Songwriting, parody or plagiarism?

Have you ever heard a secular song that stood out as something for possible use in church? Change a few words to a love song, for example, and it may work in our setting. However, would that be a copyright violation?

I know that you cannot copyright a song title or a chord progression but what about a change in original lyrics?

Years ago, Roy Orbison lost a lawsuit against a rap artist for using the lyrics to “Pretty Woman”. The court ruled the song was meant as a parody, not a an obvious rip-off. Even Weird Al changes lyrics to popular songs for the humor effect.

I ask because I am rewriting the lyric to a catchy secular tune but do not know if I can record or sell it.

What are your thoughts on this?

I would think that there is some issue with copying music, I think you have to at least credit the writers of the music. I know that Vanilla Ice got in trouble for sampling "under pressure" and not crediting Freddie Mercury and David Bowie.

Here is Wikipedia's answer:
Mad Magazine provoked an early legal backlash against parody when in 1961 the magazine published a songbook in which various topical ditties such as "The Last Time I Saw Maris", "Albert Einstein," and "There's No Business Like No Business" were included (in poem format; with a parenthetical phrase after each title, stating "Sung to the tune of..."). Several music publishers joined in a suit taking the magazine to court. The matter was eventually decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to review the decision by a lower court dismissing the suit against Mad.

Musical parodists were briefly an endangered species again, in the mid-1990s when a case (Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc.) was brought before the U.S. Supreme Court by country music legend Roy Acuff's music publishing company against the lead singer of the rap music group 2 Live Crew for recording a lewd version of one of Acuff's songs without his permission. But the justices ruled in favor of the rappers, protecting the fair use doctrine and creating a legal standard for parody as protected derivative work.

Thanks JB! That's the information I needed to know.

Gary

Technically legal or not I'm not sure that thats very intellectually honest especially for a christian song.

We once played "Free Ride" by Edgar Winter in a service. It was so fun! A bit of a stretch? maayyyybeee, but totally worth it!

Hey Gary,

Listen, what you're talking about is not parody. A parody is meant for humorous purposes. Take a look at the definition of parody:

"a literary or musical work in which the style of an author or work is closely imitated for comic effect or in ridicule"

Merely changing a few words is still copyright infringement. Even if you changed all of the words, but kept the same melody, you would still be in violation.

Now, I have to be frank here. What you're talking about is lazy "songwriting." Changing "I love you, girl" to "I love you, Jesus" does not give you any claim to the song. Now don't get me wrong, I have heard good songs that were Christian versions of secular songs, and they CAN work in certain situations. However these often come from artists who have a long track record of original songs. More often than not, they play the songs live, but don't try to record/sell them. Not the good ones anyways.

You might be able to get away with performing something at your church without trouble, but anything beyond that and you're just asking for trouble. And that trouble will come down very hard and without any mercy.

I hope this helps, man.

God Bless.

We had funny discussion this week in church about re doing the words for "Sweet Home Alabama". One member of the congregation said as long as you don't do "That Smell" we'll be o.k.

Hey Gary,

Listen, what you're talking about is not parody. A parody is meant for humorous purposes. Take a look at the definition of parody:

"a literary or musical work in which the style of an author or work is closely imitated for comic effect or in ridicule"

Merely changing a few words is still copyright infringement. Even if you changed all of the words, but kept the same melody, you would still be in violation.

Now, I have to be frank here. What you're talking about is lazy "songwriting." Changing "I love you, girl" to "I love you, Jesus" does not give you any claim to the song. Now don't get me wrong, I have heard good songs that were Christian versions of secular songs, and they CAN work in certain situations. However these often come from artists who have a long track record of original songs. More often than not, they play the songs live, but don't try to record/sell them. Not the good ones anyways.

You might be able to get away with performing something at your church without trouble, but anything beyond that and you're just asking for trouble. And that trouble will come down very hard and without any mercy.

I hope this helps, man.

God Bless.


Couldn't agree with you more. The effort you're putting into researching the issue could be spent coming up with a different/better song.

South Park actually made a pretty funny episode about this. In order to attain hit records, Cartman changes the lyrics to contemporary love songs in order to make them suitable for his Christian Rock band. Things get out of hand when the lyrics pertain to physically loving Jesus.

:lol:

South Park actually made a pretty funny episode about this. In order to attain hit records, Cartman changes the lyrics to contemporary love songs in order to make them suitable for his Christian Rock band. Things get out of hand when the lyrics pertain to physically loving Jesus.

:lol:

Didn't he also lose the bet to get a Platinum Record because they only give Myrrh Records for Christian Rock :lol:

I worked in a recording studio for several years that recorded a lot of Christian music. It was not unusual for an artist to come in with revised lyrics to a popular secular song. The recordings were usually very appropriate.

That said, as has been previously posted, the original writer still owns the IP rights to the song and would be due royalties if the song was profitable.

I agree that the ideal solution would be to write your own original songs.

Now hold on a second, there was another case just a few years ago, where some new band was taking the music, and re-writing the lyrics, and it wasnt a parody, and they ended up losing big time in court.

