Avril Lavigne vs. The Rubinoos

When people think of Avril Lavigne’s most popular songs, most (if not all) people think of ‘Girlfriend’. ‘Girlfriend’ is one of Avril’s hit songs on her latest CD ‘The Best Damn Thing’, released on April 17th, 2007 in Canada, Europe, and the U.S. Since the release of her album, she has been accused by Tommy Dunbar of the Rubinoo’s for plagiarizing their song “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend”. Within Avril’s song “Girlfriend”, there is the line “Hey! Hey! You! You!” that also appears in the Rubinoo’s song “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend”. With this tiny, tiny shred of what could be evidence of Avril’s plagiarism, Tommy Dunbar took her to court. On May 25th, 2007, Avril went to court against Tommy Dunbar. Avril allegedly said that “she never heard that song in her life.” Although this statement may be true, it could also be false, because Lush covered the song in 1991, when she could have heard the song, if not performed by the Rubinoo’s directly. Dunbar’s lawyer stated that “the songs have similar rhythm, tempo, and lyrics.” Finally, in January, 2008, all claims of plagiarism against Avril by the Rubinoo’s were dropped. Personally, I think that the charges were dropped because Tommy Dunbar got all the publicity he wanted to get for the Rubinoo’s. Also, he didn’t really have a solid case because Avril did NOT use 10% OR 30 seconds of ‘I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend’, I doubt she even used 10 seconds of that song! Although, if we listen to the songs very carefully, we can hear the musical similarities, like how Avril’s beat is very similar to the Rubinoo’s beat. Avril also has a very similar tempo to the Rubinoo’s, which also raises some suspicions as to whether she plagiarized or not. I think Avril may have not plagiarized, but she has many things that prove to the jury, the fans, and the people that she did, in fact, plagiarize. If I were part of the jury, I would believe her to be guilty, even if she did it without knowing. I do not fall into the category of ‘jury member’, nut I do fall into the category of fan, and being a fan makes me see her as innocent, without a shred of guilt. Luckily, I am an open minded person as well, so I see the faults of Avril, and see the guilt that lies within this case against her. My thoughts about this case are that Avril shouldn’t have plagiarized, no matter if she did it without knowing, that Tommy Dunbar really wanted to get the Rubinoo’s back into the world again and had no real intentions of actually pursuing this case, and that plagiarism stretches outside the classroom and into the world of show business.