Supernatural Superserious vs Walkmand

On a lighter note: the Copenhagen Post Online today reports of a copyright dispute between Danish pop duo Hej Matematik and American band R.E.M. According to the report Hej Matematik's label (Copenhagen Records) have been accused by R.E.M's label (Warner Music) of more or less blatantly copying R.E.M.'s recent offering 'Supernatural Superserious'. As a consequence Hej Matematik are now blocked from uploading their new song 'Walkmand' to YouTube and MySpace.


The twist to this little story is that the objectionable Danish song 'Walkmand' is a cover version of a 1980s Danish hit by Danish singer Michael Hardinger. Hardinger reportedly approves of Hej Matematik's interpretation. R.E.M.'s song 'Supernatural Superserious' on the other hand appears to first have been released in February 2008. Nicolaj Rasted, one of the members of Hej Matematik, is cited as saying: "We really can't hear the similarity ourselves and if there's any at all, then it would be that 'Walkmand' originated from a sample of Michael Hardinger's 'Walk, Mand!!' from 1981." Hej Matematik's is now reportedly trying to settle the matter with R.E.M. and Warner Music.


The Copenhagen Post further reports that angry Hej Matematik supporters are now flooding YouTube with negative comments. The IPKat has just noticed that busy Hej Matematik fans have already 'amended' the Wikipedia entry for 'Supernatural Superserious' accordingly (see screenshot to the left).

Update: The latest twist in this dispute has again been published by the Copenhagen Post Online today (30 January 2009). In an interview with Danish public broadcaster DR, Mickey Lund, the head of Warner Music Denmark, reportedly explained that neither R.E.M. nor Warner Music had tried to block Hej Matematik's song. Mr Lund also voiced the opinion that the block had been caused by a fault in YouTube's uploading system. Hej Matematik’s song can now again be uploaded to YouTube and the IPKat can't help but wondering whether the whole story may have been a clever little marketing ploy... ?

More on this dispute can be found here (in Norwegian) and here.
'Supernatural Superserious''s Wikipedia entry can be found here
Hej Matematik's MySpace profile can be accessed here.
Supernatural Superserious vs Walkmand Supernatural Superserious vs Walkmand Reviewed by Birgit Clark on Thursday, January 29, 2009 Rating: 5

4 comments:

  1. This is very funny!! Makes REM look a bit silly. The Wikipedia entry has now been changed again.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Is there a website that allows you to listen to both songs and compare them? The Norwegian website only has the REM video and a video with the Danish guys talking in what I assume must be Danish.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Re: Comparing both songs. The video on the Norwegian site talking has a live version of the song. It starts at about 3.52. There are also some new developments in the dispute and the Kat will update the above post in due course.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Interesting that Warner/REM now say they had nothing to do with it. Question remains whether they copied the Danish guy's 1980s song. Maybe the Danish group needed some free publicity but REM could still have copied the 1980is Danish song or am I missing something?

    ReplyDelete

All comments must be moderated by a member of the IPKat team before they appear on the blog. Comments will not be allowed if the contravene the IPKat policy that readers' comments should not be obscene or defamatory; they should not consist of ad hominem attacks on members of the blog team or other comment-posters and they should make a constructive contribution to the discussion of the post on which they purport to comment.

It is also the IPKat policy that comments should not be made completely anonymously, and users should use a consistent name or pseudonym (which should not itself be defamatory or obscene, or that of another real person), either in the "identity" field, or at the beginning of the comment. Current practice is to, however, allow a limited number of comments that contravene this policy, provided that the comment has a high degree of relevance and the comment chain does not become too difficult to follow.

Learn more here: http://ipkitten.blogspot.com/p/want-to-complain.html

Powered by Blogger.