It involves three songs by three different bands: "Pressing On" by Relient k, "Makes no Difference" by Sum 41 and "Dammit" by Blink 182. These three songs have been accused of using very similar guitar riffs. Take a listen to the three songs and pay special attention to the opening guitar riffs.
Now, it's obvious that these three riffs have some very similar properties but the actual songs are quite different. Yet, fans of the bands still let loose with criticisms, saying stuff like "am i the only one who sees a strange similarity in the songs "pressing on" by relient k and "makes no difference" by sum 41?" [1] or "first time i heard it i thought "man way to rip off sum 41 with that"" [2] Matt Thiessen, lead singer/guitarist/songwriter of Relient k, was questioned about their song's similarity to "Dammit" and "Makes no Difference" in an interview with truetunes.com Matt responded saying this: "Yeah, it’s just… everybody uses it. Actually I think I was listening to a lot of Sum 41 at the time." "it’s never going to be exactly the same, we’re never going to rip anyone off on purpose. So we’re just going to do it and if we get compared, so what." [3] It's obvious that if any copying did occur, it was by accident.
It is hard to tell who "copied" who. "Dammit" was released in 1997 while "Makes no Difference" came out in 2000 followed by "Pressing on" in 2001. So, plainly speaking, Relient K borrowed from Sum 41 who borrowed from Blink 182 who probably borrowed from someone else and so on and so forth. But honestly, who cares? The only people to bring it up were the haters who just want to support their favourite band over the other two. There was no professional music analysist who criticized any of the bands, nor did any of the bands blame one another for ripping them off. Why? They didn't care.
That's the way it should be, it's not really copying at all, they are simply expanding on the other artists original idea (in my personal opinion, Relient K put out the better song). Blink 182, Relient K and Sum 41 were all strong staples of the pop-punk genre, and I believe that that one riff stood as an example of what pop-punk was all about, so it's kind of cool that each of them put their own spin on it.
The incident was quite a few years ago and the break up of Blink 182 ended that era of pop-punk. Relient K and Sum 41 moved on and began to change their style a little bit but not before one last word on the whole subject. In response to the whole "copying issue" Relient K released a song called "Wit's all been done before" (It's all been done before) the song talks about how everything has been done before and originality is very rare. The full lyrics are listed below.
[4]
Relient K
"Wit's All Been Done Before"
I wish I could, innovate,
And try to stretch your minds,
Cause often times, when guys like me,
Do that they leave themselves behind,
To clean the mess, or to impress,
A little bit of everyone,
But to innovate, is a mistake,
Cause there's nothing new under the sun.
Cause we're all getting tired of the media,
Cause they tries too hard to make you write something,
Cause we're all getting tired of the media,
Cause creating something new is just recycling,
Wait wit's all been done before,
Yeah we do something to death,
Then we dig it up just to do it some more.
And all my lines are warning signs,
But not all with dead ends,
And im not sure if the clever words,
All sit well with my friends,
I will not just sit and watch,
And me the victim fall,
I'll just have to do,
What my gut tells me to,
And hope that you will buy it all.
Cause we're all getting tired of the media,
Cause they tries too hard to make you write something,
Cause we're all getting tired of the media,
Cause creating something new is just recycling,
Wait Wit's all been done before,
Yeah we do something to death,
Then we dig it up just to do it some more,
Wait wit's all been done before,
Yeah we do something to death,
Then we dig it up just to do it some more.
Originality is a ghost town,
And it's oh so hard to get to,
And when you do, then people start to hate you,
Just scream what you believe out loud in a crowd,
People will hate you,
Cause repetition's just so safe,
And repetition is just like prison,
And I prefer to be out of place,
Cause I'm not really into prison.
Wait wit's all been done before,
Yeah we do something to death,
Then we dig it up just to do it some more,
Wait wit's all been done before,
Yeah we do something to death,
Then we dig it up just to do it some more,
Cause we're all getting tired of the media,
Cause they try too hard to make you write something,
Cause we're all getting tired of the media,
Cause creating something new is just recycling,
Wait Wit's all been done before,
Yeah we do something to death,
Then we dig it up just to do it some more,
Wait wit's all been done before,
Yeah we do something to death,
Then we dig it up just to do it some more.
References
[1] Dexter88, "Relient K forum". sputnikmusic.com. Jan 2003
[2] Lechuza47, "Relient K forum". sputnikmusic.com. Jan 2003
[3] M, Matt. "Reilent k Interview 2002". truetunes.com June 2002: http://truetunes.wordpress.com/2008/05/14/relient-k-interview-june-2002/.
[4] Relient K. "Wit's All Been Done Before.". Gotee Records, 2002.
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