Did Bieber and Carly Rae Jepsen RIP OFF One Direction?

Mikey McCollor

Carly Rae Jepsen and Justin Bieber have collaborated on a new song, "Beautiful", which is about a girl who is beautiful but don't realize she's beautiful. And by releasing this seemingly innocuous song, Bieber and Jepsen have unleashed a powerful force even pop stars as powerful as they may be unable to contain: Angry One Direction fans have hit their caps lock key and taken to the internet to remind anyone who'll listen that ONE DIRECTION THOUGHT OF THAT FIRST.

Pictured: The fountain through which all creativity flows.
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Are the One Direction fans making a fair point? Are the Biber/ Jepsen lyrics too similar to One Direction's "What Makes You Beautiful"? The answer is, well, yeah, I guess so. But Bierber and Jepsen aren't ripping off One Direction anymore than One Direction ripped off Jason Mraz. And even then, One Direction didn't rip off Jason Mraz anymore than Jason Mraz ripped off Eric Clapton. And Jason Mraz didn't rip off Eric Clapron anymore than Eric Clapton ripped off Sammy Kershaw. So where did it start? Who was the first person to write lyrics about beautiful girls not knowing they're beautiful? Joseph Campbell suggested that these types of songs are ingrained in all of humanity, inhabiting our conciousness from the beginings of our species.

"Religions, philosophies, arts, the social forms of primitive and historic man, prime discoveries in science and technology, the very dreams that blister sleep, boil up from the basic, magic ring of songs about a beautiful girl who doesn't realize it."
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So why do songs so often deal with the same subject matter? Well, as it tuerns out, not a lot of musicians are good writers as well. Therefore, they figure out a couple of topics that work and go back to the same well over and over again. Really, there are only three topics 98 percent of musicians ever write about: breaking up, thinking their partner is beautiful, and what it was like to be poor before they were rich.

Remember when he used to eat sardines for dinner?
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Here are the two songs. Compare them for yourself... IF YOU DARE.

I have no idea why you wouldn't dare.

So do you think the Justin Bieber and Carly Rae Jepsen song owes a little something to the One Direction hit? Let me know on twitter @mikeyfromsu or in the comments below!

 

Check out Carly Rae Jepsen Has Nude Pictures Maybe?