Ed Sheeran successfully defended his copyright court case, what is chord progression and why do so many songs use it?

Question

I watched a video where he demonstrated that many songs use the same tune / Chord progression (?). What is chord progression and why was the one in question essentially uncopyrightable?

In: 531

Answer 1

If you take a scale, lets use “C Major” to make our lives much easier
C. D. E. F. G. A. B. C.
1,2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8

You will find so many songs (ie The Beatles) use the chords taken from the scales I, IV, V. (1, 4, 5)

Or the first note I the Fourth note IV and Fifth V note of the scale to make up a song.

So it will be considered to be in the key of C and will be the progression of the chords C, F and the G Chord.

Each chord itself is made up of the individual notes
C = CEG
F = FAC
G = GBD

There can be a variety of combinations starting with any of the notes but this 1,4,5 progression is the most famous.