The band claims “Uptown Funk” is “almost indistinguishable” to their 1983 song.
“Uptown Funk” tandem Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars are being sued by a funk group for alleged copyright infringement, a TMZ report said.
Collage, a funk band that released three studio albums all in the early 1980s, allege that Mars and company owe them damages and profits.
Pitchfork, which obtained a copy of the complaint, said that Collage is alleging copyright infringement based on their 1983 single “Young Girls”.
The lawsuit reads:
“Upon information and belief, many of the main instrumental attributes and themes of ‘Uptown Funk’ are deliberately and clearly copied from ‘Young Girls,’ including, but not limited to, the distinct funky specifically noted and timed consistent guitar riffs present throughout the compositions, virtually if not identical bass notes and sequence, rhythm, structure, crescendo of horns and synthesizers rendering the compositions almost indistinguishable if played over each other and strikingly similar if played in consecutively.”
Apart from Ronson and Mars, the suit names parties including Trinidad James, Jeff Bhasker, Devon Gallaspy, Phillip Lawrence, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner/Chappell Music, Atlantic Records and RCA Records.
Collage also claims there is reason to believe “Young Girls” influenced Ronson and Mars because they have previously talked about “Uptown Funk” being influenced by early 1980s Minneapolis electro-funk soul.
Just this month, “Uptown Funk” achieved the Diamond certification from The Recording Industry Association of America. The song was said to have achieved over 12,422,016 downloads and 938,694,569 audio streams in the US.
This made Ronson and Mars only the 10th duo to reach 10 million sales for a single or album.
Up until 1999, the RIAA’s certification program only went up to Gold and Platinum. According to the RIAA, “Uptown Funk” is the 13th song to achieve Diamond certification.
You can listen to both songs below as well as The Gap Band’s 1979 song “Oops Up Side Your Head” which got them song-writing credits to “Uptown Funk” last year.
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