The MTV Video Music Award (VMA) show is taking place on Sunday night. There’s been a lot of buzz about Katy Perry’s level of participation — She will close the show, singing “Roar,” the single released last week to build excitement about her upcoming album (her fourth studio album, “Prism.”).
Per a story in The New York Times, Ms. Perry apparently will not be in the arena, but is expected to perform the song at an undisclosed Brooklyn location, presumably a recognizable one, in another nod to the borough.
The “Roar” video has garnered attention because of Ms. Perry’s use emoji — the Japanese term for the ideograms or smileys used in Japanese electronic messages and webpages (similar to emoticons but more robust).
The video shows her texting the lyrics to her friends from the bathroom, the gym, her car and bedroom as the empowering song builds. “I got the eye of the tiger, the fire, dancing through the fire / Cause I am a champion and you’re gonna hear me roar,” Perry sings when the bouncy song builds into a ringing chorus (Source: Rolling Stone).
Definitely a cool way to draw attention to the new song and its lyrics. Unfortunately, there has been some backlash where some have posted that Ms. Perry’s new single is a rip off of a Sara Bareilles song called “Brave.”
This seems to have brought attention to both artists — which is probably a good thing. For sure, Ms. Perry is benefiting.
And speaking go alleged rip-offs, Bloomberg Businessweek recently ran a story about legal issues related to Robin Thicke’s monster hit “Blurred Lines” which the heirs of Marvin Gaye claim borrows too aggressively from late soul legend Marvin Gaye and the group Funkadelic.
Specifically, The suit states that the Gaye family is complaining about similarities to “Got to Give It Up,” The Funkadelic song in question is “Sexy Ways“.
Paul Barrett, the writer of the Bloomberg Businessweek piece remarked:
Here’s my verdict. The songs are definitely similar: heavy bass line, falsetto vocals, lots of loose percussion and background noise. They’re fun and bouncy. And I had no difficulty telling them apart, as Thicke’s work sounds like a slightly tinny knockoff of the Gaye classic.
So really, what are we talking about here? Perhaps Thicke was inspired by Marvin Gaye. A lot of creativity involves building upon something that already exists — adding new twists and turns.
There’s influence and execution. Happens all the time. Perhaps both Thicke and Perry were inspired by something they heard before. In the case of Ms. Perry, it seems her cat may have influenced her (see below).
##
Speak Your Mind