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Olivia Rodrigo: song similarities
[JB note: I'm pleased to welcome my friend and colleague Will Bennett as a guest blogger. Will (no relation) is a PhD musicology researcher at Harvard, and also a valued member of the JBMS consultancy team. I asked him a couple of weeks ago what he thought of the...
![Have you been hearing Bohemian Rhapsody ‘wrong’ all these years? [answer: probably]](https://joebennett.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Screen-Shot-2021-07-24-at-11.49.50-AM-400x250.png)
Have you been hearing Bohemian Rhapsody ‘wrong’ all these years? [answer: probably]
Which brings us to the arguably clickbait-y title of this blog post. How might we be hearing Bohemian Rhapsody incorrectly?Let's start with the received wisdom. Here's a transcription of how how I thought BR's intro was counted: Bohemian Rhapsody intro. This is how...
Writ Parade: Why American songwriters are suing each other
The case against Childish Gambino is the latest in a run of copyright claims Article + interview with Joe Bennett. Words: Tom Wainwright. Originally published in The Economist, 15 May 2021. "You motherfuckers owe me!” raps Donald Glover, better known as Childish...
Eurovision 2021 live musicology blog
[update: the next day] So, the predictions were mostly reasonably close, although I missed Switzerland completely. Italy won (I predicted 4th), I got France right at 2nd place, and Iceland came 4th (predicted as 3rd). My predicted winner (Malta) actually came in at...
Eurovision 2021 – the Americans are coming!
[looking for the live-blog and song commentary?] It's Eurovision-eve! Yes, the live musicology blog is back after it, and the contest itself, has been absent for a year. We didn't waste time though: Netflix asked us to analyse all 259 finalists 2010-2019 in...
![Did Childish Gambino plagiarize in “This Is America”? [answer: no]](https://joebennett.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/This-is-America-CI-865x505-1-400x250.jpg)
Did Childish Gambino plagiarize in “This Is America”? [answer: no]
Betteridge's law famously states that "Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no". And so, in the spirit of good blogging and the avoidance of cheap clickbait, I have answered my own question in the title of this post. But the answer...
Eurovision Song Contest research
Regular readers will know that I have been live-blogging the Eurovision Song Contest final since 2011. Every year I sit down in front of the TV, metronome and guitar in hand, and write live musical analysis of the songs in real time, then attempt to predict the winner...
Irving Berlin: Nine Rules for Writing Popular Songs
Article and interview by Frank Ward O’Malley (1875-1932)Originally published in ‘The American Magazine’, Volume 90, October 1920Transcribed by Joe Bennett from the Google Books version, January 2020 Irving Berlin c.1920 JB comment: This semester, I’m very pleased to...
Anatomy of the Hit: Bruno Mars and Cardi B ‘Please Me’
[JB note: This article was originally commissioned by TIDAL, and is part of a series - see links below. Parental advisory: adult themes in the lyrics.] Ariana Grande - 7 rings Mabel - Don't Call Me Up Billie Eilish - Bad Guy Taylor Swift feat. Brendon Urie - ME!...
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