I’m not sure if you are aware but there’s a pretty big legal trial going on right now.
No, not that one.
This one is between red-headed acoustic hitmaker Ed Sheeran and the estate of the late Marvin Gaye.
Apparently, the folks in the Gaye camp feel that Ed’s Grammy-winning hit “Thinking Out Loud” sounds a bit too much like Marvin’s classic “Let’s Get It On”.
And that is most definitely true.
The harmonic structure, tempo, melody and stylist signatures are very, very similar. You could mash up one song into the other with seamless perfection.
So this should be an open-and-shut case for the “Let’s Get It On” camp, right?
God, I hope not. Because while everything I told you about the similarities of the songs are absolutely true, they aren’t the same song. Ed’s song is a romantic ode to long-lasting relationships and marriage and Marvin’s is about, well, fucking.
You would never listen to the Sheeran song and think, is this “Let’s Get It On”?
The truth is, popular music in particular styles follow a set of recognizable rules. This is what allows a genre to be a genre.
Conversely, if you were listening to a rap station in your car and a classical Rachmaninov piece came on, there is a chance you might enjoy it but you would definitely be wondering why they were playing it on Hip-Hop 99.8FM.
Training is very, very much the same way.
I’ve said this 1000 times before. We did not invent any of the exercises or training modalities we execute. We didn’t come up with the concepts of reps and sets. We didn’t build the first barbell. We are not the first people to perform back squats and deadlifts.
And this is a good thing.
Just like music has rules of melody and harmony that give it structure and feel and genre that your ear can easily identify and place, training also has long established rules that prove its efficacy.
This is the main reason that trendy exercise classes make me insane. It’s not that there is no room for creativity and exploration, it’s the fact that what they are doing remains unproven. Yet it’s marketed as the new hack in order to provide a short-cut to your fitness goals.
Sorry to break this to you. There is no short-cut.
This does not mean that traditional training cannot be fun or engaging or purposeful. I’d argue that it absolutely needs to be if you want to continue to do it in the long term. But it should also be deeply rooted in training principles that have proven to work.
On the flip side, I don’t feel like I owe the George Hackenschmidt estate all of our revenue because we utilize the bench press (which he apparently invented). Just like musicians, by utilizing what has come before us, we are participating in carrying forth a tradition and culture that has proven to be of value to people and provide a framework of understanding.
I’ve had plenty of staff members and clients who get upset when they feel that another gym has “stolen” our training structure or programming methodologies.
“These new guys are doing what you guys are doing!”
I promise you that Kyle and I don’t give a shit about this at all. We are more than happy to pay it forward and leave training better than when we found it. In fact, if more facilities were rooted in principled training I would feel more encouraged about the future of the industry.
By all means, rip us off. I’m flattered.
As much as I enjoy the music of Marvin Gaye (undoubtedly one of the greatest male vocalists in the past 50 years) more than that of Ed Sheeran (not a knock on Ed Sheeran, I love “Thinking Out Loud” and a bunch of his other songs), I’m really hoping Ed’s lawyers can pull out the victory here.
Because when we are no longer able to stand on the shoulders of giants, we risk not being able to rely on the proven information that has come before.
And that really does provide the short-cut.