There’s a fine line between sampling a song and straight ripping off someone else’s artistic integrity. Imitation is recognized as the highest form of flattery – but at what point does it go too far?

Most recently, Madonna finally spoke out about her insane influence of Lady Gaga, with focus on ‘Born This Way‘ and it’s similarity with Madge’s 1989 hit ‘Express Yourself’. And in the spirit of that buzz – we’re delighted to bring you a little sampling, thirteen songs that famously ripped off others (and were pretty successful in their own right). Some of which dealt with court settlements and others were able to slip through the legal cracks. For those arguing that the likes of Hammer and Vanilla Ice had the right to sample – both were busted by the predecessors for their use. Ice even argued in an episode of VH1′s ‘Behind the Music’ that it was completely original and the sampling accusations were bogus.

Tell us what you think! Below are thirteen examples, first being the song that ripped off the following song:

Jennifer Lopez “On The Floor (Ft. Pitbull)” VS. Los Kjarkas “Lloranda se fue”

MC Hammer “U Can’t Touch This” VS. Rick James “Superfreak”

Sean Kingston “Me Love” VS. Led Zeppelin “D’yer Mak’er”

Sum 41 “Pieces” VS. Coldplay “The Scientist”

Ray Parker Jr. “Ghostbusters” VS. Huey Lewis “I Want A New Drug”

Red Hot Chili Peppers “Dani California” VS. Tom Petty “Mary Jane’s Last Dance”

Flo Rida “Right Round” VS. Dead Or Alive “You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)”

The Offspring “Why Don’t You Get A Job” VS. The Beatles “Ob La Di Ob La Da”

Vanilla Ice “Ice Ice Baby” VS. Queen & David Bowie “Under Pressure”

Avril Lavigne “Girlfriend” VS. The Rubinoos “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend”

Coldplay “Viva La Vida” VS. Joe Satriani “If I Could Fly”

Green Day “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” VS. Oasis “Wonderwall”

Fergie “Fergalicious” VS. J.J. Fad “Supersonic”

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I’d like to think that as the years go by, we get better and better looking. We always evolve from an ugly duckling to a beautiful swan.

Just look at these before and after pictures of some of the hottest stars in Hollywood. They used to have bushy eyebrows, but now they have neatly threaded brows. They used to have frizzy hair, but now they have lucious long locks. They used to have a crooked nose, but now it’s thin and even due to many surgical procedures.

Oh No They Didn’t posted dozens of before and after shots and we’ve picked our favourite 10. Check them out.

Britney Spears

Shia LaBeouf

Brian Austin Green

Kristen Stewart

Lindsay Lohan

Megan Fox

Jennifer Lopez

Miley Cyrus

Courtney Cox

Amber Rose still looks the same. 

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Will.I.Am. overdoses on punctuation with the release of his music video for the song, “T.H.E. (The Hardest Ever’) By ‘hardest’, I’m sure Will means ‘suckiest’, because that’s what this video is. Take a look:

Will.I.Am, dressed as the white Power Ranger, keeps singing about how the beat is “so hard” in the introduction. We, the listeners, not oblivious to sexual innuendos.

J.Lo is never seen in the same fram as Will. She’s only featured in the animated posters randomly placed on the airplane runway. She keeps telling me I can go hard or I can go home. Yeah, I’d rather go home, Jenny, especially after seeing Mick Jagger placed in the center of the universe doing some of the most ridiculous dance moves I’ve seen in a long time.

Usually when Will.I.Am is alongside his Black Eyed Peas members, they produce really fun, energetic music videos. This solo effort, unfortunately, just makes me want to take a nap, for a really, really long time.

This leaves me wondering how Granda Al would react if he were to see this monstrosity. Granda Al, if you can remember, is the old man whose famous for his cute YouTube video of his reaction to Dubstep music. I somehow believe he’d have get the same impression.

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You all know you loved Mashup-Germany’s mix of the best songs of the year.

Now, DJ McFly is bringing you a Billboard Hot 100 mash-up that will blow you mind, and your eardrums!

Chicago native DJ McFly’s mix samples every song which reached the Billboard Hot 100 Top 5 in January, February and March of this year. This includes Katy Perry’s “Firework” and “On The Floor” by Jennifer Lopez and Pitbull.

Not only does McFly mash-up the songs, but he also mixes up the video that’s really blowing up on YouTube. Have a listen, have a look. Cheers to a great year in music.

