Buzz
In the realm of entertainment, originality often feels scarce. With many new creations appearing as reimagined, revamped, or recycled versions of past works, it’s worth noting that drawing inspiration from others has been a timeless practice—integral to the creative journey.
However, there’s a fine line between inspiration and outright theft. As Pablo Picasso famously remarked (or perhaps someone else did), good artists borrow, but great artists steal. If that’s the case, these tales represent the most audacious acts of creative theft in history.
10. Kung Fu
In December 1971, Bruce Lee, the iconic martial artist, appeared on The Pierre Berton Show, a Canadian talk show. During the conversation, he revealed details about his latest endeavor: The Warrior, a TV series where he would portray a martial arts disciple wandering through the American Old West.
Lee mentioned that he had presented the idea to Warner Brothers and Paramount, both of which hesitated due to concerns about casting a non-American lead. He expressed doubts that the series would ever be produced.
Just a few months later, in February 1972, ABC premiered the pilot for Kung Fu, a series with a premise strikingly similar to Lee’s concept. However, the lead role was given to David Carradine, a white actor. Produced by Warner Brothers, the show aired 63 episodes and became a defining hit of the 1970s.
Linda Lee Cadwell, Bruce Lee’s widow, stated unequivocally in her memoirs that Lee had conceived the entire concept for the show, which Warner Brothers had unapologetically taken.
9. Beverly Hills, 90210
In 1985, H.W. Broido, a merchandise marketer, presented his concept for a TV series to Aaron Spelling Productions. Broido was convinced that his idea had significant potential for tie-in marketing. The show, titled Holli Woods, would follow a teenager relocating from the Midwest to California and could serve as a platform for Spelling’s daughter, Tori, to star.
In a December 1985 letter, Spelling described the idea as “absolutely charming” and later sent a photo of Tori to begin designing the doll based on her character.
However, communication dwindled, and the project seemed to fade away... until Beverly Hills, 90210 premiered on Fox in 1990. The show incorporated all the elements from Broido’s original concept, featured Tori Spelling (albeit in a supporting role), and eventually spawned a line of dolls based on its characters.
Outraged, Broido filed a lawsuit in 1992, claiming, “More than just a storyline was taken. [...] It was an entire business model that was stolen. And there’s a substantial paper trail to prove it.” The case was settled out of court with undisclosed terms. Beverly Hills, 90210 became a massive success for Fox, running for a decade.
8. Beyonce’s Videos
Beyonce Knowles has built an extraordinary career, from leading the R&B group Destiny’s Child to dominating the music industry. While celebrated for her music, she has also been lauded for the distinctive visual style of her performances and videos—though this has led to accusations from numerous artists claiming she has copied their creative work.
Instances of this are plentiful. Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” video features a dance routine inspired by choreographer Bob Fosse’s performance of “Mexican Breakfast” on The Ed Sullivan Show. The iconic scene in “Hold Up,” where she walks down a street smashing car windows, mirrors Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist’s “Ever Is Over All.” Additionally, the “Countdown” video replicates the choreography, set design, and costumes from Teresa De Keersmaeker’s 1990 work “Achterland.” Numerous other examples exist but are too extensive to detail here.
In 2016, filmmaker Matthew Fulks sued Beyonce, alleging that she used scene compositions and themes from his short film Palinoia in her visual album Lemonade. Fulks had previously shown his film to a senior vice president at Beyonce’s record label. The lawsuit was dismissed after the court determined that the scenes in question did not constitute copyright infringement.
7. Snowpiercer
In 2005, South Korean director Bong Joon-ho developed a deep interest in the French dystopian graphic novel The Snow-Piercer, which depicted a train carrying the last remnants of humanity after an apocalyptic event. He proposed a film adaptation to producer Park Chan-wook.
While adapting the novel for the screen, Park and Bong recognized the need for a unique approach—crafting “an entirely new story and fresh characters” to make it work as a film. However, fans of video games, especially the iconic shooter BioShock, argue that Park and Bong fell short in this endeavor.
Although praised by critics, the 2013 film starring Chris Evans was quickly dubbed “BioShock on a train” by gaming enthusiasts. Beyond sharing key plot elements—such as a dystopian society isolated from the world, class conflicts, and a mysterious authoritarian figure—many of the game’s 1960s-inspired visual motifs appear in Snowpiercer, despite lacking narrative justification.
Irrational Studios, the game’s developer, closed in 2014, and fans appeared more entertained than upset by the similarities. One reviewer even described Snowpiercer as “the BioShock game I’ve wanted to play since the original.”
6. ‘All Summer Long’
Kid Rock’s 2008 hit “All Summer Long” raised eyebrows among older listeners. The track is less of an original composition and more of a mash-up, looping two bars of Warren Zevon’s “Werewolves of London” while incorporating elements from Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama.”
Even Kid Rock’s vocal delivery and rhyme patterns closely resemble those of Warren Zevon. The song’s nostalgic sound, combined with the word “summer” in its title, contributed to its widespread radio play and eventually climbed to #4 on the US Billboard charts.
