There’s been no shortage of dance music rip-off scandals over the years. In recent memory alone, Will.i.am has nicked the Boys Noize track Yeah!, Leona Lewis has been taken to court by Avicii and some kid called Moonwalk had all hell descend on him when he was caught stealing songs from Bassnectar, Skrillex and Nicky Romero. All that in mind, you’d think artists wouldn’t be so stupid as to blatantly rip off someone else’s track – especially one as recognisable as the Bag Raiders anthem Shooting Stars.
But just as surely as there’ll be death and taxes, so too will there be idiots. Enter Ryan Tedder: solo artist and frontman for US group OneRepublic, who had a massive hit with the 2007 Timbaland-produced track Apologize and, as far as we can tell, have really done nothing much since. But while OneDirection have been laying low, it seems Ryan Tedder has been busy dabbling in plagiarism.
Speculation’s been rife today that Tedder has ripped-off the Sydney duo with a track called DJ Is My Lover, which despite being almost a year old has flown under the radar until now. The song, which was uploaded last August, is pretty much exactly the same as Bag Raiders’ Shooting Stars except shitter and (as its title hints) with terrible lyrics. Bag Raiders confirmed on their Twitter this afternoon that they haven’t received any payment for the use of the track, though it’s unclear whether it was ever given an official release. VIEW TWEET HERE. You can compare the two below – so, suss enough?
DJ is my lover is a demo therefore no clearance was needed, records aren't cleared until the very end of the album process, this was leaked by someone before it got close to time to approach bag raiders about clearing it and was not sold for profit so Ryan doesn't owe anyone anything. Its not the first time he's sampled or interpolated someone else's song. Ryan's simply doing what Dr Luke did with Avicii's Levels for Flo Rida's Good Feeling. The writer of that article seems like they have a grudge because this is a very simple story to figure out and Im pretty sure OneRepublic has had a few successful hits since "Apologize"
. Bag Raiders are amazing.
