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Musical plagiarism: why it can be admirable to steal
In Noah Baumbach’s semi-autobiographical film The Squid and the Whale, the young protagonist Walt performs a song at a school talent show that he...
He wins first prize, his girlfriend loves it, and at dinner his overbearing dad says that it reminds him of his second novel.
- Ross Cole
- The Conversation
But of course Walt gets found out.
He didn’t write it, Roger Waters did. It’s the song Hey You from Pink Floyd’s 1979 album The Wall.
Confronted by the school therapist, Walt concedes: “I felt I could have written it … so the fact that it was already written was kind of a technicality.”
It’s something most of…