For those who may not know, Led Zeppelin is a rock group that was formed in 1968 consisting of a singer, guitarist, keyboardist and drummer. As they were becoming more and more popular, many people began to question the originality and creativity behind their songs.
After watching Kirby Ferguson’s video series “Everything is a remix”, I realized that the beat to Led Zeppelin’s song “Stairway to Heaven”, released in 1971, was oddly similar to “Taurus”, a song composed by the band Spirit 3 years before.
While listening to these songs back to back, you can easily see how the chords and pitch of the music sound similar. Zeppelin sampled off of “Taurus” as they used similar instruments, mainly a specific key on the acoustic guitar, creating a very similar tone and sound. By using this distinct key, many believed that Led Zeppelin initially copied off of Spirit and was not original as the background music sounded too similar. The song was not completely creative as they did not come up with it themselves and copied others work, however, Zeppelins song was dramatically transformed creating a whole different song. They added in new chords and a new backline beat. They slowed down the speed of the song while using softer keys that created less of the bass sound heard in “Taurus”. They also transformed the song by adding their own lyrics as well as the melody to go along with it. Zeppelin recombined elements of the two songs as he took parts of the beat from “Taurus” and added them on top of his own music ultimately creating the “similar” sound.
Listen to the two songs below, and let me know what you think!
Since the songs had some similarities throughout, I believe that Led Zeppelin should have mentioned, that they used some sounds from Spirit and should have properly given credit. Although the song was remixed, it was clearly not for an educational purpose or non-commercial purpose, but instead for a profitable purpose as it was sold to millions. Due to this fact, they should’ve properly given credit where it belonged. Since they didn’t do what was required, they faced many copyright issues leading to larger problems.
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In terms of copyright infringement, as I mentioned earlier, I believe that “Stairway to Heaven” was significantly different from the song “Taurus” as it had different musical components and different melodies in all areas of the song. If you listen closely to Spirits song, you will see it has more of an ominous, low pitched melody with more bass whereas “Stairway to Heaven” has more of a higher, adventures melody with higher pitch ranges. I believe that Led Zeppelin and Spirits songs were more different than they were similar. The specific instruments used in both songs do not have any specific copyright laws surrounding them either, making me believe Zeppelin did not infringe on the copyright of the original work since it was not the exact same nor a rip-off but significantly different in all aspects.
To avoid ripping something off, creators should always add their own spin to their work. Whether you get inspiration off of others or straight out copy others ideas, giving ethical attribution will always change the outcome of your product. Using others work exactly as it is without changing a lot, is when I believe it becomes a rip-off. By using your own creativity to produce a remix or something original, you’re transforming your inspirations into something never seen before. I encourage this as long as its significantly different and not the same. To make sure your work is not a rip-off I suggest you let a few people hear or see your product before its released, so you can get a few more opinions on it. Nothing is worse than thinking something is great only to find out it wasn’t original.
What are your thoughts about this whole situation? Was it similar enough to be infringing copyright or different enough to not be considered an “exact” copy? Let me know!
ZK
Sources that I used:
ENG4UE Blog 