However, reusing old material and claiming it as new is irksome if the new material does not drastically improve the original work.
There have been several recent chart-toppers have unabashedly used previous hits as the body of the work. For example, Aloe Blacc’s The Man is really just Elton John’s Your Song. Train’s Play That Song is just Heart and Soul. Clearly, everyone benefits from collaborations like this – the original artist claims royalties and more clicks and the newer artist gains revenue and a stronger fan base. However, reusing old material and claiming it as new is irksome if the new material does not drastically improve the original work. This is incredibly subjective, but I find a subtle nod to a previous work much more admirable than using seventy-five percent of it to create a “new” song – and then market it as such.