Olivia Rodrigo‘s first album, SOUR, contained several songs that some people felt sounded a lot like other songs — some by Olivia’s own admission. But one artist who could’ve had a case against Liv says he never pursued one, because, as he puts it, “That’s the way it works.”
Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Elvis Costello realizes that Olivia’s hit “Brutal” sounds very much like his classic song “Pump It Up.” In a new interview with Vanity Fair, he says people don’t cover “Pump It Up” — rather, he says, they “allude to it in their own arrangements. Like Olivia Rodrigo’s producer obviously did.”
“Now, I did not find any reason to go after them legally for that, because I think it would be ludicrous,” Costello continues. “It’s a shared language of music. Other people clearly felt differently about other songs on that record.”
Costello may have been referring to Taylor Swift with that comment; Taylor and her producer Jack Antonoff are listed in the credits of SOUR as co-writers of the songs “Deja Vu” and “1 Step Forward, 3 Steps Back.” That’s because of the similarities between “Deja Vu” and Taylor’s song “Cruel Summer,” and the fact that “1 Step Forward, 3 Steps Back” interpolates Taylor’s song “New Year’s Day.”
Costello continued to explain his point of view to Vanity Fair, noting, “[I]f there were no [musical] quotations, there’d be no Bach. There’d be no Mozart. There’d be no Sonny Rollins. So we can’t start worrying about that. That’s the way it works. One thing leads to another. That’s all I’ve ever been saying.”
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