Last modified on Sat 3 Jul 2021 01.18 EDT
When Elvis Costello jumped to the defence of the singer Olivia Rodrigo this week, he inadvertently exposed the faultlines in the debate over what constitutes pop plagiarism.
Rodrigo’s album Sour has dominated the mid-year best of lists with its lyrics about Gen-Z apathy, acrimonious breakups and “cathartic rage”, but she has also faced criticism.
Courtney Love accused her of “bad form” because artwork used to promote Rodrigo’s Sour Prom concert film looked very similar to the cover of Live Through This by Love’s band Hole.
Costello, meanwhile, said similarities between Rodrigo’s song Brutal and his 1978 hit Pump It Up were “fine by me”.