I was minding my black owned business, scrolling through Instagram, when I saw that Miley Cyrus is being sued for her song Flowers being similar to Bruno Mars’ 2012 hit, When I Was Your Man. My immediate reaction was … What?! That is ridiculous! It’s so ridiculous that I’m coming out of retirement as a Tuned Up writer to say just how ridiculous it is.

Some are saying the melodies are similar. I disagree. If these two songs are similar, then so is every song ever made in the history of music. There is no such thing as a fully original anything, let alone music. There are only so many keys and styles and chords to arrange. The comedy trio, The Axis of Awesome, demonstrated this reality with their viral mashup of 38 songs. Music has always sounded like what has come before it–with a few individualized twists to make it unique. That’s partly what makes it beautiful. Certain rhythms used again and again become canonized into their own category of music, like reggaeton. There are even discussions on Reddit titled, “Why does every Trap beat sound the same?” But apparently, it’s only okay… sometimes?

The surge in lawsuits pursuing compensation for the smallest of similarities in music is, in my opinion, destroying music. Let’s look at the claim against Miley. According to TMZ, the case document says, “Flowers would not exist without When I Was Your Man.” Let’s just say it’s true and Miley’s song only exists because of Bruno’s. Isn’t that how art works? Even Picasso began using a style similar to Van Gogh’s. Some have analyzed the sudden change of his brush stroke during a certain period is clearly mimicking Van Gogh’s work. This actually helps us understand the impact Van Gogh had. We can fairly say that Picasso’s Mother and Child would not exist without Van Gogh’s Madame Roulin and Her Baby. But is that so scandalous? Is that stealing? Or is that simply the nature of art–that styles and concepts evolve through multiple artistic expressions of artists influencing each other?

Perhaps one agrees that the melodies of these songs are different, but still feels the subject matter was plagiarized. Many say that immediately upon hearing Flowers, they assumed it was a direct response to the Mars’ ballad. But I personally did not. The concept of buying flowers, holding someone’s hand, and dancing is pretty universal. I guess it’s a response to any song that ever talked about flowers and/or dancing. There’s actually a country song out right now, by Erin Kirby, that sounds like it was 100% inspired by Miley’s. Check out the lyrics:

“I can pick my own flowers

I can hold my own door

I can pay for myself

Dance by myself on that dance floor”

Well, well, well… You don’t see Miley trippin’. Or perhaps that lawsuit is coming soon, haha! But seriously, is no one allowed to talk about flowers now? As an artist, this strange wave of people gatekeeping basic concepts is disturbing. Speakers and authors are never flagged for merely speaking or writing about the same idea. I mean let’s be real, how many books and movies have dystopian societies and the truth is on the other side of a wall? Yet somehow, we love it every time, like it’s new–shout out to the book, Where the Stars Hide, by Patricia Gulzar. But seriously, music is being specifically attacked. It’s actually incredible to hear different elements of one song in another song by a totally different artist a decade later and I believe we are severely depriving and hindering ourselves by discouraging that. What’s crazy is that Bruno Mars is literally the king of imitating sound. His entire style replicates those who came before him. Ironically, Uptown Funk got flagged by multiple artists. Maybe that’s why his team is now doing their own flagging–to prove a point? It is all so petty. I don’t know about you, but it’s dangerous out here in these creative streets. We need to be able to create without fear of whether a line in our song is referencing a line in another song from 15 years ago, otherwise our hearts and minds will close off authentic inspiration. Real plagiarism is overt and often intentional. This is reaching. Yet claims like this are on the rise.

Only recently, did the narcissistic notion that we deserve compensation for every little thing, as if we ourselves never were inspired, arise. Now people are trying to trademark basic phrases that everyone already says and sue over general beats that took 30 seconds to come up with on FL Studios. Don’t hate me, but I feel a lot of these claims increased at the same time we began gatekeeping other things like fashion and hairstyles in the name of respecting culture. I get what people were trying to accomplish, but cries of cultural appropriation were quickly taken too far and began limiting the authenticity and freedom of people on the basis of their perceived race, which to me is actual racism. Once I heard a hispanic woman on Dr. Phil claim that all people who add fruit to their water need to credit Mexico, because agua fresca exists. The audacity! Adding fruit to water is something I did naturally when I was five with the blackberry bush in our backyard. It all feels like the same spirit, like in an anime where demons are secretly behind a certain sudden behavior destroying a society and turning people against each other. It even began controlling what type of music people felt they were allowed to make. I tried to make an Afrobeat song with a talented white girl, and she said she had anxiety that people would attack her. I told her in that case, don’t make blues, or rock, or pretty much any genre, because I can trace it back to Black origins if you give me enough time. Continuing this way is a great method to stunt the growth of a society, sever human connection, and fuel toxic competition. It didn’t use to be this way. In fact, it was the opposite extreme where there wasn’t any protection on music. Our own national anthem is literally a recycled bar song from another country. At some point, laws were put in place to protect and honor individual creativity so that you can’t repurpose an entire melody without crediting and compensating the original composer. But there was always room for small similarities that provided freedom and allowed artists to be inspired or tastefully pay homage. I hope Miley wins. And to be clear, I do believe in protecting creativity. I just believe that the devil thrives in extremes. If something is being taken to far, like having no protection at all or too much, it always results in bondage or harm. I hope a new law will be passed to stop this nonsense and protect an artists right to create, within reason, from inspiration of what has come before them. And I will do my best to allow myself to stay inspired without fear.

Author: Gabrielle Solange