So I would say, it isnt exactly calm waters your attempting to tread on here.........

There was a style of music called a parody mass. In the 16th century, mass composers, such as Palestrina, would borrow melodies from secular compositions and re-set those in a mass. The term parody is not directly related to the way we use the word today. It wasn't for giggles that composers did this, although some sources were bawdy in nature.

Stuff just keeps coming round and round, doesn't it?

Isn't the tune for the Star Spangled Banner taken from a drinking tune?

Yes.
The tune was written by John Stafford Smith for the Anacreontic Society, a men's social club in London. "The Anacreontic Song", set to various lyrics, was already popular here in the US. It was set to F.S.Key's poem "Defence of Fort McHenry" after seeing the bombardment of Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore and renamed "The Star-Spangled Banner".

*And as Larry mentioned above scared music (as does ALL music) has a long history of borrowing from other sources as well as other sacred music.

Unless i'm mistaken songwriting copyright consists of the melody just as much it does the lyrics (if not moreso!). So I would say simply changing the lyrics to any song (which does not end up being a parody) is a no go for any sort of commercial use.

I ran across a CD by this Christian rock band, "Apologetix" not long ago, and they include a disclaimer which references the Roy Orbison case mentioned earlier in this thread. It seems like they pretty thoroughly researched it before they began writing "parodies". Their website states their rationale, and also has links to details of the court case, etc.

Their music isn't too bad - pretty faithful recreations of the originals songs (which are clearly credited on the cover) with heavily modified song lyrics.

Here's their FAQ on the legality of doing "parodies": http://www.apologetix.com/faq/faq-detail.php?faq_q_id=1

David, Colorado

Stealing in the name of the Lord??? We've had one or two preachers around here lose their pulpits because they "borrowed" someone else's sermon without giving them credit. Seems like DADGAD and Apologetix want to do the same. I concur Mralmostpopukar and emiller. Had DADGAD spent the time writing something original than trying to rationalize plagerizing someone else's material, he may have come up with something decent ... maybe a tune "Thou Shall Not Steal" out of drop D tuned a whole step down and lots of pyro!!! Personally changing the lyrics to secular music for Christian purposes make me want to vomit.

is replete with songs that were once "popular" music that had new words put over the melodies and became more well known as our "respectable" hymns.

Some brief examples:

He Looked Beyond My Faults and Saw My Needs is sung over the melody Londonderry Aire, more commonly known as the melody to Danny Boy.

What Child is This is sung over the tune to the folksong Greensleeves.

A melody called Old Hundreth is the melody for one version of the Doxology used in many churches at the offering or after prayer.

This has been a common practice in the church for several hundred years. It may NOW be a copyright infringement and illegal but I wouldn't call it "lazy songwriting".

Back before recorded music, people had less exposure to various songs, instruments and styles. Church musicians had to use what was available to them for choral arrangements and used the common(secular) songs of the day with Christian lyrics in place of the secular.

Gary don't at all feel bad about doing this but do be careful not to run afoul of the law!

is replete with songs that were once "popular" music that had new words put over the melodies and became more well known as our "respectable" hymns.

...This has been a common practice in the church for several hundred years. It may NOW be a copyright infringement and illegal but I wouldn't call it "lazy songwriting".

Back before recorded music, people had less exposure to various songs, instruments and styles. Church musicians had to use what was available to them for choral arrangements and used the common(secular) songs of the day with Christian lyrics in place of the secular.

Gary don't at all feel bad about doing this but do be careful not to run afoul of the law!

Interestingly, Lutherans have had for years various hymns that went to the tune of "Duetschland, Deutschland Uber Alles", which itself is lyrics over the tune (ironically) "Austria".

I think this is one of the problems with "Christian Music" today. A lot of artists are out there, and while they may have good intent, they're just either trying to sound cool by copying (often poorly) someone else's sound... or being cute by rewriting someone's lyrics...

I don't know. I serve the Creator of the heavens and the earth. I think He has gifted us more than we credit to reflect His creativity in our songwriting and playing.

Having said that, I have no problem performing a song that wasn't written by a Christian in a church service if it fits. We've done that several times over the last 10 years in my church (maybe once every other year). What makes me gag is when lyrics are rewritten.

We do The Doors Roadhouse Blues as Church House Blues...I guess. Changing the lyrics like...Woke up this morning and I got myself up here. Of course the save our city seems appropriate.

Anyway, that's the only one I can think of where we change the lyrics in a major way and not as a parody although it makes folks smile if they know the original. Sometimes we'll just change a word or two in a Motown song My Girl to My Guy...kinda funny cause we've done My Guy ...(Mary Wells) too once for a special. Motown songs had a lot of church influence in them and I think they fit well in modern worship especially the Marvin Gaye and James Taylor versions of How Sweet It Is (to be loved by you). That one sounds like a worship song or a psalm as is. Some songs just fit the change from a man/woman relationship to a man/God one. A good example is If Not For You by Bob Dylan. I've heard he wrote it for his wife but if you sing it as unto God it makes perfect sense and seems Psalm-like.