I’m currently in the process of writing a song. I’ve got a tune and I’m putting the lyrics together but I’m always concerned that any tune I think of might just be another song I’ve heard somewhere randomly that I don’t remember hearing.

Do I just have a shitty memory or is this a problem that other people have too?

  • @Skezlarr@aussie.zone
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    693 months ago

    Not sure how to help you out with it, but you’re at least not alone. Robert Smith from The Cure had the same problem with the song “Friday I’m in Love”: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_I%27m_in_Love

    “During the writing process, Robert Smith became convinced that he had inadvertently stolen the chord progression from somewhere, and this led him to a state of paranoia where he called everyone he could think of and played the song for them, asking if they had heard it before. None of them had, and Smith realised that the melody was indeed his.”

    • @Pea666@feddit.nl
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      133 months ago

      Similar story with Yesterday by the Beatles. Paul McCartney was convinced he had unconsciously plagiarized the song after he’d supposedly heard it in a dream.

    • Chainweasel
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      43 months ago

      The same thing happened to John Anderson when he was writing Seminole Wind

  • @kambusha@feddit.ch
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    303 months ago

    No, you see it’s: “dun-dun-dun-dudu-dun-dun dudu dun-dun-dun-dudu-dun-dun”

    not

    “dun-dun-dun-dudu-dun-dun, dun-dun-dun-dudu-dun-dun”

  • Ephera
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    213 months ago

    Nope, happens a lot to me, too. Worst part is that whatever you’re accidentally plagiarizing, will immediately sound great and will be really easy to write, because of course, you’ve listened to it before. And it can be nigh impossible to distinguish between accidental plagiarism and just being in a flow.

  • @Pulptastic@midwest.social
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    153 months ago

    Everything is derivative of something else. Thag made that drumbeat on a rock 20000 years ago and it has passed down in oral history to eventually be in a Nirvana song.

    This sometimes results in songs like Dani California that are almost certainly overt or unintentional copies of another song. When you find out your song is subjectively too close to another song you do the right thing, whatever that may be between you and the original musician.

  • @Kayel@aussie.zone
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    143 months ago

    Art is theft

    All art is inspired by other art, it grows, evolves, eats itself, parodies life, informs living.

    I wouldn’t worry about it

  • @Pat_Riot@lemmy.today
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    113 months ago

    Don’t worry about it. There are only so many progressions. Everything else is just variations within them, with bass lines, melodies and rhythms.

  • DessertStorms
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    103 months ago

    Run it through shazam (or a foss alternative if there is one) and check?

  • @averyminya@beehaw.org
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    73 months ago

    No you see, that’s the secret. All my songs are just me Weird Al-ing every aspect of them.

    Eventually they’re different enough that they’re truly mine.

  • @HenchmanNumber3@lemm.ee
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    53 months ago

    It might be similar to a song you’ve heard but you’re misremembering the notes of the existing song.

    Maybe try playing it for an app that recognizes the song that’s playing and then listen to any songs it guesses might be the song.

  • RedQuestionAsker2 [he/him, she/her]
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    53 months ago

    It’s normal.

    Especially if you’re writing in a popular style, tons of musicians just use the same chord progressions over and over .

    Once you start layering things on the melody, it’s pretty unlikely that it will resemble anything too closely.

    As long long as you’re just using your own creativity, I think it’s very unlikely you’ll just clone a song.

    If you’re really worried about it, you can just change a few notes in the melody on the page in a way that you wouldn’t think to sing “naturally”