Pop songs that ‘borrow’ from worship songs. Now which lines are getting blurred?

Its often been noticed how many pop songs sound like each other, or how many worship songs sound like pop songs, but what about the other way round when a new pop song sounds like a worship song? Take a listen to Hllsong’s Man Of Sorrows and James Bay’s Hold Back The River…

 Man of Sorrows – Hillsong

Hold Back the River – James Bay

Truth is, there’s only a certain number of musical notes to play with, most melodic hooks borrow from somewhere else, and most borrowing is a subconscious mistake. One of my song writer friends once said that it’s heart breaking to have working really hard on a new song, then play it to someone else and be told “oh that sounds exactly like ….”

Whatever you think about the recent Robin Thicke/Pharell Williams/Marvin Gaye  and Sam Smith/Tom Petty legal actions, they do change the nature of copyright forever. The bigger questions is perhaps to do with the blurred line between ‘inspired by’ and deliberate plagiarism.

So… any other songs you can think of that display an element of ‘the sincerest form of flattery’?