The Australian psychedelic rock band, Tame Impala, is threatening to sue a Chinese Blueberry Milk commercial. The Chinese company is a dairy company called Mengniu. Their commercial for their blueberry milk uses a song that sounds very similar to the Tame Impala single, “The Less I Know The Better.” So similar, in fact, that Kevin Parker, the band’s creator, took to Instagram to threaten legal action.
“I mean come on guys at least put some effort in,” Parker said in his Instagram caption on April 27th. Parker added a “lawsuit” hashtag and tagged Tame Impala’s Publishing company, Sony ATV. Parker also added a “now it’s my turn” hashtag, which might be in reference to the lawsuit by the funk group the Skull Snaps against Tame Impala. The Skull Snaps filed a lawsuit in 2015 because they believed Tame Impala sampled one of their 1973 songs without permission. Round and round the lawsuits go.
Tame Impala may have strong grounds for their lawsuit against Mengniu. It’s difficult to deny that there is a strong similarity between the song on their commercial and Impala’s “The Less I Know The Better.” The commercial is filled with blueberries and milk splashing in every direction. The song pretty much has the same funky beat and guitar as Tame Impala’s song. It even has a person humming the same melody. Mengniu could be in some serious trouble.
It’s not a surprise that people are trying to copy Tame Impala’s music. Their album, Currents, has had great reviews and has been met with a lot of success. Just recently, they received Jury Recognition runner up for the Best Music Video award at SXSW 2017 for the music video of the aforementioned song, “The Less I Know The Better.” Impala’s psychedelic sound has influenced many artists. Even Paramore recently said they tried to “rip off” Tame Impala on their new album. Taylor York, the Paramore guitarist, jokingly admitted, “I was only listening to Tame Impala so I was just trying to rip off everything… That’s exactly what it was, exactly what it was. I had to try. It didn’t work but I had to try.”
Check out the song and commercial below and determine if it’s a copy yourself.
Photo Credits: Marv Watson
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