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Beach House call “cop out” on VW’s copycat denial

By CMU Editorial | Published on Friday 8 June 2012

Baltimore indie twosome Beach House have described an official statement sent out by Volkswagon – which, you may remember, was accused of potential plagiarism of the band’s 2010 single ‘Take Care’ for the soundtrack of a recent car advert – as a “cop out”.

Denying any notion of copying and maintaining that the song in its ad was merely inspired by the ‘dream pop’ genre with which Beach House are most associated, VW says: “We greatly respect the talent of Beach House and never set out to replicate a specific song of theirs or anyone else’s. Most important to us was to find a track which matched the narrative of the advert, and we believe we have achieved this in the final edits”. And yet it the ad track sounds so very like ‘Take Care’.

And while VW may not have been directly involved, it does seem that there may well be more to all this than the car firm would ‘take care’ (sorry) to admit.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the band’s manager Jason Forster was contacted multiple times by the agency behind the ad, DDB, asking to use the duo’s song, adding that having a sync in such a high-profile TV promo could prove “an amazing PR opportunity” for Beach House, particularly as it would first air during ‘Britain’s Got Talent’.

A producer from the agency is also alleged to have told Forster that “I’d be happy to jump on a call, fly someone to the US, offer more money and listen to anything you have to say”. Meanwhile the studio which created the final song for the advert, Sniffy Dog, told WSJ it couldn’t comment due to a confidentiality agreement.

Camp Beach House, meanwhile, are said to be considering taking legal action, though this hasn’t yet been confirmed. You can read the WSJ’s commentary on the Beach House case (and the cult of the ‘soundalike’) here.

VW ad:

‘Take Care’ video: