Michelle's Media Blog

There are many acts of plagiarism committed around the world, and I have to say one of the most well known incidents in recent years is between musicians Avril Lavigne and the 70’s pop group the ‘Rubinoos’. They both have songs with not only very similar titles, but the chorus, melody and beat in general are similar. Does this sound like a case of plagiarism to you? I know it certainly does to me. The two songs, ‘Girlfriend’ by Avril Lavigne, and ‘I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend’ by the ‘Rubinoos’ is where it all begins. As we can see, the titles of the song are clearly compared to each other. Next we have the song its self. At the beginning you may just assume that this might have been a case of over- reaction, and people were only judging the similarities just by the title of the song. However, as one plays the song, the chorus jumps out at you as a familiar tune,and the similarities start to become clear and it becomes quite apparent when you hear the resemblances of the melody, rhythm and beat. The connection almost comes to the point where someone like me, who is not very technical with their music terms and sounds, can feel that the song could possibly be plagiarized. Now we get to the words in the chorus, which are somewhat similar again, with the switch of the word girlfriend and boyfriend. To the normal person, one would believe that Avril has stolen this song from the 70’s hit by the ‘Rubinoos’. We can all tell that the chorus resembles the song by the ‘Rubinoos’. An act of plagiarism could easily make or break Avril’s career and image. Celebrities do not want to be known as “plagiarizers’ or ‘copy writers’. Many of her fans and co-workers could easily choose not to listen or support someone who is un- true to the world and themselves. Also they could even possibly believe that she is being unfaithful to the music industry as a whole by re- using someone’s rhythm, tempo, melody and lyrics. This is a potentially harmful accusation against the young star which she will just have to deal with and will be discussed by the music industry and pubic forever. One would think Avril’s people; the one’s she has working for her from the music industry such as her manager, would have checked this type of situation out prior to the song being released. It is difficult to understand how the outside world would notice such a similarity, when her professional advisers and recording company label would not have caught this likeness during the recording or editing of the song. Once word of the similarities had been made public, by several different forms of media, over and over again, a law suit and harsh words hit Avril and her co-writer Luke Gottwald. Avril, and Luke claim to never have heard of the band, and furthermore, never even heard the song that is being compared to her song. She and her co-writer denied the accusations of copying the song. They feel that there are very few similarities and that the ‘Rubinoos’ have no grounds to win the lawsuit against them. Some feel that the similarities may just be that, similar, but not plagiarized. Others feel strongly that the chorus is a copy of the ‘Rubinoos’ song. Though there are many different opinions on the comparison of these two songs, which some feel is just a coincidence as there are only so many words and notes that can be put together musically. Some suggest that it was inevitable that one day it had to happen; a song would have similarities to one that was already published. This is one fact we will never know, however Avril Lavigne did reach an ‘undisclosed settlement’ with the ‘Rubinoos’ for the lawsuit they brought against her claiming she copied their hit song from the 70’s. One can read into this settlement what they want, however it must be noted that a settlement does not always mean admittance to plagiarism or copyright infringement. Avril’s manager stated, ‘The settlement was a way for everyone to avoid the headache of a lawsuit’.