10 Rock Artists That Ripped Off Other Bands

Any musician's goal tends to be staying true to yourself. No matter how much the world around you might change, you always try to find the ideal version of your own sound that will hopefully resonate will people all around the world. As the phrase goes though, while smart people may borrow, it takes a true genius to outright steal.

Throughout rock history, there have been thousands of artists who openly wear their influences a little too close to their sleeve. Whether it be for a few lines of a song or in the entire construction of the band, these acts have been able to make their millions by just doing what their heroes did before them. It's not like these musicians aren't aware of it either, with some deliberately putting in references to their favorite bands for the sole purpose of stirring the pot with both their fans and critics.

Though this might not have taken as much thought as just making your own music, there's something to admire in wearing your influences without a trace of cynicism. Love them or hate them, these acts knew that their greatest strengths had already been done. From working out the bugs to building an empire of plagiarism, here are the riffs that might sound a little too familiar.

At the start of the '00s, the pop punk explosion was firmly underway. While the darker side of the rock scene was turning to nu metal or garage rock, acts like Blink-182 and Sum 41 were all over MTV with their candy-fied version of the typical rock and roll formula. Though you could call it derivative in some places, Good Charlotte were the one act who didn't mince words about their influences.

Starting with their debut, these brats out of Maryland had a few tricks up their sleeve with their psuedo-gothic look, but that all changed with the Young and the Hopeless. Compared to the other acts at the time like Simple Plan, Charlotte's lineage could be traced back to Green Day, with riffs that sounded like they could have have been a mid-tier Dookie B-side. Even Joel Madden changed up his vocal style to have just a little more whine to fit the Billie Joe Armstrong model.

So did they succeed? Well, for a little while. Though the Young and the Hopeless sold like gangbusters at the outset, it didn't last long when Green Day's American Idiot reinvented the pop punk formula and left their competition in the dust. Even though the Anthem might give a nostalgia buzz to pop punk fans these days, why would you take the discount version when Green Day proper is doing more interesting stuff?