Bruno Mars and Mark Ronson are the latest musicians to be sued with ’80s funk band Collage claiming copyright infringement.
As TMZ reports, legal documents claim that their 2014 megahit Uptown Funk, “is an obvious, strikingly and/or substantially similar copy” to Collage’s 1983 single Young Girls.
According to the lawsuit, Ronson and Mars have talked about being inspired by 1980s Minneapolis electro-funk soul music which is the exact category Collage fall into.
The legal documents state:
“Upon information and belief, many of the main instrumental attributes and themes of “Uptown Funk” are deliberately and clearly copied from “Young Girls,” including, but not limited to, the distinct funky specifically noted and timed consistent guitar riffs present throughout the compositions, virtually if not identical bass notes and sequence, rhythm, structure, crescendo of horns and synthesizers rendering the compositions almost indistinguishable if played over each other and strikingly similar if played in consecutively.”
Larry White is the only member of Collage that is still alive but Grady Wilkins and Lee Peters’ estates are listed as defendants.
Earlier this year, as TMZ report, another band, ’70s rap group The Sequence claimed that Mars and Ronson copied their track Funk You Up. They didn’t, however, pursue a lawsuit.
The song has sold nearly 10 million copies in the US, UK and Australia alone and is Ronson’s biggest hit to date.
Both artists are yet to respond to the lawsuit. Ronson is too busy starting beef with US duo The Chainsmokers and sending them financial advice.
If this lawsuit is successful it may be Ronson who need the financial advice.
Hear both the songs below.
Back to being the charisma-bypassed champions of 2 bar Ableton loops? Well, smash it while it lasts, fellas!! P.S. https://t.co/GAH1x0AGOI https://t.co/kQWsjfKTn0
— Mark Ronson (@MarkRonson) October 29, 2016
Watch: Mark Ronson & Bruno Mars – ‘Uptown Funk’
Watch: Collage – ‘Young Girls’
