by Joe Bennett | May 14, 2016 | Eurovision, Popular Music, Songwriting
[Next morning] OK so I got two of the top three, and predicted Australia’s placing, but I underestimated the power of Jamala’s vocal, or perhaps the political impact of the lyric of 1944. THE WINNERS Ukraine Australia Russia THE PREDICTIONS Russia...
by Joe Bennett | Apr 13, 2016 | Copyright, Plagiarism, Popular Music, Research, Songwriting
So the Stairway to Heaven / Taurus controversy was back in the news yesterday, due to the fact that the dispute is to go to a jury in the US in May this year. I participated in a panel discussion about this a couple of years back for a Russian radio station. In the...
by Joe Bennett | Feb 8, 2015 | Copyright, Songwriting
This is a blog post about 5 bars of music. As reported in Rolling Stone and The Sun recently, the melodic similarity between Sam Smith’s 2014 song Stay With Me and Tom Petty’s I Won’t Back Down (1989) resulted in an amicable settlement between the...
by Joe Bennett | Sep 12, 2014 | Copyright, IASPM, Research, Songwriting
I’m en route to the UK & Ireland IASPM conference in Cork. I was at the International one in Spain last year – the branch and International IASPM conferences leapfrog each other every other year, so for 2014 we’re back in our respective countries....
by Joe Bennett | May 18, 2013 | Education, Eurovision, Songwriting
[This is a live blog – hit ‘refresh’ in your browser throughout the evening and the most recently performed song will appear at the top. As in 2012, each song will be scored as we hear it. Geeky musicological commentary will be added wherever...
Recent Comments