In case you missed the last two days on the Internet, I thought I'd point you in the direction of a very interesting drama/comdey playing out right now. In short, Glee lifted Jonathan Coulton's audio track from his "Baby Got Back" cover and used it on their show without any acknowledgement. This has turned into a spirited debate over law and ethics and why law without ethics makes you look like an idiot. Kudos to JoCo for taking the high road throughout and creating a clever and ethical solution. (Jonathan Coulton wrote "Still Alive" and writes and performs some great songs. If you haven't ever heard "Code Monkey," you are missing out. My favorite video of it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWrjYdD0Tg0 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWrjYdD0Tg0) .)
On to the controversy!
Forbes article sums it up well: http://www.forbes.com/sites/michelecatalano/2013/01/27/jonathan-coulton-vs-glee-its-about-the-ethics/ (http://www.forbes.com/sites/michelecatalano/2013/01/27/jonathan-coulton-vs-glee-its-about-the-ethics/)
Side-by-side comparison: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4koFg5uulg (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4koFg5uulg)
And Coulton's cover alone (damn him, so mind-invading): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCWaN_Tc5wo (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCWaN_Tc5wo)
Glee televised version overlaid with Coulton's version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92VmITSNvKY (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92VmITSNvKY)
Thanks to Coulton's tech-skilled fans, there are quite a few beat-by-beat comparisons out there and people have gotten down to wave-form analysis. But you don't have to have an oscilloscope to hear the Glee people include the line "Johnny C's in trouble" (which they have now expunged from the Glee itunes release, btw). And while the vocals diverge slightly, the music never does, even by a micro-beat. Coulton has a karaoke version of just the music out there. I suspect that someone at Glee thought that they were dealing with some random guy posting on You-Tube and thought they could just take the music. Do not anger the geeks. They wreak vengeance in clever and devastatingly effective ways.
Very good recap, Mixxi.
As someone that doesn't really listen to Indie music, I had no idea who JoCo was until I started seeing it show up in my twitter feed.
I didn't like the arrangement done by either, to be honest.
This does point out that Big corporations can not get away with anything anymore without someone speaking up. It just depends on if we listen.
Sometimes the arrangement can totally change a song. For instance, OutKast's "Hey Ya" is a perfectly good pop song... but Obadiah Parker's re-arranged cover is fantastic:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c745E7T_Wvg