Is “Uptown Funk” a Ripoff of “The Sequence”?

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  • Source: www.youtube.com / Via: www.youtube.com

  • “Uptown Funk” won Record of the Year at the Grammys – and now Bruno Mars and Mark Ronson are being accused of ripping off someone else’s song.

    Not the most surprising turn of events we’ve ever seen.

    The song that Mars and Ronson supposedly copied is 1979 number “Funk You Up” by hip hop girl group The Sequence, featuring Angie Stone.

    The group’s representation, Kali Bowyer, is claiming that Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars infringed on their copyright with “Uptown Funk,” which has a similar hook (and also makes the same pun with the F-word, get it?).

    But others – including some of us at the What’s Trending office – feel like it’s probably a coincidence. Popular songs from specific genres tend to use the same chord progressions and rhythms; it’s hard to avoid a certain amount of repetition.

    Also, not that we’re lawyers or anything, but copyright law in music doesn’t really apply to stylistic things in the song – it just applies to the song as written on sheet music, including melody and lyrics.

    We can all agree that both songs are super catchy, though, right?

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