Olivia Rodrigo, Paramore, and Game Theory
On May 14th, rising singer-songwriter Olivia Rodrigo released the song “good 4 u” to critical acclaim. The song quickly rose on the charts, reaching number one in sixteen different countries, including the U.S. The song also became quite popular on the app TikTok, leading some users to discover the song was quite similar to the song “Misery Business” by the pop-punk band Paramore. The similarities between the songs were so great, that controversy arose on social media, with many claiming Rodrigo stole the song from Paramore. Ultimately, Hayley Williams and Joshua Farro (members of Paramore) were given songwriting credit for “good 4 u,” with the publishing company officially stating the song “interpolates” the melody from “Misery Business.”
New York-based musician and Youtuber Adam Neely recently released a video analyzing the similarities between the two songs utilizing concepts from music theory. He notes that both songs use the same chord progression, similar tempos, and have extremely similar melodic constructions. However, he also argues that there are countless songs that have those exact similarities, including “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” by Green Day and, surprisingly, “We Are Never Getting Back Together” by Taylor Swift (click here to hear for yourself). Adam Neely concludes that while “good 4 u” is extremely similar to “Misery Business,” it is a slippery slope to argue that Olivia Rodrigo infringed on Paramore’s intellectual property. He goes on to say that music as a medium (especially pop music) is extremely derivative and frequently recycles concepts for newer generations, sometimes even blatantly taking elements from older songs through sampling. However, without this constant cycle, we wouldn’t have the music we love to listen to today.
In terms of how this controversy relates to Networks, I interpreted how many online users perceive the situation as a game. In this game, Olivia Rodrigo and Paramore’s publishing company are the players, and they each have two actions: Olivia Rodrigo can either give credit to Paramore or not, while the publishing company can file a lawsuit against Rodrigo, or not. In this example, the units of the payoffs do not particularly matter, but for the sake of understanding, we shall say that they represent Rodrigo and publishing companies’ moral standing, with a positive number being “good,” and a negative number being “bad.”
If Rodrigo ignores the situation and the publishing company pursues legal action, the publishing company would generally be perceived as being in the “right” and Rodrigo in the “wrong.” If Rodrigo gives credit, but the publishing company pursues legal action, the public opinion would likely be reversed, with the publishing company being seen as greedy. If neither party pursues action, the story likely would die down, and therefore neither party would gain or lose moral standing. Finally, if Rodrigo gives credit and the publishing company doesn’t pursue legal action, Rodrigo would be seen as “good” and the publishing company as neutral, which is also the Nash Equilibrium. Conveniently, the Nash equilibrium is also what ultimately occurred. I have drawn the payoff matrix here:
While this is a gross oversimplification of a complex situation, I believe that this is a reasonable interpretation of how most people would perceive the controversy. However, I also believe that this frame of thought places the focus on the wrong “payoffs.” In terms of producing and selling music, what matters most is how many people listen to it, and in turn, how many people buy or stream it. Let’s play a different game. Say there is an individual who listens to both “good 4 u” and “Misery Business” and has to decide which song they like and want to listen to regularly. If the individual had already known only one of the two songs, listens to the other one, and they decide they don’t like it, the latter musician hasn’t “lost” a fan, since they weren’t a fan begin with. If the individual decides they do like the other song, that doesn’t mean that they suddenly have to dislike the first song they heard; they will probably just listen to both.
Overall, this situation is not really a “game” in the traditional sense, since there is only one player, and the payoffs affect an outside party, but it does have a non-zero-sum. Rodrigo and Paramore can really only gain from the controversy, and the fact that the songs are similar in no way detracts from their perceived quality. All in all, I believe this situation is overblown, and I personally will continue to listen to both songs with pleasure. I encourage readers to listen to both songs. It would be good for you to ignore the miserable business of the controversy.