Copy that!: As AP Dhillon’s song With You comes under scanner for plagiarism, industry experts opine artistes have become lethargic and make songs on ‘sample’ beats
Sheetal
Ever since its release, AP Dhillon’s song With You has become netizens’ favourite love anthem for its catchy music and impressive lyrics. But in the times of technology, nothing remains concealed for a long time, and soon listeners were quick to find two other songs with similar music!
Other alleged plagiarised tracks
AP Dhillon songs Originals and singers
Summer High The Less I Know The Better by Tame Impala
True Stories Just Waana Rock by Lil Uzi Vert
Fake Opps On Fire by Lil Loaded
Desi Munde Baguettes In The Face by Mustard
Deadly Picture Me Rollin’ by Tupac Shakur
One of them, I Won’t Follow Through, by singer Ratthew was released in 2022 on YouTube. While people in no time cried plagiarism, it was soon clarified that the two bought the sample music from the same composer. Anyhow, in an era when remixes and remakes of old songs are marked for lack of originality, listeners are not ready to excuse the Excuses singer for being a lazy artiste! People from the music industry share their opinion.
There’s a striking resemblance. In fact, it feels almost the same as With You but for the melody. I am sure there hasn’t been a copyright issue and it has been bought legally. Shibani Kashyap, singer
Sampling or copy?
In hip hop culture and in the music industry, many artistes have been inspired by other artistes’ music and often tried to include or recreate that. Called sampling, it means taking a section of audio from other source (existing dialogue, music, lyrics) and reworking it to come up with an entirely new work of art. Meanwhile, With You isn’t his first song that has come under scanner. AP Dhillon’s songs, Fake and Summer High, also had beats from western hits. In other words, he is just dishing out Punjabi lyrics on western beats!
I would call it a copy. It’s not that AP didn’t know when he bought the music from the composer that it was used twice by other artistes. No one should be okay with it. Sahil Samuel, singer
Lazy to the core
On Instagram and X, many called out AP Dhillon, with one user labeling his name as ‘Audio Pirate Dhillon’! While some defended AP for buying the audio and making it better, others accused him for not just picking the audio but copying the entire base track of Ratthew, with exactly the same drum and guitar loop.
I really love the freshness AP Dhillon has brought; everyone loved this latest track till we got to know that the music was entirely picked up from somewhere. Sameer Sandhu, music producer
Pop duo Parekh & Singh commented on one such post on plagiarism, “Lazy writing and production that finds commercial success is a dangerous and sad precedent because it encourages aspiring creators to focus on the success rather than the craft and the journey. It’s too rampant all over the ‘creative media industry’, which includes TV, films and, of course, music.”
In the past, other musicians have also been accused of doing the same. Remember cult classic song Mehbooba Mehbooba from Sholay? It was the copy of Say You Love Me (Demis Roussos, 1974). But not everyone had the luxury to listen to western music during the 70s!
