It’s November, which means that it’s time to take off your Halloween decorations and replace it with Christmas decorations and blast Christmas songs until the best day of the year!
It also means that Mariah Carey will once again make millions as people around the world plays her 1994 hit song ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’ on repeat, everywhere.
But recently, Mariah Carey once again faced a copyright lawsuit over her hit song by the country singer Andy Stone. Stone claimed that Carey ripped off his band Vince Vance & the Valiants’ song from 1989, ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’ by copying the “compositional structure of an extended comparison between a loved one and trappings of seasonal luxury” as well as other musical and lyrical elements.
Stone is requesting over $20 million in damages.
The case is Stone v. Carey, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, No. 2:23-cv-09216. Read more.
I would love to hear your thoughts on if you think that Stone’s claim is valid after comparing the two songs below.
Listen to Stone’s song ‘All I Want for Christmas is You’.
Listen to Mariah Carey’s song ‘All I Want for Christmas is You’.
Merry Christmas! (D-50)
Communications Law
I found this in an article from The Guardian.
“Moreover, the combination of the specific chord progression in the melody paired with the verbatim hook was a greater than 50% clone of [Stone’s] original work, in both lyric choice and chord expressions.”
This reminds me of a case from a few years ago with Katy Perry and another case with Led Zeppelin. Legal Eagle does a video covering this.
https://youtu.be/zgsL5yW3bao?si=nNRh7bcdmAcbXKvZ
In short, copyright claims on music can get highly technical and relies a lot on music theory and music history. Also, the laws in the USA have changed recently making it harder to claim a copyright violation.
I know nothing of music, but if this case is similar to that of Katy Perry or Led Zeppelin, Carey should be in the clear.