Avril's Borrowing Again

Avril Lavigne has gotten her fair share of negative publicity due to the similarity between her song "Girlfriend" and a song by 70's band The Rubinoos. There are millions of pop songs, and only so many good hooks and guitar chords. It is natural that many songs will sound like others. Where the line should be drawn in terms of being similar and flat out copying, I'll leave to legal experts in this field. The one thing that can be said about Avril is that her popularity has not yet suffered, although this is the not the first time she has been called a copycat. I doubt she is the only person helping to write her songs anyway.

There is an analogy here somewhere. In today's Web 2.0 world, a talented Ruby-on-Rails engineer can produce a site in weeks that is pretty cool and functional. So we are entering a stage in Internet technology where great ideas are being copied on a regular basis. Are we headed towards a world where technology cycles mirrors the fads and trends of the music industry? There will be perennial all-stars in music (Rolling Stones, U2, REM, Bruce Springsteen) and technology (Google, Yahoo!, eBay, MySpace). There will also be our fair share of one-hit wonders and trendy bands/tech companies that ride the latest wave and then fade away. Even the Greatful Dead had their disco period. One thing seems likely, the pace of change in a world where grabbing a consumer's attention is increasingly difficult and fickle will increase. Those who do break through will liberally borrow the best ideas while they have their moment in the spotlight - like Avril.