Is Pakistani song 'Baby Baby' ripped off from a Michael Jackson classic?

Written and produced by Bilal Maqsood, the Natasha Noorani number raised the bar, along with a few brows

KARACHI:

When brands fight for eyeballs it is the music industry that earns a living. Rohail Hyatt was one of the first to come to terms with this reality when he laid down the foundation of Coke Studio almost a decade after coming up with the Battle of the Bands.

This led to a fresh catalogue for Hyatt as a solo producer almost clean-slating him of the Vital Signs legacy now stained with allegations of plagiarism. The same goes for other bands that arose in the 80s and 90s. U2, ACDC, Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, ABBA you name it and you’ll have a Pakistani band or a solo act being ‘inspired’ from a Western outfit. But since they didn’t have YouTube back then a number of iconic songs still gather the respect on purely nostalgic brownie points.

However, a similar debate started in the Pakistani music scene just a few weeks back. This time around people who accused the producers of ‘ripping off’ had access to YouTube and a clear ‘then and now’ experience to present as evidence for what they feel has been ‘plagiarised’. The case in question is a song produced by yet another 80s band front-man for yet another branded show. Baby Baby has been sung and performed by Natasha Noorani and composed by Bilal Maqsood for a show he also heads as the executive producer.

While many appreciated Noorani’s singing and the effort to revive the 80s sound, some claimed the composition was a ‘rip off’ of a Michael Jackson classic. "This sounds like a copy of The Way You Make Me Feel,” a user commented beneath its YouTube video. “This reminds me of an old song. But I can’t put my finger on it. Stupendous job!” complimented another. “Nice one but a copy of MJ’s,” rang in the echo chamber.

Local musicians chip in

Upon feeling the two tracks were sonically similar, a few musicians and industry veterans were made to listen to the songs and asked for their observations. “Many have picked up western melodies only to layer with Urdu lyrics and voila, blessed us with ‘new’ songs in the past,” remarked a veteran producer maintaining anonymity. “These two are very similar. Too similar, actually, I can’t say Baby Baby is not inspired because the groove, the bass line and the melody are very much the same,” they added.

Another senior musician said that the groove, beat, fills, synth, and bass of Baby Baby resembled The Way You Make Me Feel with slight alterations in the arrangement. “Even the scale Noorani’s singing in is the same while the chorus is similar,” they continued.

To rule out any personal enmity among the veterans The Express Tribune reached out to a bassist from an emerging band who noted the bass line of both the tracks was responsible for the eerie similarity.

Calling a spade

“Those who are accusing Baby Baby of being a copy are the ones who would pull anything which is doing well, down!” Bilal Maqsood told The Express Tribune.

“The song isn’t even similar, let alone being the same. The beat on the track is a genre-defining beat. It’s a four by four triplet. There are many songs inculcating the same beat. The structure and melody is totally different. The Way You Make Me Feel is based on two chords while Baby Baby is constantly changing,” claimed the Mera Bichra Yaar crooner.

As for the similarities cited in the song’s arrangement, bass line, synth, groove and scale, Maqsood said, “We locked the scale Natasha was comfortable singing in. The scale doesn’t prove anything. Moreover, we are trying to bring back that 80s vibe. If you listen to songs from that era, you will hear a similar sound in all of them,” he asserted. “And about the groove, if you play a four by four triplet on even a dholak, it will feel as if you’re playing The Way You Make Me Feel,” assured the veteran.

He then relayed that in order to identify differences in the bass line one must observe the pauses in the bass line of MJ’s track and the continuity in the bass line of Baby Baby. And to the listeners calling the track a ‘rip off’ without acknowledging its intricacies, the Bolo Bolo crooner said, “They’re idiots.”

To further highlight differences in the chorus of both the songs, Maqsood added “the chords of The Way You Make Me Feel transition from C# to F#, while the chorus for Baby Baby is played in C#, G# minor, E major, A major 6 and F# major 7. Not a single note is the same,” he reinstated.

As a few remained on the fence about the track, others geared up to defend it. While singer Natasha Noorani, despite repeated attempts, could not be available for a comment on the matter, Sounds of Kolachi front man Ahsan Bari uploaded a video to ‘analyse and educate’ his followers about the differences in both the numbers.

