Meghan Trainor Accused of Copying 'All About That Bass Melody' from K-Pop's Koyote, but Maybe Both Stole from Phish

As the music industry gets bigger and bigger it gets tougher and tougher to come up with music that sounds totally unique from everything else. Or at least that's the argument Meghan Trainor's attorneys will need to use when they combat charges that the performer lifted the melody for her hit "All About That Bass" from a popular K-Pop track from 2006.

As Spin notes, Korean songwriter Joo Young Hoon was made aware of the similarities between Trainor's track and "Gippeummodeu," a track for K-Pop group Koyote that translates to "Happy Mode." According to the songwriter he is contacting a "specialized lawyer."

There's no doubt that the verses sung by Trainor and Koyote are uncannily similar from a melodic standpoint, although the backing instrumental for Koyote is a synth-based pop jam while Trainor leans on a funkier bass groove. The strength of the case against Trainor and cowriter Kevin Kadish banks on proving the pair was familiar with the Korean single, which although was a hit in its homeland, didn't makes waves overseas. It's a case similar to that of Tame Impala, who last week was accused of lifting parts of its song "Backwards" from Argentine performer Pablo Ruiz's "Océano."

Of course, perhaps the copyright infringements go deeper than Trainor versus Koyote. Is is possible, as has been suggested, that both groups independently lifted the melody from Phish's 1989 track "Contact"? And, to dig deeper, hasn't anyone noticed that all of the melodies listed above are subtle takes on Dean Martin's "That's Amore"?

Check out the various clips below to compare:

Tags

Meghan Trainor, Phish