplay's song (vocal); no part of it was obviously directly copied

and:
- There are an absurd number of songs out there, and almost as many people with a mysterious grudge against Coldplay
- There are surprisingly few ways to arrange notes in a sequence that doesn't sound horrible (and if you don't believe me, a quick Google found this...about 35 seconds in there's a guitar solo amazingly similar to Satriani's. But he didn't copy them; he just had the same relatively simple idea.)

...it really seems more likely that Coldplay and Satriani just had similar ideas independently. I mean, heck, the last time Coldplay used someone else's chord progression (for "Talk"), they got permission and gave writing credits and everything. Most bands would just wing it and hope no one noticed.

Besides, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

I like most of their songs, but, yeah, some of them are boring. Not extremely boring ( like Snow Patrol* ) but still a bit. Glass of Water is pretty good, btw.

*= I try to like Snow Patrol, but I just can't. Their songs seem to never actually change from the initial part. I expect songs to have different parts, usually having the chorus being a bit faster than the start, Snow Patrol fails to do it everywhere but in Open Your Eyes, and even then, the fast part repeats for too long.

Don't you mean exactly the same except for the fills that Satriani has inbetween the accented notes?'

Edit: Flattery > Copyright law. Obviously.

And Mondt displays what TheSparrow was talking about. Good show!

I'd just like to point out that sampling music from others used to be common practice in music, and actually created multiple entire genres and subcultures of music.

So in so much as, you know, fuck Coldplay, I hope they win this one. I'd really like to see sampling parts (and especially merely replaying the same notes with the same, or even different, instruments) of songs like that to be unregulated by copyright law.

It also created Ice Ice Baby, so the blade cuts both ways.

No, I mean that plus all the sections of both songs that no one is talking about (choruses of Coldplay song plus most of the song after the first chorus, second 75% of Satriani's song), which are not similar in the slightest. The parts of both songs that are similar are not only very simple, but as I already pointed out, have been done before Satriani or Coldplay used them.

Edit: And no, of course they aren't "exactly the same"; the songs use a lot of the same notes in some areas, but also a lot of different notes in the same areas.

Redundant, pointless antagonism? None of us are judging this case. I'm just trying to hold off the probably inevitable hate-fest.

By the way, Beethoven copied an 8-note sequence directly from a piece by Mozart for part of his 5th symphony; but interestingly enough, no one hates him for it.