5. Avatar
James Cameron’s Avatar holds the title of the highest-grossing film in history. While celebrated as an original and groundbreaking work amidst a wave of reboots and remakes, Cameron has cited various influences, such as Edgar Rice Burroughs’ works and the film Dances With Wolves. However, one significant source of inspiration seems to have been omitted.
This inspiration can be traced back to Poul Anderson’s 1957 pulp novella Call Me Joe. The story follows a paraplegic soldier who connects with an artificial body to explore an alien world. He fights battles, forms bonds with the native inhabitants, and eventually becomes emotionally attached to his new form, essentially “going native”—a plot strikingly similar to Avatar.
Many paperback editions of Call Me Joe, including the one pictured above, showcased giant blue aliens with tails wielding spears. Despite these visual and thematic parallels, Cameron has never publicly acknowledged the resemblance.
4. ‘Folsom Prison Blues’
Johnny Cash’s 1955 hit “Folsom Prison Blues” launched his iconic career and became one of his most famous tracks. While its dark, gritty storytelling stood out in popular music at the time, few listeners realized that its lyrical framework was entirely borrowed from another song.
The 1953 orchestral piece “Crescent City Blues” tells the story of a woman trapped in a small town. Cash’s song mirrors its narrative structure almost exactly, with slight alterations to the lyrics. For instance, “I ain’t been kissed, Lord, since I don’t know when” became “I ain’t seen the sunshine since I don’t know when,” and “I’m stuck in Crescent City watching life mosey by” transformed into the infamous line, “I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die.”
Moreover, several lines—such as the opening “I hear the train a-comin’, it’s rollin’ round the bend”—are word-for-word identical. It took composer Gordon Jenkins 14 years to secure an out-of-court settlement with Cash. Jenkins was awarded $75,000 for writing the original draft of the song that became the foundation of Cash’s career.
3. ‘The Power’
In 1989, Snap!, a German mash-up duo, released a “megamix,” a popular format at the time, blending several tracks. The rhythm track was entirely taken from Mantronix’s “King of the Beats” (which, ironically, also sampled the iconic “Amen” Break).
The rap lyrics came from the a cappella B-side of “Let the Words Flow,” an underground single by Queens rapper Chill Rob G. The mix also borrowed a unique, alternating honking-and-wailing saxophone riff from the same track. The vocal hook, sampled from Jocelyn Brown’s “Love’s Gonna Get You,” featured a female vocalist passionately shouting, “I’ve got the power!”
“The Power” became a massive hit in Europe, much to Chill Rob G’s dismay. Facing a lawsuit, Snap! enlisted Durron Butler (“Turbo B”), a soundalike rapper from a nearby US army base, to craft verses imitating Rob’s style. When the reworked track achieved even greater success in Europe, Rob decided to retaliate by using the German duo’s mash-up track to release his own version in the US through the small label Wild Pitch.
Meanwhile, Snap! secured a US distribution deal with Arista, whose extensive reach quickly overshadowed Rob’s version. Rob faded into obscurity, while “The Power” became a legendary (and highly lucrative) dance anthem.
Adding to the insult, the Snap! version’s line “It’s gettin’ kinda hectic” is a direct sample of Rob’s original vocals, and Turbo B’s rap includes what might be the most ironic lyric in music history: “written lyrics so they can’t be stolen.”
2. Lady Gaga
Lady Gaga, pictured above, is celebrated as one of the most fiercely original pop artists of our era. Her bold persona and avant-garde fashion might seem like the product of a uniquely creative mind—except the image above isn’t Gaga. It’s Dale Bozzio, the lead singer of Missing Persons, a band that achieved mainstream success in the early 1980s with Bozzio sporting a look strikingly similar to Gaga’s iconic style.
Gaga has frequently faced accusations of imitation. Notably, sharp-eyed fans observed that her “Jo Calderone” persona, unveiled at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards, bore a strong resemblance to Annie Lennox’s appearance in Eurythmics’ “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” video.
However, the most serious allegation against Lady Gaga has circulated online for years: that she appropriated her entire musical style and stage persona from her friend, Lina Morgana, who tragically took her own life in 2008. Many of Lina’s friends and family have asserted that Gaga’s style underwent a dramatic shift after Lina’s death, with some describing her performances as “looking at a ghost.”
1. The ‘Amen’ Break
In the late 1980s, numerous rap and electronic music artists began crafting their drum tracks around a six-second sample from the 1969 track “Amen, Brother” by the Winstons—a powerful drum solo featuring a distinctive snare sound.
The six-second clip was manipulated in countless ways—chopped, altered, sped up, slowed down, and reorganized—ultimately forming the backbone of rhythm tracks for over 1,800 songs across various genres. It even inspired an entire genre, Jungle, which relies heavily on the break’s distinctive drum sounds.
For 30 years, the “Amen” Break shaped the sound of generations of musicians and fueled numerous profitable hits, yet the original composers never received compensation. This finally changed when a GoFundMe campaign, initiated by two British DJs, raised nearly $30,000 for Richard Spencer, a surviving member of the Winstons.
Though appreciative, the 72-year-old Spencer expressed regret over the delayed recognition. “Gregory Coleman, the drummer who created that iconic beat, died homeless and penniless in Atlanta, Georgia,” he remarked.