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Although December hasn’t arrived, the search engine Bing (for those of you who don’t use Google) has unveiled it’s most searched celebrities of the year.

2011 was definitely the year of Bieber Fever as Justin comes in as the most searched person. Bing reports Kim Kardashian, who came in first last year, has now fallen in the number two spot. Jennifer Anniston is the third most searched celebrity this year.

Here is the full list from Bing:

1. Justin Bieber

2. Kim Kardashian

3. Jennifer Aniston

4. Lindsay Lohan

5. Jennifer Lopez

6. Britney Spears

7. Katy Perry

8. Megan Fox

9. Lady Gaga

10. Miley Cyrus

Having Lady Gaga on the bottom of the list is a little bit absurd. She’s had a stellar year of performances, controversies and awards. I expected her to reign at least higher than Megan Fox of all people.

It’s a bit surprising to see Jennifer Anniston beat out so many troubled headline-makers like Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears. But, I assume people were constantly curious of who Ms. Ex-Brad Pitt was dating next.

Justin Bieber appears the only male celeb on the list, while his girlfriend Selena Gomez is no where near.

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We’re thankful for celebrities. Without them, we wouldn’t have much to write about on andPOP. We love all the shenanigans they get into, all the strange hookups and the inappropriate things they tweet about. But today is the one day we give them privacy with their loved ones and American stars celebrate Thanksgiving today.

Some even spoke with US Magazine and shared their holiday plans.

American Idol judg Jennifer Lopez says: “I’m just going be with my babies We’ll cook a turkey, which will be good, and then we’ll eat it!”

New Year’s Eve star John Dumel says: “There’s things I love to eat that my mom makes. She makes an incredible Thanksgiving dinner — she’s an incredible cook. She even makes food and freezes it for us when she comes out to visit. Fergie and I eat it for the next six months!”

Ms. George Clooney a.k.a. Stacey Keibler says: “I’m just looking forward to spending time with my friends and family. I’ll be eating a lot of food on Thanksgiving — I put gravy on everything on my plate! And I’ll be watching my Baltimore Ravens hopefully kick some butt on Thursday.”

Glee’s Jane Lynch says: “A lot of eating! We eat with friends. We like the basics, the good stuff — the turkey and all that. But our friends bring new and weird things to dinner. Last year someone brought a pork butt! And it was delicious! Shaking it up on Thanksgiving!”

Basically, come Friday or Saturday, we’re going to be playing the age old “Is It A Baby Or A Food Bump?” game a lot.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

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In more music news, Will.I.Am is collaborating with to very unusual artists.

The former Black Eyed Peas member hooked up with Jennifer Lopez and Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger for a song called “T.H.E.” which stands for The Hardest Ever.

I’m not too sure why Will.I.Am loves to abbreviate everything. From albums to songs, E.I.A.A. (everything is annoyingly abbreviated).

It’s a really plain song that relies to heavily on computerized sounds. If you’re getting Mick Jagger involved with the song, it’s wiser to use actual instruments and not a MacBook Pro. Mick sounds like a washed up rockstar (which, I guess he is) and doesn’t bring anything innovative to the table. He just keeps repeating “you can go hard or you can go home”.

This song fails at going hard, so I except these three to just go home.

Listen to the song Perez Hilton posted below.

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At an event like the American Music Awards, stars really want to stand out from one another. Some celebrities really clean up nicely and some just need to nicely fire their personal stylist. Here are the top 5 worst looks at the 2011 AMAz.

5. Kelly Clarkson has beautiful curves but by wearing such a bright sequined dress out of an 80′s movie, she looks much larger than she actually is.

4. Mary J. Blige is just reminding us what the definition of tacky is. Welcome to the jungle, baby.

3. Katy Perry is apparently colourblind and therefore looks like a walking ad for Pepto-Bismol.

2. Christina Aguilera may have the moves like Jagger but she has the wardrobe of a 19-year-old call girl. Next time, go up a size or two, Xtina!

1. Jennifer Lopex, Britney called. She wants her 2000 MTV Music Video Awards outfit back. Also, nobody’s into vajazzling anymore!

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Hold her closer, tiny dancer!

It’s only been our months since Jennifer Lopez split with her husband Marc Anthony. At first, she appeared to be rebounding with actor Bradley Cooper but now, US Magazine reports she’s moved on with her backup dancer, Casper Smart.

