Carly Rae Jepsen and Owl City are two of the most squeaky-clean entertainers in the business. So would any of us in Florida every really believe that they stole the material that eventually became their hit duet “Good Time”?
That’s what an Alabama singer-songwriter is saying happened.
The singer-songwriter has filed a lawsuit against Jepsen, Owl City and two music publishing companies over “Good Time,” saying it mimics her own 2010 single “Ah, It’s a Love Song,” so closely that it infringes on her copyright.
(You will recall that a copyright is a legal privilege given to the creator of a work, such as a song, granting him or her the exclusive rights to reproduce, distribute, and publicly display or perform the work.)
The singer-songwriter’s lawsuit gets quite technical, alleging similarities between the two songs in terms of timbre, melodic contour, and pitch sequence, but it also makes the very broad allegation that both are “catchy pop songs” that are “designed to draw people in and get stuck in their heads.”
Neither Owl City nor Jepsen has commented on the lawsuit.
It will be interesting to watch this suit progress. As anyone who listens to the radio knows, “Good Time” has been a chart-topping hit. It has also been commercially successful, being used as theme music in promotions for the 2012 Olympic Games in London, “Hotel Transylvania” and “Parks and Recreation.” “Ah, It’s a Love Song” never quite scaled the same heights of success.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter, “Carly Rae Jepsen, Owl City’s Adam Young Sued for Allegedly Stealing ‘Good Time,’” Eriq Gardner, Oct. 30, 2012