NICKELBACK Unsurprisingly Wins “Rockstar” Plagiarism Lawsuit

The case towards Nickelback by Snowblind Revival songwriter Kirk Johnston over their 2006 hit “Rockstar” has been dismissed. In accordance with a report by Billboard, U.S. District Decide Robert Pitman has dominated that there are not any similarities between Nickelback‘s tune and Snowblind Revival‘s 2001 tune “Rock Star,” and that there is no proof that Nickelback ever heard the tune.

“Said merely, they don’t sound alike,” wrote Pitman in his ruling. “The place each songs evoke related themes, they’re rendered dissimilar via the vivid element of the unique expression in Nickelback‘s lyrics.” Pitman later mentioned that the lawsuit “borders on the absurd” and that there is actually nothing in frequent between the 2 songs apart from a number of analogies and “outlandish stereotypes and pictures related to being an enormous, well-known, rock star.”

Within the authentic lawsuit, Johnston alleged Nickelback had entry to his demo, which was submitted to Roadrunner Data’ mother or father corporations Common Music Group and Warner Music Group, and that Nickelback stole “a considerable quantity of the music in ‘Rockstar’.”

In a 2021 response, Nickelback mentioned the 2 songs sound nothing alike, and that “Johnston didn’t establish any particular lyrical similarities between the works at difficulty; he might solely conceivably level to the titles of the 2 works and ‘lyrical themes,'” that the 2 songs aren’t even written in the identical type, and that not one of the melodies match up.

Nickelback additionally known as Johnston out on offering no particulars about his conferences with file labels and the Snowblind Revival demo, including Johnston failed to present “the names of the file label representatives with whom he allegedly met, the place the conferences happened, and even when the conferences happened.”

And let’s be actual right here – these two songs don’t have anything in frequent in any respect apart from that they are each named “Rockstar” and “Rock Star.” Certain they take care of the identical normal matter, however think about if lyrical ideas might solely be utilized by one artist. Rock music would’ve been out of enterprise a long time in the past.