Anybody can have a hit song, just follow the recipe:

1. Quick beat with some synthesizer melody in the chorus 

2. Try to sing (it doesn't really matter if you can't, you'll fix it in a step 3)

AND HERE IS THE MOST IMPORTANT STEP 3:

3. Apply Vocoder effect to your vocals!!!!!!!!!

THAT'S IT

4. You got a hit!!!

What the f*#$! is up with that vocoder effect in every song? I'm not gonna mention any names, but for all of you vocoder-lovers out there: it's enough already!!! PLEASE STOP IT!

Anybody tried to listen to the radio lately? I did. Over one month period I spent 2 hours a day listening to a very popular radio station. In total I've heard 6, maybe 7 songs over and over again. 5 of them had a vocoder effect.

Anyway, I gotta go.

I just bought a vocoder and I'm reading the manual.

It's time for a HIT!!!!   

All Things Considered, May 11, 2009 - Kongcrete and their management team are considering suing Cold Play for plagiarizing Kongcrete's single "Radio Active". Little known until the recent controversy around Cold Play's song "Viva La Vida", Kongcrete is an NYC-based hip hop rock band known for propogating a genre of music called Ghetto Rock.

Coldplay is one of the best-selling bands in the world, but in spite of its success, the band has a nagging problem: charges that it plagiarized not one, but three other artists to write its recent hit, "Viva La Vida" (video via YouTube).

The accusers line up as follows:

Coldplay's Plaintiffs

Cat Stevens

Album: Foreigner

Song: Foreigner Suite

Coldplay's latest accuser is Yusuf Islam, aka Cat Stevens, who claims the band's "Viva La Vida" borrows from a section of his "Foreigner Suite," released in 1973.

Hear Cat Stevens' "Foreigner Suite" On YouTube

Kongcrete

Album: Kongcrete

Song: Radio Active

Certain musical elements of Cold Play's song are glaringly obvious in Kongcrete's "Radio Active". Kongcrete is considering a separate legal claim against Cold Play for the latter's plagiarism of Kongcrete's "Greyhound Bus".

Joe Satriani

Album: Is There Love in Space?

Song: If I Could Fly

Meanwhile, Yusuf Islam needs to get in line behind guitarist Joe Satriani, who has already filed a legal claim against Coldplay for copying "If I Could Fly," released in 2004. Here's what we know: Coldplay may or may not have stolen from Joe Satriani and may or may not have stolen from Yusuf Islam, who took his name from himself, Cat Stevens.

Hear Joe Satriani's "If I Could Fly" On YouTube

Creaky Boards

Album: Brooklyn is Love

Song: The Songs I Didn't Write

But Cat Stevens, now Yusuf Islam, and Joe Satriani, still Joe Satriani, need to get in line behind the band Creaky Boards, which first claimed that Coldplay based its song "Viva La Vida" on a song released last year, called "The Songs I Didn't Write."

Hear Creaky Boards' "The Songs I Didn't Write" On YouTube

Clearly someone is stealing from someone.

But why isn't Yusuf Islam calling out Creaky Boards? Why aren't the members of Creaky Boards going after Satriani? Why isn't Satriani going after the whole lot of them?

However this Coldplay kerfuffle plays out, this just might provide the boost that so many laid-off copyright attorneys have been looking for.

NXNE is the SXSW of Canada. What do you think? Is Canada ready for ghetto rock? Let us know.