The bland nicking the bland
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For any artist, in any genre, breaking your word with the audience is the worst thing to be accused of.
After all, when you make your living from basically inventing things, whether they be books, movies or music, the bond between the artist and the audience is one based on trust. And once that trust has been broken, it can never be repaired.
Sometimes, this can have hilarious consequences, such as when it emerged that James Frey, author of the heart-breaking memoir, A Million Little Pieces, which detailed his recovery from booze and drugs, was almost entirely fictionalised.
And, having been heavily promoted by Oprah Winfrey, he then had to go back on her show and be denounced by the Queen of American television for having duped her -- and, as the always modest Winfrey pointed out, by lying to her, he had lied to America.
But even that is forgivable when compared to the cardinal sin of plagiarism. Nothing pisses off an artist more than someone taking their work and claiming it as their own. Perhaps the most famous example is Dennis Leary completely ripping off Bill Hicks's act and now we can add another example of alleged thievery to the list. And it's Coldplay.
The band has been accused of plagiarism by none other than Cat Stephens, who says: "There has been this argument about Coldplay stealing this melody from Joe Satriani, but if you listen to it, it's mine. It's the 'Foreigner Suite'. It's mine!", referring to his 1970 song of that name.
Honestly, how typical of Coldplay -- even the stuff they nick is from the only person more boring than they are.