Speaking to The Express Tribune Bari said, “I heard Baby Baby and The Way You Make Me Feel multiple times. There is a similarity in the bass and groove but the structure of both the songs is entirely different. Musical scales are fixed and raags, limited in number. Because of that, many songs sound similar but one cannot call them ‘plagiarised’ based on these minor resemblances.”

Drawing the line

To rule out any biases of industry insiders for or against the artists in question The Express Tribune reached out to foreign academics, researchers and musicians to impart on a debate which is essentially about a Western genre of music.

Dr Caspar Melville is the convenor of the MA in Global Creative & Cultural Industries program at SOAS University of London. He is also the author of It’s a London Thing: How Rare Groove, Acid House and Jungle Remapped the City. Melville went on to explain how pop tends to sound the same or similar for many reasons, with “one of them being, complaints from people who do not like pop.”

“There are a limited set of forms and styles which tend to appear in pop. If you want to get academic, philosopher Theodor Adorno with Max Horkheimer discussed this in his 1944 essay The Culture Industry. He called it 'standardisation',” he told The Express Tribune.

In Melville’s opinion while the two songs aren't anymore alike than so many any other pop songs, the listeners may feel the tracks sound the same because the melody or harmony of Baby Baby is ‘very similar’ to the Michael Jackson song. “And since these things are protected by copyright, there may be grounds to sue,” said Melville.

He then recalled how a five-year legal battle between Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams against Marvin Gaye ended up with a verdict in the favour of the latter – deeming Blurred Lines a copy of Gaye’s Got To Give It Up. “But even then the issue is open to question,” said Melville, who thinks the decision remains controversial.

“The bottom line is that all music draws on and is influenced by other music. And telling the difference between influence and copying can be very hard. The rule, as explained to me by Pete Jenner, the former manager of Pink Floyd is, 'where there's a hit there's a writ',” he recalled.

To simplify, Melville noted that none would go to court unless whoever is being sued has had a hit, making them a suitable party to benefit from financially. “And if that were to happen, the issue would have to be settled in court with an expert musicologist. Which I am not, called in as a witness” he pointed out.

Very similar but safe

“Plagiarism, artistic freedom and inspiration are really interesting sources for debate,” remarked Tom Peterson, who is a Doctoral Researcher of Music, bass player and producer with British electronic pop collective Kudu Blue. After listening to the two songs he explained how the similarities between Baby Baby and The Way You Make Me Feel are too noticeable to ignore and too hazy to put it in the danger zone.

“To my mind, the most notable similarities between the tracks are their basslines and rhythmical framework,” he said. “Both have what western classical musicians would refer to as pedal bass: a bassline that repeats while harmonic movements occur independently of it,” Peterson explained.

He also pointed out that both Baby Baby and The Way You Make Me Feel used eighth-note triplets in the basslines and drums, giving them similar rhythmical frameworks. “Rhythmic and tonal analysis can lead us to suspect instances of influence or plagiarism. But I think these similarities alone are insufficient to definitively say that the songwriters of Baby Baby plagiarised The Way You Make Me Feel,” he continued.

Speaking of timbre and instrumentation, Peterson noted that one can find big similarities in the use of drum machines, gated snares and synthesisers, to say the least. “But these sounds and instruments were ubiquitous with much of Western pop music in the 80s, and so cannot be taken to be of direct influence,” assured the producer.

But despite the controversy, Peterson claimed it is difficult to imagine a musician writing 80s inspired pop music today “without being influenced by Michael Jackson and that’s clear to hear in Baby Baby,” he assured.

Like Melville, quoting recent and renowned examples of specific mimicry, Peterson recalled how Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars plagiarised The Gap Band, The Sequence, Collage and Zap in their track Uptown Funk. “Or even Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke plagiarising Marvin Gaye in Blurred Lines,” he added.

“In both examples, the similarities feel more direct and obvious than between Baby Baby and The Way You Make Me Feel,” claimed the bassist. “The Uptown Funk and Blurred Lines cases – both of which ruled in favour of the plagiarised – go some distance towards defining the grey area between creative liberty, inspiration and plagiarism.”

Having said that, Peterson reinstated that the similarities between the basslines and rhythmical frameworks of Baby Baby and The Way You Make Me Feel were ‘quite noticeable’, making clear why the comparisons were being made in the first place. But since Michael Jackson didn’t invent pedal bass, eighth-note triplets or the gated snare, “For now though, Baby Baby is in the safe zone of artistic freedom,” concluded Peterson, emphasising how it should stay there.

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