[Cryptomnesia] Animal Crossing: Let's go to the copy

Where did Animal Crossing's theme song come from?

Cryptomnesia is a recall bias in which memory is mistaken for imagination, often resulting in plagiarism allegations.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptomnesia

The music in Animal Crossing: City Folk for Wii sounds eerily familiar, and not just because it's identical to Animal Crossing: Wild World for Nintendo DS. So let's go to the city and see if we can match the motifs used in the game's theme song to older songs. Is it coincidence or a copyright lawsuit waiting to happen?

This video contains fair use snippets of the following recordings:

A. Franz Ferdinand - Take Me Out (PSP POV People TV ad)
B. Nintendo - Kirby's Avalanche Title Theme
C. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication
D. Beatles - Here There and Everywhere
E. Michele Wagner - Simple Devoted and True
F. Nintendo - Forest Life (ACPG Title Theme)
G. Nintendo - ACWW Title Theme
H. Nintendo - Mr. Resetti Rants (ACWW)

Category:

Music

Tags:

• animal
• crossing
• city
• folk
• music
• beatles
• chili
• peppers
• michele
• wagner
• franz
• ferdinand
• psp
• plagiarism
• cryptomnesia

[KiyoKenshin]

i think that last one was more just two songs that happen to have the same tempo. but it matched quite well, phrasing and everything!

[tepples]

@KiyoKenshin Then I guess the moral is if it's this easy to make songs that accidentally match, then how can anyone sue for plagiarism?

[LuigiDude1808]

Wait, so the definition of copying is having about three seconds sounding similar to another song? Phail.

[tepples]

@LuigiDude1808 Courts have used such a definition, yes.

[purplemist7]

Sorry, but I'm not buying it. Just because parts of melodies sound similar, doesn't mean that they're doing something as seedy as ripping off other people's work. Just a coincidence.

[tepples]

If you write a song, and a coincidence happens, you can still be found liable for infringement.

[vashgs]

Silly conspiracy theorist. I doubt Totaka is sitting in his basement in Japan listening to Red Hot Chili Peppers and Michele Wagner. Considering most of his melodies predate any of the songs mentioned (excluding, of course, The Beatles) it's just silly to make these comparisons.

[iFevy]

My, my... Mr. Resetti and Franz Ferdinand make a good duo.

[MarioAnimalCrossing]

I thought EarthBound was the only game that copied music, a lot of it came from the Beatles.

[GuitarKidAvalon]

hmm.... i think mr.ressetti wants to call u a loser 4 going through all this trouble XD

[Boltothemage]

@MissLolcats101 People don't intentionally look at songs and say "Oh, this is good, I think I'll copy it". Most of the time it is unintentional, and they subconsciously think of the song's motifs because they are familiar of them. And before you even try to pull the idea that all these songs are Western songs, Western rock is actually pretty popular in some groups in Japan. In fact, you can walk into stores in Japan and hear them playing Western music.

[tgirlk421]

Kirby's avalanche looks like Puyo Pop and Dr. Eggman's Mean Bean machine

[MissLolcats101]

come on. Resetti's theme sounds nothing like take me out. I highly doubt that the creator of these tracks would sit, listening to these thinking ''ooh, this is good i'll copy that''. Though the Kirby game and the GC version sound the same, but they are both nintendo.

[Heero691]

The funny thing is... if this was possibly discovered early in years and i mean if all this happened maybe in the 80s or somthing... this could have been a big deal...

But now... Every possible god forsaken music artist out there currently, are all currently taking past songs and then covering/remixing the song into their own style of music...

I like to call this age of music "The Recycling Age"

Because lets face it... They are running out of ideas for new songs.... You can't deny it...

[megaetk]

@rubin3364 A judge looks for substantial similarity, not exact similarity. Minor details get glossed over on purpose. It's like trying to use the defense that "He's So Fine" was in G and "My Sweet Lord" was in F.

[rubin3364]

Wild World is not Californication; It's major, CFC is minor.