Cover Songs

Alley Cat

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    • Seen Apr 16, 2012
    In today's music, many people, other professional artists, and amateur singers tend to do covers of other artists' music. How do you feel about covers? Do you like them better? Worse? Indifferent? Give some examples.


    My example is Hurt by Nine Inch Nails. Trent Reznor did it good, but Johnny Cash had so much more painful emotion in his voice, that I just like his version better.

    Another example would Sam Tsui's cover of Jar of Hearts. I like his cover, but I feel that Christina Perri conveys more emotion and has a better voice for the song.

    My third example is Live like We're Dying by Kris Allen. He sings the song with so much passion, and when The Script plays it, I honestly think that they just kill the song.
     
    It depends on the quality of the song. Like when Avenged Sevenfold covered Walk by Pantera following Dimebag's death, they didn't miss a single beat in the song. While it didn't sound as heavy as the original, they still did a good job on it.

    Another cover I like is Trivium's cover for Metallica's Master of Puppets, from Ascendency I believe. While the original can never be beat, Trivium still did an excellent job covering it. So heavy.

    It's probably cause I'm mainly a modern metalhead that I don't know the name of the song, but Rise Against did a pretty alright cover of the song that goes "Any way you want it, that's the way you need it.".
     
    I think it's fine. Music is for everyone. I just don't like it when bands or artists use them as a means to get more attention or sales.

    If there's something despise is dishonesty in art. Many people have been fooled to think Dust in the Wind was written by Scorpions or Behind Blue Eyes is original by Limp Biskit. Some artists do little to assure people know it's not their song, yet they get the kudos.

    Mostly, I don't like it when established artists release covers as singles, as good as they may be. They mislead people and show just how they aren't good enough to sell their own original music.
     
    Careful With That Axe said:
    If there's something despise is dishonesty in art. Many people have been fooled to think Dust in the Wind was written by Scorpions or Behind Blue Eyes is original by Limp Biskit. Some artists do little to assure people know it's not their song, yet they get the kudos.
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    Ugh, this. I hate it with a passion. Apart from that I enjoy covers very much, although it's rare for me to find one better than the original. David Bowie's cover of Nature Boy comes to mind though. It's been my favourite cover for years and probably always will be.
     
    Depends on the song and the artist covering it. I have no problem with covers in principle but am hard-pressed to name a one that I prefer wholeheartedly to the original. (The one that comes to mind is 'Respect' by Aretha Franklin which, yeah, is better than the original Otis Redding version!)

    What annoys me, as CWTAP! and Vendak have mentioned above, is when songs become 'claimed' by their cover artists. The lowbrow example I can think of is 'Valerie', which has become synonymous with Amy Winehouse and not with its writers, the Zutons.
     
    I loooove covers that change the sound a lot, especially acoustic ones. I love listening to another rendition of the same song, for example Hey Ya by Black Eyed Peas. I saw a cover by Obadiah Parker that actually brought out the lyrics of the song and showed that it wasn't just another pop song with dumb lyrics (for the most part, there are still dumb parts to it), lyrics that you can't hear in the original.

    I may not like every cover, but I want them to be made in case I do like it. If not, I just move on, but the more that are made, the more chances I have to find a cover I like. :3
     
    I think it's fine. Music is for everyone. I just don't like it when bands or artists use them as a means to get more attention or sales.
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    Have to agree - that rather annoys me when I hear a song that I know was done by other people yet people say 'man that's so cool of *newer band here*'. =| I don't mind covers when that isn't done though geenrally, as long as it sounds good.
    I love listening to another rendition of the same song, for example Hey Ya by Black Eyed Peas.
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    I thought it was OutKast that did Hey Ya, rather than the Black Eyed Peas?
     
    bobandbill said:
    I thought it was OutKast that did Hey Ya, rather than the Black Eyed Peas?
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    Maybe it was and I'm wrong :P I mix up popular bands pretty often, haha.
     
    Ugh. The Black Eyed Peas are one of those bands.

    For instance, Pump It is a rip-off of Dick Dale's Misirlou. Now people often associate the tune with them. They don't even give proper credit to Dale for the song.
     
    There are a lot of great covers.
    My personal favorite is The Red Hot Chili Peppers cover of Stevie Wonder's Higher Ground. While I've heard other artists cover it, but no one has been able to keep the amount of funk, soul, and rhythmic beat that the Red Hot Chili Peppers had in that cover. The bass was heavy and they added parts to it that made it independent, yet just as good as the original.
     
    Being one of the people that do covers with friends for the fun of it, I'm obligated to say that I like them =P In general though, I don't mind cover songs at all, it's really more on the song to song basis of it. The biggest example I can possibly think of is Glee, where virtually almost every song is a cover (Minus 4 or 5). Some of their covers are great, some should have just left it to the original song, and some are such a new take on the song it's almost an entirely new thing.
     
    For instance, Pump It is a rip-off of Dick Dale's Misirlou. Now people often associate the tune with them. They don't even give proper credit to Dale for the song.
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    Quite true, sadly, and the original is great in itself. =( ('Twas also used as Pulp Fiction's opening theme so at least people who have seen the movie might know the Black Eyed Peas didn't make it themselves? =/)
     
    Some covers are well done, and some sound horrible or destroy the whole intention of the original (ex., when they turn a pop ballad into a hard-rock song). Some covers are actually the version of the song that I was first exposed to and in those cases, the original version is the one that sounds "strange."

    Again, it all depends on who's doing the cover and how they're executing it. Some are excellent, even better than the original, and others are pure crap.
     
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