Mika's "Happy Ending" lifts the motif from Aphex Twin's "Alberto Balsalm"
The song below has been embedded into my brain since early high school. Listen to the keyboard motif that starts out the song, especially the last 3 notes on the second repetition (doo-DEE-Doo)
Now listen to this song by Mika, international pop superstar, and one of the few unit-shifting entertainers that made EMI any money last year. Pay special attention to the 3-note piano motif that goes through the verse between his lines (doo-DEE-doo)
I know that the context is much different and that the songs are completely different in every other way. One is played on a grand piano, and the other on spacey synthesizers. Mika plays it in a different key, too.
But is it just me, or underneath all those trapping is it basically the exact same motif?
3 comments:
Both songs are taken from "Canon in D" by Johann Pachelbel written in 1680. You can really hear the similarity if you listen to the Kleerup remix of Mika's "Happy Ending". Mika uses a lot of classical music bits in music he composes.
If you really think about it, there is only a set amount of ways notes and harmonies can be placed together to form something that sounds pleasing to the human ear. That is why some songs sound like other songs...it is only natural that this should happen. Listen to the beginning of "Copacabana" by Barry Manilow and then listen to the beginning of "Move Along" by All-American Rejects. It's basically the same beginning. Of course, the rest of the song is completely different. :-)
Thanks Pandora. I'm going to check that out right now.
I take your point that there are only so many riffs in music and they repeat naturally...I mean after all, it seems like half of the hits from the 80's all use the same basic chord progression as "Louie Louie"
This sounded kind of distinct from the standard stuff you normally hear in pop songs though, and I had a feeling it wasn't just a random thing they both did, and that there was something else to it.
btw, don't put it past the Rejects to rip off Barry Manilow!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdxkVQy7QLM
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