Hot on the heels of Ryan Tedder fending off self-plagiarizing accusations by eagle-eared listeners who picked up the similarities between his compositions for Kelly Clarkson and Beyoncé, the OneRepublic main main/inexplicably in-demand songwriter is seemingly copying himself again. After the jump, hear the new OneRepublic single “All The Right Moves” and Leona Lewis’ latest single “Happy”—both of which were penned by Tedder—and tell me if I’m crazy for hearing the same damn song, albeit at slightly different speeds.
Leona Lewis, “Happy”
OneRepublic, “All The Right Moves”
Right? Right? Tedder, for his part, is claiming that he was inspired solely by Lewis’ vocal prowess:
I’m also pleased to announce Leona Lewis’ 1st single off her upcoming album. The song is called “Happy” and I honestly feel it is the most beautiful song I’ve ever been a part of. My goal when I started working on Leona’s new album was to “NOT” chase or be influenced by any of her previous hits- or any songs i’ve ever done with anyone else- including Bleeding Love. True artists do not look back to previous successes they look forward to creating new moments and songs the world can connect with in a different way. And that is what Leona has done with “Happy”. I hope u like it as much as we do, and I hope the lyrics hit u as hard as they hit me.
So I have to ask: Am I projecting my still-lingering annoyance over the whole Clarkson kerfuffle onto these two songs, which were for some bizarre reason debuted nearly simultaneously? I mean, I found myself singing the OneRepublic vocal melody along with the Lewis tune, and vice versa. My question: How long will it be before Lewis pulls a Kelly and totally switches up the track in a live setting so those cell-phone-static keyboards that seem to be a hallmark of Tedder’s non-”Apologize” tracks get yanked from the arrangement?
Earlier: Nobody Is Happy About Kelly Clarkson’s “Already Gone”
No, you’re completely on-point here. Tedder is patient zero, it seems, for that boxy type of pop song where the verses bounce off four corners melodically and then modulate just a bit for the chorus. The cadence is always the same no matter the tempo, and the songs are always sort of stiff. Bleh.
That’s the best I can describe it/him, anyway. I just always feel like the singer is sort of trapped inside the song with no way out of it.
People be liking some boring ass music.
Got to say Maura think you’re the first person I’ve seen suggest it since Saturday when the songs hit the internet/radio.
There’s been more complaints that Happy sounds like Halo/Already Gone but again I think that’s the lingering hangover of the Kelly/Beyonce dispute (not forgetting of course Halo was written in spring 2008 for Ms. Lewis before finding a Beyonce writing credit on it much later).
Does he have a signature sound? Yes (a bit too signature on Halo and Already Gone). But the same accusation could be thrown at so many of these producers - Timbaland, Redone, Xenomania etc
Hackity, hack, hack, hack.
It seems like you are stretching for content here. It is similar but if he weren’t writing songs for other people and both of these songs were from his boring ass band you would just think they sounded like one record. Maybe a boring ass record but that is what this milquetoast pop bullshit is.
@boratislegend: …said the person who thinks Borat is Legend.
This is such BS!! These are no where near the same track. These sound COMPLETELY different. This is just more media drama because people cant get over the whole Kelly/Beyonce media frenzy. Ryan Tedder has a distinct sound just as any other writer producer: RedOne, Timbaland, Stargate, Max Martin, etc. Each writer/producer has their distinct sound, thats why artists go to them. Leave the poor man alone.
@idolatorlover101: Hmm, convincing arguement, guy who just signed up yesterday with boring username who’s obviously a plant.
God, that Leona Lewis song was so boring that by the time I put on the OneRepublic to judge them I couldn’t remember what the first one sounded like.