Top Ten Songs of the 2010s that Sound Alike

This is obviously a rip off. In 2012 and from then on, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis became pretty popular over here as well, and the great empowerment hymn "Can't Hold Us" also one of their singles that were on the music channels. However, German rapper Kay One, who is pretty famous himself, thought that in 2015 people forgot about the song and used a beat that's almost an exact copy. It's nearly the same piano loop, both have anthemic drumming and "whooa whooa" choir vocals - in both songs the verses are rapped with a fast flow while the chorus is sung in a soul style. There's no way this is a coincidence. Unfortunately, the song is from Kay One's strongest album. Kay One's a good rapper but with piss poor taste in style and beats. But I'll tell you more about that on another item.

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis released "Can't Hold Us" on August 16th, 2011, Kay One & Dante Thomas released "What Happened Last Night" on June 19th, 2015.

There are two parts of "Everyday Saturday", 1.0 and 2.0, which have the same lyrics but different beats and different takes, also 2.0 has better sound mixing. They can be bought on iTunes under these titles. However, on ApoRed's channel, "Everyday Saturday 1.0" turned to "Everyday Saturday (Remix)", and "Everyday Saturday 2.0", which was released three weeks later, was titled "Everyday Saturday". Ummm... yup. Nothing against Apo, but I assume he called it a remix because it was more likely to be taken offline for copyright issues (it wasn't and it's much clicked), because the beats are almost identical and it takes very good ears to spot the difference.

Ace Hood released "Bugatti" on January 29th, 2013, ApoRed released "Everyday Saturday 1.0" on April 23rd, 2016 as "Everyday Saturday (Remix)".

This is surely a pure coincidence. The songs have no similar structures or moods, the original wasn't a hit (the album was a commercial failure and the song wasn't a single), and P! nk simply has too many ambitions of her own. The songs' melodies are very, very similar though. I can't help but think of Furtado's song (the best song off her latest album which was a bit disappointing) when hearing P! nk's, although the latter would be great on its own.

Nelly Furtado released "Sticks and Stones" on March 31rd, 2017, P! nk released "Where We Go" on October 13th, 2017.

Another one that's most likely purely coincidental. Although the genre bending Casper is a singer that's both chart topping and acclaimed beyond compare in Germany (the 2017 album of the same name hit number one and as a poet he was literally called Germany's Kendrick Lamar by one reviewer - but I disagree, Casper is too European in his topics and not as much hip hop), I doubt Taylor Swift knows this experimental piece of apocalyptic music - which by the way assembles the avant garde legend and Einstürzende Neubauten singer Blixa Bargeld, the rock band Sizarr and indie singer Dagobert.

But still the main instrumental break is so strikingly similar, although very simplistic: three extremely dark and distorted bass kicks and an industrial sound. It's simple enough to be unintentional, and also through the circumstances, it probably is.

Casper released "Lang lebe der Tod" on July 4th, 2016, Taylor Swift released "...Ready For It? " on September 3rd, 2017.

Unlike the other songs by German artists copying American beats, this one doesn't come off as a ripoff, because SpongeBozz makes verbal references to the original and doesn't try to get away with it. He calls his gang the Suicide Squad, he briefly comments on the lack of a purple Lamborghini in the original video and gives out a shoutout to his producer the exact time Rick Ross does in the original song. I think what happened is that SpongeBozz wanted to rap over the original Skrillex beat, in a way that rappers like Lil Wayne do on mixtapes, but wanted to release it commercially, which he obviously couldn't, so Digital Drama produced a type beat for him. And DD is just as great as a producer as Skrillex is, with SpongeBozz is technically worlds ahead of Rick Ross, sorry. "Purple Lamborghini" has originality bonus and admittedly the sicker drop, but 'Yellow Bar Mitzvah" has a gazillion times better rapping and also a better beat during the verses.

Skrillex & Rick Ross released "Purple Lamborghini" on July 22nd, 2016, SpongeBozz released "Yellow Bar Mitzvah" on May 25th, 2017.

And this is what I meant with Kay One having bad taste. This guy is a really good rapper flow-wise, great at battle raps and he can freestyle flawlessly, but he always goes for cheap party pop music. And in this case, he ripped off the entire feel of "Despacito". It's not entirely the same in its melody, but not being a fan of either song, I found myself confusing them quite a lot until I realized that the song I was listening to was either actually Spanish or German with some Spanish sounding words in between. Both songs topped the German and Austrian charts, so the songs were blasting everywhere, and I could tell them apart mostly by the language.

Louis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee released "Despacito" on January 12th, 2017, Kay One & Pietro Lombardi released "Señorita" on September 8th, 2017.

I even know the background story to this one from the producer's YouTube channel, 2Bough. Kollegah loved the "Deuces" beat and wanted to rap over it. He asked 2Bough to re-build it for him (because of course he couldn't just use the original one on a commercial album). 2Bough produced this beat. And he did a good job. So yeah: in this case, it's official that it's a ripoff.
BUT: Chris Brown isn't an all too good artist and this song is just another of his typical, uninspired RnB/hip hop hybrids, Kollegah on the other hand is one of the greatest rappers out there, and so he gets much more out of the beat, which in and of itself is neutral and in my opinion not all too original to begin with, simply by having better lyrics. He raps about his inability of staying loyal to his girlfriend although he loves her and gets nothing out of the experience because it doesn't feel well being with other women, but he still can't restrain from it. Also Kollegah's version has SpongeBozz on the ...more

Chris Brown released "Deuces" on June 25th, 2010, Kollegah released "I.H.D.P." on October 14th, 2011.

It's actually not really that much similarity between these two - except for the very firsr lines of the first verses which are so strikingly similar that they are basically identical. The music, the melody, the soulful singing, the use as an opening line - although everything tells you "hey, these two songs are completely different"... I hear the resemblence every time.

Adele released "Rolling in the Deep" on September 29th, 2010, Fall Out Boy released "Just One Yesterday" on April 12th, 2013.

Okay, this one might be spoiled by me not being Spanish, but when "Despacito" (and "Señorita"...) became hits over here, this song was re-discovered by radio stations, and again, I often couldn't tell the difference - I only figured out which was which by waiting if the line "Despacito" would pop up.

Enrique Iglesias released "Bailando" on April 28th, 2014, Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee released "Despacito" on January 12th, 2017.

Yeah, I know, that's cheap. It's obviously the same band and yeah, most bands have that one song that sounds similar to an earlier one. I just think it's funny that not only the melody in the chorus is very similar, also the word that is repeated is: "Weather" and "Better". To be fair, much of the song sounds nothing like the other one. Just the chorus.

Tokio Hotel released "Stormy Weather" on October 3rd, 2014 and "Better" on March 3rd, 2017.