Similarly Themed Songs: The Postal Service vs. The Human League

In my last post on similarly themed songs I spoke a bit on stealing. Now, I just want to clear up that I'm not claiming these bands are actually "stealing" these themes. Obviously a theme is a bit subjective since a song and it's lyrics can mean different things to different people. So basically, these songs have similar themes to me, and I'ld be interested in know what the composers/lyricists think about the other songs.

So, on to my next pair of songs:

The Human League's Don't You Want Me and The Postal Service's Nobody Better

The Human League's Don't You Want Me

The Postal Service's Nobody Better

The Bands
Although The Human League is still around today their sound was (and maybe is, I haven't heard any of their newer stuff) the definition of the 80s. In the US, they were essentially a one-hit wonder with their song Don't You Want Me until they released Human to take advantage of that slower, romantic and more soulful version of New Wave which was became popular in the mid 80s.

The Postal Service is a side project for Death Cab for Cutie's lead singer Ben Gibbard and Jimmy Tamborello (aka Dntel). Almost a one-off band (although there is supposedly a second album in the works... slowly in the works) the band was basically born of Dntel's album Life Is Full of Possibilities (2001). Their lone album, Give Up, was released in 2003 and rather quickly became an indie favorite.

The Timeline

These bands and these songs are clearly from different times. Ben Gibbard (born 1976) was five years old when Don't You Want Me (1981) was released. Not sure how old Jimmy Tamborello was, but I doubt he was much older. What is probably most interesting is that the creation of The Postal Service coincided with the "re-birth" of New Wave (The Human League's genre) which occurred in the early to mid 2000s. To reiterate what I said at the beginning, I'm not claiming The Postal Service stole this idea from The Human League, but you've got to think that they were certainly influenced not only by their sound but by the theme of Don't You Want Me when writing Nothing Better.


The Songs
Using unrequited love for the theme of a song is certainly nothing new, however the similarities here go beyond just that. Not only are both electronic music, both are written from the point of view of former (or soon to be former) lovers. Most importantly though, is that both songs are male/female duets between the two lovers who are singing directly to each other. The singers being Philip Oakey and Susan Ann Sulley in Don't You Want Meand Ben Gibbard and Jen Wood in Nothing Better.

They both begin with the male voice lamenting the departure of his lover. Then the female voice comes in to contradict the male's interpretation of what has happened and why they're breaking up, with Sulley singing "I was working as a waitress in a cocktail bar, that much is true" and Wood singing "I feel I must interject here, you're getting carried away feeling sorry for yourself with these revisions and gaps in history". Both even seem to show that they still care for the others ("I still love you!" and "Your heart won't heal right if you keep tearing out the sutures").

Now it may not seem like a lot, but like I mentioned eariler, personally, I don't know too many male/female duets where the singers directly address each other in this sort of back and forth. Maybe I'm just not musically informed enough, but I find interesting enough.

A new series: Similarly Themed Songs

I could blame my lack of writing on having a child but that would just be wrong. I'd rather blame the new social media formats. What with all the easier ways to get out little bits of information, it's much easier to just write a 140 characters on twitter or facebook than it is spend a few minutes writing out. Well screw it... I'll give it another shot with this new series.

Somewhat obviously, joke stealing in comedy has always been a big no-no. Nowadays it's worse (or should I say better) because it's much easier to expose someone. Anyone with access to a computer and youtube can post and/or find a plethora of videos with pretty damning evidence of stealing. A common defense is "parallel thinking", the claim that you came up with a similar idea on your own.

In music, stealing (and I don't mean attributed sampling) has also been problem. It's usually pretty obvious when someone steals a riff or a distinct bass line, like Vanilla Ice taking Queen and David Bowie's "Under Pressure". But what if it's not stealing the music but stealing the theme. Of course, there a many similar general themes (love, sadness, etc.) to songs but what if the themes start sound really similar. I guess most artists wouldn't really mind as long as you don't copy the music, but when can we attribute it to parallel thinking?

I've got a idea for a few songs that have similar themes... in fact so similar I've decided to write about them. Now, just to make perfectly clear, I'm not accusing anyone of anything, I'm just pointing out the similarities. Today I'll start with:

Barenaked Ladies' If I Had $1,000,000 and Bacilos' Mi Primer Millón

Barenaked Ladies - If I Had $1,000,000

Bacilos - Mi Primer Millón

The Bands

While both bands had some success and had somewhat popular singles before each of these songs (Bacilos had Tabaco Y Chanel and Barenaked Ladies had their cover of Bruce Cockburn's Lovers In A Dangerous Time), I think it's safe to say that both became really popular after these songs and (likely before these songs) earned their first million dollars.

Aside from the fact that one band sings in English and the other in Spanish, I think they are pretty similar. Both bands play (or in the case of Bacilos, played) generally popular music. Considering their genres, neither of them stray much from a traditional pop/alternative sound.

The Timeline

Although If I Had $1,000,000 was on tapes released sold by the Barenaked Ladies in the late 80s, I'm pretty sure it wasn't that well known until around 1992 when they released their debut album, Gordon. Bacilos didn't get together until the mid 90s and I can't see anything showing that Mi Primer Millón was around before their 2002 release Caraluna. Either way these songs were popular about 10 years apart.

The Songs

The theme of both songs is fairly simple, earning a lot of money. Interestingly, both chose a million dollars as the mark of riches. While an alternative number (writing about making 1.5 million or 2 million) may seem a bit random, either band could have written about "becoming rich" or "being a millionaire". In fact, many artists have written songs about being rich but most don't spell out a million dollars in their song's name and chorus. Also, unlike both bands, most don't explicitly mention various items they would buy with that first million. Particularly of note both bands mention buying houses, with the Barenaked Ladies adding that they would buy "furniture for you house" and Bacilos making sure that the house was big enough to fit your heart ("una casa grande en donde quepa tu corazón").

Another interesting point, is that both songs are also love songs. The biggest difference, in terms of love songs, is that in If I Had $1,000,000 the couple may not be in love yet. Considering one of the things that would be bought is "your love", it comes off as much more of a love song. In the song, Barenaked Ladies often speak of "us" and "we" and, In fact, the most common starter for a line is "Well, I'd buy you a(n)..."

Both songs are also facetious. Bacilos tries to calm the love interest by saying that while he is hanging out with Paulina Rubio, she's just a friend ("Tranquila querida, Paulina solo es una amiga"). The Barenaked Ladies are even more obvious about it with numerous jokes such as buying John Merrick's remains ("Ooh, all them crazy elephant bones") and making sure not to buy a "real green dress" since that would be cruel (after mentioning that they also wouldn't buy a real fur coat).

Probably the biggest difference between the two songs is that Mi Primer Millón is almost as much about fame as it is about fortune. Actually, If I Had $1,000,000 doesn't make any mention of fame (remember, it's more of a love song) and one of Bacilos repeated goals is to have their songs sung around the world ("desde San Juan hasta Barranquilla, desde Sevilla hasta Nueva York").

I guess when it boils down to it, while obviously the languages are different, these songs are pretty similar because they're both pop/catchy songs about a million dollars and what would be purchased with those million dollars. Unlike Barenaked Ladies, Bacilos does connect fame with the fortune, but a lot of the themes remain similar. Not exactly a unique idea, but still similar enough that I wanted to mention it here.

A final note: Another song that could be put in this comparison is Travie McCoy and Bruno Mars' Billionaire which came out in 2010. However, despite the name, that song really isn't about fortune. It is much more about fame and even ventures into political commentary. It doesn't really speak to what they would buy with the money, it speaks about what they would do with their fame... attaching fame with fortune to an even greater extent than Bacilos did.