Something that confuses me about A Warm Place/Crystal Japan

[Akuratyde]

The similarities between AWP and Crystal Japan are obvious, we don't need to get into that, but I was listening to them both last night when a thought occurred to me;

How would Trent even have heard Crystal Japan?

Crystal Japan was released as a single in Japan in 1980. TR would have been 15. This is well before the days of the internet and file sharing. Obscure singles like that didn't get heard by American teenagers. So, how could he even have heard it in the first place?

Another thing which baffles me; he obviously didn't steal the melody intentionally, but it's also unlikely he could have heard it so many years prior that he forgot he'd ever heard it, yet remembered the melody almost verbatim.

[paul_guyet]

The similarities between AWP and Crystal Japan are obvious, we don't need to get into that, but I was listening to them both last night when a thought occurred to me;

How would Trent even have heard Crystal Japan?

Crystal Japan was released as a single in Japan in 1980. TR would have been 15. This is well before the days of the internet and file sharing. Obscure singles like that didn't get heard by American teenagers. So, how could he even have heard it in the first place?

Another thing which baffles me; he obviously didn't steal the melody intentionally, but it's also unlikely he could have heard it so many years prior that he forgot he'd ever heard it, yet remembered the melody almost verbatim.

It's completely possible. Record stores and collectors would write to one another and ship music back and forth internationally all the time. As for an artist like Bowie NOTHING was that rare...he was Bowie. Reznor was a fan and did his legwork, that's all. And, if he heard it later in life, after he'd started NIN, he'd have had even more access to music as a successful musician.

[Krazy]

From Wikipedia:

Other releasesEdit

• It was released as the B-side to the single "Up the Hill Backwards" in March 1981. "Teenage Wildlife" was originally slated as the B-side for "Up the Hill Backwards" until Bowie found out the prices fans were paying for the import single of "Crystal Japan", and insisted the track got a UK release.^{[citation needed]}
• In 1992 it was released as a bonus track on the Rykodisc reissue of the album Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps).
• It also appeared on the compilations Rare (1982) and All Saints (2001), and on Re:Call 3, part of the A New Career in a New Town (1977–1982) boxed set (2017).

Or he heard the Japanese beer commercial lol.

[GibbonBlack]

It's clearly part of a 40 year ARG that they were working on together

[fillow]

I think Ryko reissue of Scary Monsters is a pretty safe bet

[StockAvuryah]

They aren't even that similar..

The end of the small motif is completely different, for example. And the damn chords don't line up.

[GibbonBlack]

Regardless, Trent has acknowledged, not in so many words, that it is kind of a copy

[botley]

I think Ryko reissue of Scary Monsters is a pretty safe bet

This. TR also sampled the first track on this disc for the reversed vocal blurt in "Pinion".

[Krazy]

They aren't even that similar..

The end of the small motif is completely different, for example. And the damn chords don't line up.

I’m not a musician. I can’t break down chords or tell anyone what time signature is in a beat. But come on- anyone with ears can hear how similar these two songs are.

:P

[StockAvuryah]

I’m not a musician. I can’t break down chords or tell anyone what time signature is in a beat. But come on- anyone with ears can hear how similar these two songs are.

:P

It's easier when you know there is an indirect inspiration there, but if you don't know it and are not looking for anything, it's not striking.

[Krazy]

It's easier when you know there is an indirect inspiration there, but if you don't know it and are not looking for anything, it's not striking.

I don’t think anyone is saying that it’s a note for note ripoff- it’s not. However if I was listening to Spotify or something and heard it for the first time without knowing anything about it, it would definitely be one of those “I heard that song before, what is that?...” moments.

[katara]

Aside from flourishes and some structural differences, the songs are almost identical.