Did you know that Olivia Rodrigo has had to give retroactive songwriting credit three times, all due to musical interpolation? Or that Cruz Beckham (son of David and Victoria Beckham), Violet Grohl (Dave Grohl’s daughter), Gene Gallagher (Liam Gallagher’s son), and Moses Martin (the son of Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow) all played the same stage at this year’s Leeds Festival?
Also, Charlie Rich was so mad that “not country” John Denver won Entertainer of the Year at the 1975 CMAs that, after presenting the award, he lit the envelope on fire!
Ten minutes with Google will tell you that Stella Lefty’s so-called crimes (interpolating melodies from previous hits, being a nepo baby, and not being “country”) are far more commonplace in the music industry than most realize. What’s more, they are often committed by artists who then go on to have illustrious careers and are celebrated by critics and fans alike.
So why is she alone the target of such concentrated hate?
The social media conversation around Stella Lefty is not about Stella Lefty. Those who lift their front-facing cameras to smite this 24-year-old woman with their righteousness are not interested in a thorough interrogation of her precedents in music history. Instead, they are prospectors clambering over one another as they claw for riches in a gold rush of hateful hypocrisy. Creators and viral hopefuls are rushing west with their iPhones and ring lights, staking their claim.
Whatever the merits of any single claim against Lefty, the accusations have spawned a genre unto themselves: a staggeringly deep catalog of reaction videos, breakdown videos, “we need to talk about it” videos, each one betting that controversy is the mother of narrative virality, each one hoping to catch some of the same charge that’s emanating from Lefty’s career.
Do these creators not interpolate others’ theses? Is everyone posting about hating Stella Lefty not, consciously or not, copying the work of the creator who got there first, hoping to cash in the same way? On a deeper, more ironic level, monetizing video content that wouldn’t exist without Stella Lefty in the first place is itself a strange form of nepotism – using the success of another to build your own brand.
These noble crusaders against copyright infringement are, in practice, the song-stealing nepo babies they’ve made her out to be. Given the opportunity, they set up a camera, interpolate, and distribute under their own brand. It’s the exact offense but with a more sinister motivation. Is copying itself a crime? I say no. Some level of copying is inherent to creation, and it always will be. We all know this and, for the most part, accept it is part of the game. But to create in pursuit of fame with hatred of someone you’ve never met as your vehicle is something far more heinous and insidious, in my opinion, than anything Stella Lefty has done.
