In music, interpolation refers to “the addition of new material in a performance or recording of a previously existing piece of music.” The Wikipedia article notes that interpolation has become “generally synonymous with the term ‘cover version’”. However, in my line of work, it is important to be able to distinguish between a cover and an interpolation.
A few years ago, I was working with a team on a film project that called for Halloween music. One of my colleagues came upon a song called “Killer” by the self-proclaimed “Brechtian street opera trio” The Tigerlillies. At the time, it was my job to vet the songs sent up the pipe, not only to ensure that they fit creatively, but also to ensure that there were no legal issues.
The song was off-kilter and whimsical in all the right ways, and because of the subject matter, it would have been a shoein for placement and easily made it to the final batch. But when I sat to review the final picks one last time, I noticed something familiar about the organ intro to the song. It was in fact the theme from “Phantom of the Opera”, most likely performed by the band and not sampled then spliced into the song.
The organ opening was an interpolation. The issue was not that the band had simply performed the theme song in entirety, so that we would have to secure the rights to use the underlying composition. Rather, the issue was that the band had inserted a snippet of a previously existing composition into the song. Although it was possible that the organ recording was made by the band, we would still have had to secure the composition rights to make use of that part of the song.
The introduction of “Killer” probably comprised less than 10% of the entire song, but I didn’t want to risk the possibility that the director might decide that the intro was his favorite part of the song (and it was a pretty good intro). We decided not to include the song for consideration.
Today is the first day of December, and the commencement of the holiday season brings with it a cornucopia of Christmas music. As well, it brings an influx of songs that include snippets of well-known music: original holiday medleys that also happen to include “White Christmas”, Christmas-themed hip-hop songs where the rap singer’s melody suddenly breaks into “Silver Bells.”
These well-known songs are controlled by major publishing companies, and the choice inclusion of an interpolation from one of these songs can render a song unlicensable. Or rather, licensable only if the song is performed by someone or in some way that is worth the trouble.
But if the song is your average indie rock or pop song, the tendency is to skirt the issue and just move on.
* * *
And on a somewhat related note, listen to these two songs. Is it just me or are they very similar? It’s clearly not a cover, and I wouldn’t peg it as interpolation, but there is some similarity. In a court of law, the question would be whether the similarity is substantial.
The opening chords of those songs are similar, yes, but I don’t think they are similar enough to be called an interpolation. Also, Ethan Hawke has a horrible voice.
For real. I kind of wish they’d had autotune back then.
that would be so awesome. i’d pay to see that.
Do you know what the rule is for quoting song lyrics in a song? Say if you change the melody, but use a few lines of the exact words from another song?
if you’re directly incorporating the lyrics into your song, then the standard would be substantial similarity. think of it this way: if you let a jury listen to it,
would they recognize that there was copying?
but in the real world, a few lines would probably fly under the radar. most artists aren’t important enough (i.e., don’t matter enough commercially) to warrant the cost and effort of writing and sending cease and desist, let alone litigation.