Oh man. This is depressing. :(

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Check out the sample comparisons on that thread. She must copy like all of her music.

I wouldn't call it plagiarism. She does compose her own stuff. It's just, the style is SO amazingly similar that it tests the limits of intellectual property. Makes me lose a lot of respect for her.

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I always thought her Cowboy Bebop work was more inspired by other works that sounded alike, but this is really sad considering her diverse styles.

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i don't know why but that really really scares me a lot...

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Wow, awesome find. Not exactly DEPRESSING, but yikes...sad that she completely jacked Hyperballad.

Interesting this should come up today, too...Felix sent me this earlier (not quite the same, but some of the reactions are pretty similar).

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Yeah, but that's SAMPLING, not copping the groove. It's really obvious that Daft Punk remixed things like for HBFS... that's why the album's called "Discovery," anyway. It's a discovery of stuff they listened to as kids.

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Oh I knows, huge difference music-wise...I just thought it was funny the way some guys were like I CAN NEVER LISTEN TO HARDER BETTER NOW:O~^~%@~% a la the other thread.

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UH OHHH

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even though they're the same, they're still very different.
the only 2 things that are really the same are the drum beat and the key. the tempo, instruments, chords, melodies, voices, words, and moods, are all different.
and they're not different in the sense that they're exactly the same with one minor difference. it's like Yoko Kanno created everything from scratch using Battersea as a guide, rather than using battersea as a template; and so while everything is very similar, everything is still very different.

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Dude I can safely say that the tempo, instruments, chords, melodies, voice, and mood are very similar. They were made to sound like Battersea. I don't really know what you're talking about otherwise.

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the point i'm making is that they're very similar, but not the same. they are different enough to be called different songs.
Cyberbird's tempo is 5-10 bpm faster. Cyberbird's chords and melodies go up when Battersea's go down. Battersea's vocals are highlighted sad, while Cyberbird's are highlighted energetic. a couple of cyberbird's instruments are completely different from Battersea's, while the rest are mildly different. Cyberbird even has a couple minutes of stuff that has nothing to do with Battersea, other than the placement of those couple minutes (when there's no vocals)

meaning, it's not copying, and it's not plagiarism, but you're definitely right that it's stealing (since she doesn't credit the original songs).

but also, by simply being aware of the fact that her songs are based off of other people's songs, you can see that she still has her own style.


basically, if she credited the original songs, there would be nothing wrong with it, and she would still be considered a good composer.
but... she doesn't. so... yeah.

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Yeah, I guess that's what I'm getting at. I just remembered while walking to class today that I still mentioned "plagiarism" in this blog, and yeah, it's not that. Later in my vlog I just mentioned it's unoriginality and that's sort of sad.

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in escaflowne there's a song with the same chords bed that HOtel california the super well knwon song, i mean is as if a girl is singing another thing over the backing tracks of Hotel california
in Arjuna we can find Edward Scissorhands
in Loddoss war, Adieums
and so forth
i actually like some of her staff quite a lot, but i agree she should credit better her sources

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in escaflowne there's a song with the same chords bed that HOtel california the super well knwon song, i mean is as if a girl is singing another thing over the backing tracks of Hotel california
in Arjuna we can find Edward Scissorhands
in Loddoss war, Adieums
and so forth
i actually like some of her staff quite a lot, but i agree she should credit better her sources

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haha that sucks. :(

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This thread is ancient, but I just found it.
It's little depressing, similar to when I became aware that Led Zeppelin did a lot of uncredited borrowing.

I've read in interviews with film music composers that many times they're given (by the director?) a 'temp' score of other composers' music, and asked to do something similar.
But wow, the examples (from the forum link, and youtube) are way beyond similar. Maybe her workload is too much!

Now that I think of it, I also recall a web page devoted to listing all of the times Keith Emerson had borrowed/riffed on classical melodies, etc. A VERY long list, ha! Many his influences are in the public domain, tho.

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Hey Jeff,
I accidentally read your posts on that forum while browsing the net for the truth about the whole plagiarism thing.
Some of your comparisons does work its arguments however I have to fully disagree with the Hyperballad and Where Does the Ocean Goes? part. 90% is way too much. In my opinion it's even less than 10% similarities.

I'm a big fan of Bjork and Yoko for years and memorize their songs. I don't find big similarities in those two.
They used the 'tapping' sound but the sound is different in both songs. (Gah, I just wish I know the correct musical terms to help explain yself better.)

Also, I 'feel' the music when listening to them and gotta say that the feelings emitted from those two song are different. Hyperballad is uplifting while Ocean is more mellow.

Just giving my two cents here.
I love Yoko Kanno and this news is really bothering me.
I can only cross my fingers for her....
:(

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I agree that it's disappointing. But I don't agree that it's shocking and actually "stealing". It is moral hypocrisy to be so nitpicking about it, or else you wouldn't link to Youtube for legally uncovered samples or offer whole mp3s for download to compare. That's just pathetic, but this bigotry can be found all over the net. A mob has found a victim for accusations and because the accused one is talented, everything is made more shocking and terrible than it usually would be.

I think she is still a great composer who has done dozens of pieces and songs by herself and I also think that this plagiarism is actually covered either by some agreements or "rules".

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