I V vi IV / vi IV I V

Ice

To try to get back to the original subject; similar chord progressions in many songs. In my opinion, the most egregious copy is Bells of Freedom, stolen from This Ain't a Love Song. This one really ticks me off.

Try singing them together:

If the love that I got for you is gone
Ring them bells, ring them loud

If the river I cried ain’t that long
Let them ring, here and now

Then I’m wrong,
Just reach out

yeah I’m wrong,
and ring

this ain’t a love song
the Bells of Freedom

It's the same damn melody. But the funny thing is, I love TAALS but not Bells of Freedom. This has been discussed before (especially when Bells first came out) but I thought it was relevant here.

The first time I played the HAND album all the way through at home, my husband started singing TAALS to Bells of Freedom immediately. The similarities are quite obvious, especially in the chorus. My husband's comment was that at least they were stealing from themselves rather than from someone else.

Thing is, I won't listen to Bells of Freedom on a bet, but TAALS is one of my favroite BJ songs ever.

Yep.
How can you copy the melody of a beautiful song and end up with a puke worthy song? Interesting.

That's interesting... I never really compared the melodies. Pretty similar indeed.

But the verse progression to TAALS is brilliant and it is one of those songs that you point to when you explain how smart they can be (or use to be).

Aloha !

I clearly was wrong about only 4 people understanding this, it's got to be at least 8.

Well yeah obviously they had to cut a few things here and there, but the basic structure is exactly the same. "Lyric...Boom Boom...Lyric...Boom Boom" and more of that. But I'd like to know more about the many artists who's songs are so similar that you can at least copy 5 songs (It's My Life / Bounce / Have A Nice Day / Complicated / BrokenPromiseland / over one another to get the exact same song. I've seen people mention your statement before saying "others do it too", yet I've never read about any examples that actually prove that claim.

Hmmm. The example of Axis of Awesome is nice, but I think I remember that not all of them are valid examples, in certain cases the melody of the words fits the same chords, but the actual chords of the songs they're playing are different. In Bon Jovi's case, it's the same four chords in the same pattern, often even with the same breaks placed at the same time. That's pretty much why I can't be bothered with the new material, it's so uninspired like you say, but the thing that bothers me most is how predictable it has become.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

Nickelback, Green Day, U2, Blink 182, Good Charlotte...off the top of my head.

I don't agree that you could put those songs you mentioned over one another and get the exact same song. That's total crap. Similar in arrangement and lyrical content, yes. Exact same, no.

The first band to pop up in my mind - AC/DC