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On the 5^th聽of May, 2023, a US court聽, agreeing his song 鈥楾hinking Out Loud鈥� did not breach musical copyright.

The high-profile court case, brought by the estate of Ed Townsend, claimed Sheeran鈥檚 song was too similar to the song 鈥楲et鈥檚 Get It On鈥�, which Townsend wrote with Marvin Gaye in 1973.

On the stand, Sheeran聽, stating: 鈥淚 draw inspiration from a lot from things in my life and family.鈥�

Sheeran鈥檚 case brought up some difficult questions around what we understand as inspiration and influence, and what we may hear as theft.

Musical copyright cases are part of songwriting history. Radiohead鈥檚 Creep was found to be聽聽to the Hollies鈥� The Air That I Breathe, and in 2018, Lana Del Rey鈥檚 Get Free聽.

Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars altered the credits to Uptown Funk to聽聽to The Gap Band鈥檚 Oops Upside Your Head.

Here in Australia, the flute solo in Men at Work鈥檚 Down Under, which quoted the melody of folk song Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree, was聽.

In this case against Sheeran, the song鈥檚 chord progression was at the heart of the claim. The prosecution argued Sheeran鈥檚 chord progression was too similar to the chord progression of Gaye鈥檚.

But can we copyright a chord progression if it is used extensively in other pop songs?

Gaye鈥檚 song uses four chords that gradually move upward (I-iii-IV-V). These same chords can be heard in the Beach Boys鈥� I Can Hear Music, the Seekers鈥� Georgy Girl, the Beatles鈥� I Feel Fine, in the Motown tune This Old Heart of Mine by the Isley Brothers, Elvis Presley鈥檚 Suspicious Minds, Cher鈥檚 Believe and ABBA鈥檚 Knowing Me Knowing You, among many others.

This chord progression and many others are part of the songwriting toolkit of rock and pop and have been heard continuously over the past 70 years.

A chord progression is the main instrumental part you hear in most pop music, usually played by a guitar, piano or synth.

One of the oldest chord progressions in pop is the 12-bar blues 鈥� a looping pattern of three chords that is very identifiable.

As the name suggests, this set of chords stems from early blues and was a way for musicians to easily play together and improvise. A version of this progression can be heard in Muddy Waters鈥� I鈥檓 Your Hoochie Coochie Man or John Lee Hooker鈥檚 Boom Boom.

You can also hear this progression in a number of other pop songs 鈥� listen to verses of Queen鈥檚 I Want to Break Free and Kiss by Prince 鈥� both use the same chord progression, but sound very different to each other.

More recently, Lizzo鈥檚 Better in Colour uses the 12-bar blues in a way that makes an old formula fresh.

The 鈥渄oo-wop鈥� progression has appeared in pop music for close to 80 years, and is named because most doo-wop songs feature this chord progression 鈥� it was an essential part of its sound.

You can hear it in 1950s hits such as the Penguins鈥� Earth Angel and Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers鈥� Why Do Fools Fall in Love?

The strength of these chords means they are used in pop music of all kinds, including ELO鈥檚 Telephone Line, Don鈥檛 Dream it鈥檚 Over by Crowded House, Destiny鈥檚 Child鈥檚 Say My Name, Blank Space by Taylor Swift, and Flowers by Miley Cyrus.

Despite its consistent use, these chords still cross genres and eras, and still catch our ears.

Comedy act Axis of Awesome use a similar progression in their video for 4 Chords, where they cleverly play almost 50 different songs with a variation on these four simple chords.

Perhaps the most common chord progressions in rock and pop are those that use the I, IV and V chords in various combinations.

They鈥檙e usually the first three chords you learn on an instrument and open up thousands of songs to play 鈥� from the rock and roll of Summertime Blues by Eddie Cochran, the garage rock of Wild Thing by the Troggs, the bubblegum of Hanson鈥檚 Mmmbop and the indie rock of Coldplay鈥檚 Yellow, to the modern pop of bad guy by Billie Eilish and good 4 u by Olivia Rodrigo.

Rock, pop, blues, doo wop and other musical genres can often be defined by their use of repeated chord progressions. These chord progressions are part of a songwriter鈥檚 toolkit in a similar way to how an artist may use different paint brushes.

As Sheeran鈥檚 lawyer Ilene Farkas聽, chord progressions are:

the letters of the alphabet of music [鈥�] these are basic musical building blocks that songwriters now and forever must be free to use.

It is how these 鈥渂uilding blocks鈥� are used, and in what combinations, that gives us a great variety of pop songs over many decades. The true craft of great pop music is to take these formulas and turn them into something unique (while simultaneously making it sound easy).

The ruling in Sheeran鈥檚 case supports the rights of musical artists to continue to use these progressions as part of a songwriter鈥檚 toolkit, and to build from the artists who came before them. It also acknowledges that influence and inspiration from previous works are part of the construction of the pop music we love.

Dr Jadey O'Regan聽is a Lecturer in Contemporary Music Practice at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and she is the co-author of "Hooks in Popular Music" (2022) with Dr Tim Byron (University of Wollongong), which combines pop musicology and music psychology to understand pop music in an interdisciplinary way.聽She teaches songwriting, production, performance, music analysis and music history, and her research interests include the musical analysis of pop music, genres, songwriting, and creativity.

This story was first published in The Conversation as聽.
Hero Photo: Annie Leibovitz, supplied by Warner Music Australia