Forensic musicology: song comparison, plagiarism detection. Expert music analysis for media and law.
05/16/2026
It's here for 2026. Please forward to every Eurovision fan you know!
Eurovision 2026 - musicology blog Joe Bennett analyses the songs, and tries to predict a winner before voting begins. Read the blog while you watch the final, or catch up later.
Preparing to present my songwriting characteristics analysis research at the University of Vienna. Eurovision blog will be here on Saturday with musicology analysis of every song, and an attempt to predict the winner before the voting begins. Joebennett.net/blog .
05/07/2026
04/15/2026
For on this evening we were joined by the mighty . Congratulations Billy on being inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame!
Keeping it Boston with the students.
So I gave a talk at the Cleveland Intellectual Property Law Association today. We reviewed recent music copyright infringement case law and talked about what it means to be an ethical musicologist, committed to reviewing the musical evidence fairly and accurately. This, apparently, was their takeaway.
12/16/2025
About to go on air with BBC 5 Live with a whole show about the ukulele. Featuring Billie Eilish, Sufjan Stevens, and of course Tiny Tim.
12/15/2025
I spoke to CBS TV this week about christmas songs. Live sleigh bells!
https://joebennett.net/2025/12/15/christmas-2025-research/e t
Trends in Christmas songwriting Joe Bennett appears on CBS This Morning with David Pogue to discuss what makes Christmas songs endure across the decades, drawing on forensic musicology research into holiday hits and listener behaviour.
‘‘Tis the season
"If You Could Read a Prayer to The Greatest Wolf of All"
A bunch of non-exact partial topline matches, key-compensated and mashed up to demonstrate that partial melodic similarity happens all the time in popular music.
Mashup by Joe Bennett
Research by .waters and
As featured on "Midnight Musicology" Nov 18, 2025
If I Could Read Your Mind (Gordon Lightfoot, 1970)
Hungry Like The Wolf (Duran Duran, 1982)
The Greatest Love Of All (Whitney Houston cover, 1986)
Save a Prayer (Duran Duran, 1982)
https://joebennett.net/5live