Poor Sigur Ros. The Icelandic band recently (but rather cautiously) wrote about the fact that the band have never commissioned any of their music to be used in advertisements. As I’m sure you are aware, their soaring monumental sounding music sounds like it could move glaciers (and perhaps dishwashers) yet, to date, the band have only allowed their music to be used in TV, film or charity-related ads.
On the Sigur Ros blog post entitled ‘Homage Or Fromage’, the band posted up examples of advertisements which they’re not saying necessarily plagiarise their music (they are saying that but for legal reasons aren’t saying it outright) but make them go ‘hmmmm’. There’s no denying the similarities in the ad music used to Sigur Ros’ tunes – change a note or chord here, keep that big sweeping crescendo and almost carbon-copy feel and you’ve got a new original composition. Everyone knows better though and that’s why Sigur Ros deserve some pity – there’s nothing they can do about it but make people aware it’s not them.
A couple of examples:
