Including Modified Lyrics in a Novel

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JohnLine

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I’ve been brainstorming a scene for my novel, and one possibility is “stop singing and everyone dies.” Basically bombs are set to go off when a song ends. It’s a fantasy novel, where religion is based on music, so I’ve been thinking about modifying the lyrics of modern pop songs to make them "religious."

I was about to throw this idea in the rubbage bin based on running afoul of copyright law. But if I’m not including music, and I’m not including the original lyrics would this be an issue?

The reader would need to be able to figure out what the original song was to make it fun (Example: “Only the good die young” becomes “The wicked will all die young.”)
Any thoughts about the legality of this? (and yes it might be really awful)
 

The Second Moon

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I don't think we're allowed to give legal advice on AW, and I know nothing about legal stuff, but...here are my 2 cents.

Could you maybe just include a line from the song and modify that? I've actually been thinking of "modifying" a snippet of a lyric from the song, Always Been the End of the World by Patrick Droney and putting it in my short story collection. He sings, "It's not the end of the world. It's just the end of the world."

I want to change it to "It's not the end of the world. It's just another apocalypse." Of course the speaker wouldn't sing it, there would be no music and "it's not the end of the world" is a pretty common phrase, so I don't think I would get in trouble for it, much like how you wouldn't get in trouble for having a character say/sing, "The wicked all die young."

However a whole song may be stretching it. Or could you pay someone on a website (like Fivverr) to make an original song for you? That would be really cool, since your fantasy world has religion based off music.

Just my 2 cents here.
 

Chris P

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Yep, consult an intellectual property lawyer. Don't rely on us, no matter how experienced or well meaning we are.
 
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