According to Celeb Buzz, Casper is 18 years younger than J.Lo! She’s sort of old enough to be his mom. But Casper is a pretty accomplished dancer with credits in Beyonce and Nicki Minaj music videos, as well as the dance flick Step Up 3D.

The relationship seems to be anything but serious. It’s not the first time Jennifer’s moondanced with her backup dancers. In 2001 she married her backup dancer Chris Judd but they only lasted 2 years.

I have a feeling Casper won’t be around as long as Chris was. Jennifer’s just trying to get her mind off the heartbreaking divorce. She may feel like she’s still “got it” by dating a much younger guy, but once everyone keeps calling her a cougar, she’ll come to her senses and date around her age bracket.

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A week or two after she was seen crying while performing during her concert in Connecticut, J.Lo teared up again, this time during an award ceremony.

The newly divorced singer and judge on American Idol was at Glamour Magazine’s Women of the Year awards. The Hollywood Reporter says when she got the podium to accept an award, she began to cry.

“”I’ve had an incredible year, an incredible couple of years, of some ups and some not so ups, and the one thing that got me through was the women in my life,” she said. Lopez listed her mother, her sister and female cousins are sources of inspiration for overcoming obstacles this year. We all know very well she’s talking about her divorce to Marc Anthony.

At times, Jennifer Lopez comes across as a demanding woman; a real, fierce diva. But it’s times like these were she appears the most human to all her fans. It’s touching to get a glimpse of her vulnerable, soft side, even if it’s for a quick moment.

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As we mourn the death of Zooey Deschanel and Ben Gibbard’s relationship, we’ve been gushing over other cute celebrity couplings that are no more. In Hollywood, it’s sort of a right of passage to date a co-star or a bandmate for publicity. Here at andPOP we believe in a thing called love and we think these couples listed below had it!

If you ask me, Justin Timberlake was Britney Spears’ silver lining. Once they went kaput it all went downhill for Britney.

Demi Lovato really bought out the best in Joe Jonas. We keep hearing rumours they’ve been spotted together again and we really hope those rumours turn into facts.

Serial dater Drew Barrymore seemed the happiest with Justin Long. They even made a movie together called Going the Distance. Here’s hoping she goes the distance for his heart again.

Va-va-voom! Jennifer Lopez and P Diddy were the quintessential hot couple back in 1999. Since the break-up they have both dated down.

Rachel Bilson and Adam Brody were the best thing about The O.C. When the co-stars broke up at least fans still got to see their characters in a loving relationship (eventually they got married on the show). Ah, if only real life reflected fictional life.

Some of you may think Brad belongs to Angelina but to me, he looks like a totally whipped and unhappy husband with 395349836 children to take care of. With Jennifer, Brad was so cool, calm and collected and was she.

Rachel McAdams and Gosling were the perfect couple. They never failed to show their love for one another, even in public. Plus, they made The Notebook what it is today. Even though they’re dating different people now, I still think they’re soul mates.

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While the Femme Fetale is touring the U.K., she’s been requesting some strange things for her dressing room.

Perez Hilton says a source close to Britney revealed she won’t go on stage unless she has the following things backstage:

- a photo of Princess Diana

- a portion of fish & chips

- 100 figs and prunes (if you send her 99 you’re so fired)

- Toothpaste (no toothbush?)

- McDonalds cheeseburgers, minus the bread rolls (guess she has enough rolls)

Britney’s been in the business for years – decades, even! She can surely get away with all these crazy demands. But no one will ever top Jennifer Lopez in the “diva demands” category. Remember when she once demanded her dressing room to be ALL white; white table, white sofa, white lamp and even white doves flying around. Here’s hoping the divas tip their staff well.

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Don’t let her latest music video for “Papi” mislead you. Despite the image of her swan diving into a sea fueled of boner-zombies, J-Lo hasn’t moved on as quickly as you may think.

Apparently last weekend at her concert in Montville, Connecticut, Lopez burst into tears after a song montage that featured look-a-likes of her exes.

This is frustrating for a couple of reasons. First, there is no way it was an impromptu “song montage”. It’s highly unlikely that three professional dancers — who just so happen to share likenesses with Diddy, Ben Afleck and Mark Anthony — just appeared in the concert without J-Lo’s approval. I’m guessing this particular dance number was her idea and so, it makes her emotional response seem slightly over-dramatic and over-rehearsed.

