JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Miley Cyrus is the subject of a new copyright claim. A lawsuit argues that her hit song, "Flowers"...
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "FLOWERS")
MILEY CYRUS: (Singing) I can buy myself flowers, write my name in the sand.
SUMMERS: ...Copies another hit song by Bruno Mars released back in 2013.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WHEN I WAS YOUR MAN")
BRUNO MARS: (Singing) That I should've bought you flowers and held your hand, should've gave you all my hours...
SUMMERS: And, yes, referencing that original song seemed to be Miley Cyrus' intent, but it's not Bruno Mars doing the suing. And that is where things get a little bit complicated. Here to break all of this down is musician and musicologist Blake Robin, better known by his stage name, Luxxury. Welcome to the program.
BLAKE ROBIN: Thanks, Juana. Great to be here.
SUMMERS: All right. So if it's not Bruno Mars who is suing, who exactly is?
ROBIN: So the suing is being done by a subsidiary called Tempo Music. They're part of Private (ph) Equity Partners. And they acquired a percentage, a small share, of one of the writers of the song of Bruno Mars' "When I Was Your Man." Philip Lawrence is the name of the writer, and they acquired a fraction of his rights. It's unclear which of the rights they are.
And part of what makes this suit so crazy is how many different defendants there are. They are clearly looking to get a piece of the action on this massive hit song, the biggest of 2023.
SUMMERS: Yeah, I find this so interesting, particularly because the song by Miley Cyrus is clearly a response to that Bruno Mars song, "When I Was Your Man." Cyrus - you can hear her - she's riffing on some of the lyrics. But they're making the argument here that elements of the melody was borrowed as well. How unusual is it for a rights holder to take issue with something like that?
ROBIN: Well, that's exactly, to me, the core of why this is such an unusual case and one that bothers me as a musician/producer myself. Because there's such a long tradition, first of all, of answer songs. That's the name of the category...
SUMMERS: Yeah.
ROBIN: ...Of song where one song is a response to a previous song. You can look at Brandy and Monica.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE BOY IS MINE")
BRANDY AND MONICA: (Singing) The boy is mine.
ROBIN: "The Boy Is Mine" is clearly coming after Michael Jackson's "The Girl Is Mine."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE GIRL IS MINE")
MICHAEL JACKSON: (Singing) The doggone girl is mine.
ROBIN: Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama" was an answer to "Southern Man" by Neil Young.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SWEET HOME ALABAMA")
LYNYRD SKYNYRD: (Singing) Well I hope Neil Young will remember a Southern man don't need him around, anyhow.
ROBIN: So there's a long tradition of songs that are referring to previous songs. Musicians understand there's sort of an unspoken musician code. We are all reusing the same chords, very similar melodies, very similar ideas, words, lyrics. You're going to find similarities all the time.
So the fact that it's not Bruno Mars suing Miley Cyrus is really significant to me. It's so far removed from the artists communicating with each other. It's just about extracting wealth at the very highest level.
SUMMERS: As I'm listening to you talk about this, it sounds like you're saying this could really lead to a slippery slope where all sort of things are permissible. What do you think this could lead us to if you're seeing a lawsuit like this one?
ROBIN: So in the bigger picture, what's been happening for the past decade or so is private equity firms and big investment companies have been buying up the catalogs. People, I'm sure, have been seeing the headlines - Bob Dylan sells catalog for 500 million. Queen sells for 1.3 billion.
So all these legacy artists are getting a real big payday, and the rights to their music are not being bought by other labels to, you know, make movies out of or do rereleases and greatest hits. They're being bought by big investment firms who want to squeeze every ounce, every dollar out of the copyrights that they have come to acquire.
It seems like we are just moments away from the floodgates being opened to lawsuit after lawsuit of this type, where the similarities are minor at best.
SUMMERS: That's the music producer, Luxxury - government name, Blake Robin - the cohost of the "One Song" podcast and author of a forthcoming book on musical borrowing. Thank you so much.
ROBIN: Thanks so much for having me.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "FLOWERS")
CYRUS: (Singing) I can take myself dancing. I can hold my own hand. Yeah, I can love me better than you can. I can love me better. I can love me better, baby. I can love me better. I can love me better, baby. I didn't want to leave you. I didn't want to fight. Started to cry but then, remembered I... Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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