Music

One Direction are being accused of ripping off The Clash's "Should I Stay Or Should I Go"

by Aaron Zorgel

Today, we’ve got some irritating news for fans of The Clash, and some (probably) irrelevant news for fans of One Direction.

U.K. teen boyband sensation One Direction are hurriedly prepping the release of their sophomore album Take Me Home (presumably because they’re already on their twelfth out of fifteen minutes), and the record’s debut single has stirred up controversy amidst accusations of plagiarism. The intro to One Direction’s “Live While We’re Young” includes a guitar part that sounds eyebrow-raisingly similar to The Clash’s iconic intro to “Should I Stay Or Should I Go.”

Given the fact that they’ve lifted the three pick scrapes that make The Clash’s intro so recognizable, it’s hard to give One Direction (or more accurately, One Direction’s songwriters) the benefit of the doubt on this one. There’s a fine line between a tribute or an homage and straight-up copyright infringement, and unless they’re paying out fat royalties to The Clash, One Direction’s “Live While We’re Young” sounds like a pretty deplorable facsimile to us.

As much as we’d like to, we can’t really blame One Direction for any kind of musical blasphemy. The song was written by Texas-born Savan Kotecha, who also wrote One Direction’s breakout single “What Makes You Beautiful.” Kotecha is probably best known for writing “If You Seek Amy” by Britney Spears and “DJ Got Us Fallin’ In Love Again” by Usher. Notably, neither of these songs seem to rip off The Clash at all, so it doesn’t look like Kotecha is a one trick pony.

Despite the fact that there’s approximately a 0.00001% crossover between Clash fans and One Direction fans, people are taking to Twitter to voice their displeasure with the adolescent scamps in One Direction:

Check out the two clips below, and decide how mad you’re going to get about it.

The Alleged Offenders

The Source Material

[via NME]