In addition, if this is so hard on her, why does she want to publicly mock the subject at her concert? If J-Lo was really that busted up about the breakup, she would have done what every other pop-icon does when they’re feeling down: drowned her sorrows with a $1,000 bottle of wine and wiped her tears with a box of Kleenex made out of hundred dollar bills.

This leaves me wondering why she wasn’t as upset when the divorce first happened? Perhaps she was too busy with Bradley Cooper to notice?

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Jennifer Lopez has debuted her new music video for “Papi.” In the video, Lopez causes quite a stir with guys as everyman she sees ends up in love with her. She also has a pretty impressive dance number at the end.

Will this make Marc Anthony jealous?

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Jennifer Lopez was on Ryan Seacrest’s radio show where she spoke about the first American Idol fight of the season.

“I think me, Randy and Steven got into our first fight,” J.Lo admitted when she called in to “On-Air With Ryan Seacrest” on Friday morning. “I got really, really upset. There was this girl that came in and sang and she was amazing, amazing. And Steven, as he will do when we’re doing our auditions, he’ll ask her for another song. I was like, I was surprised because I was ready to vote. I was like, ‘This girl is amazing.’ ”

Seacrest chimed in and said, ”The thing I recognized from that scene was there was blood boiling for one of the first times. I really felt like your blood was boiling.”

We are curious to see how this episode plays out in the upcoming season.

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Although Jennifer Lopez is busy with American Idol, she still has time to partner with Kohl’s for a new clothing line.

To promote the new initiative, JLO and Kohl’s created a couple of videos feature Jennifer hard at work at Kohl’s headquarters.

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After much speculation and negotiating, Jennifer Lopez is officially returning to American Idol. The announcement was made by Executive Producer Nigel Lythgoe.

“I am delighted to say that all three judges, along with the brilliant host of ‘American Idol’ [Ryan Seacrest], is back for the next season,” Lythgoe said Wednesday morning on Seacrest’s radio show, “On Air with Ryan Seacrest.” Lythgoe said all three will be back on the road soon to participate in season 11 auditions.

Lopez has not made a statement as of yet. We are wondering if she was able to get the $20 Million she was asking for.

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Marc Anthony deserves a huge alimony cheque if J.Lo is making this kind of money. The New York Post is reporting J.Lo is currently negotiating a pay raise from AI that is said to be worth $20 Million.

Now Steven Tyler wants a piece of the action. Although he is locked into a two-year deal, Steven thinks he deserves a pay hike as he was also crucial to the past season’s success.

“Steven is halfway through a two-year deal,” explained one source, “and his management has asked for more money. They argue he was just as sensational and as popular on the panel as Jennifer. But, on the other side, show bosses argue he’s tied into a deal and has to stick to it. However, it’s hoped they can come to a compromise to keep Steven happy, because the producers love him.”

Rockstars – it is never enough.

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Jennifer Lopez spoke with Vanity Fair where she opens up about her divorce to Marc Anthony.

“Sometimes it doesn’t work—and that’s sad. But I remain an eternal optimist about love. I believe in love,” Lopez says. “It’s still my biggest dream. I am positive—determined to move forward with my life, bring up my babies, and do the best job I can as a mother, entertainer, and person. I now look forward to new challenges. I feel strong.”

Lopez also is a hopeless romantic, and her journey has greatly influenced her point of view.

“It’s not that I didn’t love myself before. Sometimes we don’t realize that we are compromising ourselves. To understand that a person is not good for you, or that that person is not treating you in the right way, or that he is not doing the right thing for himself—if I stay, then I am not doing the right thing for me. I love myself enough to walk away from that now.”

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Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony have only recently announced their divorce, but it seems J.Lo isn’t wasting anytime. Lopez was spotted recently meeting up with former boyfriend P. Diddy.

P. Diddy and J.Lo were allegedly spotted having dinner in NYC this week on July 27. Someone says that the two were seen at Phillipe Chow, where the following occurred:

“Diddy came in quickly and immediately went to the private area . . . about 20 minutes later J Lo went in. I was in shock.”

However, J.Lo was also spotted that day in Atlanta spending time with her kids.

Seems like a really crazy rumor to us, or J.Lo is quite the busy lady.

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