Viva La Vida, Joe sues Coldplay

Viva La Vida, a song from UK based band Coldplay is in trouble. According to Joe Satriani, the song's chorus is much to similar to his own song If I Could Fly.



Viva La Vida did very well in many awards last year, including a coveted Grammy 2009 for Song of the Year.



There are so many conflicting views on this. Copyright infringement is a major issue, especially for the arts. It is also interesting to see how easily a party is perceived as liable to plagiarism. Joe Satriani has always been acknowledged as a artist with super talent and skills, but did not find mainstream success like Coldplay has. And with a song like Viva, all the attention it got and is still getting today, it's hard not to draw comparisons to the similarities. Coldplay's predicament is not unheard of... KD Lang's Constant Craving also bore similarities to other artists' work some time back. Even further back in history, classical music composers like Strauss found themselves copycat rivals too.



It's definitely easier to pick out strengths and flaws of Viva, a song currently so high in profile. If it was downright plagiarism of a catchy hook, and only Coldplay themselves can answer this, then Satriani should be given his dues. If it was pure coincidence, which I am more inclined to believe it was so, I wish Satriani could just be content that "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery".