When I first heard Avril's song "Girlfriend", I was pretty impressed because the song was very unique. It had a different beat, rhythm, and the one thing that i was fascinated by was, this song had a totally different meaning to it than any other song. Little did I know, she might have stole all these qualities of a song from The Rubinoo’s. The first time i heard the Rubinoo’s song "I wanna be your boyfriend", was in my media class with Mr.Puley. My first reaction to this song was very shocking and at the same time very disappointed. I was shocked at the fact that Avril Lavigne got so much credit for something she might have stolen from another artist. I was also disappointed because I was personally impressed by her until I heard the Rubinoo’s song.One of the Rubinoo’s clients, Carlin, was very upset because he feels that Avril made a lot of money off his client [1]. I personally agree with Mr.Carlin because it is easy to see tell when one song is re-created from another artist and makes a lot of money then they usually file a law-suit. At this point Avril said she was falsely being accused for this law-suit. She stated, ""You may have heard some news that two guys who wrote for some band from the 1970s I have never in my life heard of called the " Rubinoo’s" are trying to sue me. They have a song called "I Want to Be Your Boyfriend" that has no musical similarities to the song "Girlfriend" that Luke Gottwald and I wrote together" [2].She also told the Canadian press that she has never heard this song in her life and "all songs share similar lyrics and emotions. As humans we speak one language" [2].
I still believe that she has plagiarized most of the song. Its not just about the FIVE words, its about the tempo, rhythm and the main part of the lyrics which is the chorus and the catchy part of the song. Shown below are the two song chorus’s showing the similarities between both lines:
Hey, hey, you, you I wanna be your boyfriend
Hey, hey, you, you, I want to be your girlfriend
Like I said before, at first people were accusing her of plagiarizing but a few months later, people stopped caring as much. Even though people believed she did plagiarize the song, they still continued to buy her albums and be one of her fans. I guess this is just how our society is, they talk about the news for awhile, but not to long after this, it becomes old news. It’s just like gossip; people talk about one thing for a certain time until a new incident or story pops up.
A lot of her fans did say she plagiarized and did forgive her and still continued to listen to her music but Avril thought it was putting a negative impact of her reputation. Her exact words to this were, "I do not deserve this negative press and attention. I take pride in the songs that I write and appreciate the opportunities to work with some great writers and musicians” [3,4].
Avril did not get charged or sued for “plagiarizing” this song. But later on, she was accused once again for copying a song by Peaches titled “I’m the Kinda” with Avril’s song, “I Don’t Have to Try”[3,5]. I personally think she copied the Rubinoo’s but I think she’s just a fan of the Peaches. Not only did she copy the beat and rhythm of the song, she’s a fan of the Peaches identity and style as well.
UH-OHH!!!!
......not again....whens this going to end?
Work Cited
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/music/story/2007/07/07/avril-songwriting-fireback.html [1]
http://aishamusic.wordpress.com/category/avril-lavigne/ [2]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0d2z-dWZmE&eurl=http://puleymedia08.blogspot.com/2008/02/hey-hey-you-you-case-of-avril-lavigne.html [3]
http://youtube.com/watch?v=P0d2z-dWZmE [4]
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ymUhCCxDPVk&feature=related [5]
By:HaRp<3>
