h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi all,

I was just watching a german music-chanel yesterday and it really made me wonder.

Now I would like to find out, if it is a bad all around Europe. Oh, the thing I am talking about is cover-versions. The really bad ones.

I am thinking of this techno-pop-cr*p. The stuff where they just take the lyrics and the original melody and put some kind of dance beat on top.

It really makes me sick.

And the worst part: People seem to like and buy this music.... half of the german charts is made up by this stuff...

Anyway, is it as bad elsewhere or is it just us, who are dumb enough to buy this?



Ouzo

I abhore with a bl**dy pashion that bl***ed cr*ap! Those B*****ds take a great song and completly nullify it! *Sits down, haves some and calms self* Sorry....

Don't get me started on what I'd like to do with that Scooter lot and an electric cattle prod...

Hmm!! I think I've been screaming about this for the last 15 years.I just refuse to listen to it.If anyone is playing it I ask them to take it elsewhere or I get the earplugs out.

Incog.

I have a rather more effective method of dealing with cover versions.

I critique the current version against as many of the previous versions as possible. after the first half dozen comparisons to different versions of the same song, emphasizing where they have got it wrong compared to the other one, the supporters of the current one start thinking that maybe it isn't as good as they thought.

Of course, when the internet distribution of music by most artists become the norm, manufactured boy/girl bands who only do cover versions will not sell many records, as the current system relies on the top down distribution of music.

The latest craze seems to be Mike Oldfield songs.

Brilliant "Moonlight Shadow" has been raped into something to make even the unbolemic want to throw up. The most annoying thing there though is the pronouncition: instead of "4 a.m. in the mornig" you hear "For am in the morning".

And gorgeous "To France"... just makes you cry. The fragile guitar arrangements were replaced by - nothing. You just wait for *some*thing to happen at that point in the song, and all you hear is the drums continuing... brrrrrrrrrrrr.

As to hating the Scooter bunch... these guys at least have porn stars in their videos .

But it is not only Germans who cover a lot and do it badly. Need I remind you of Atomic Kitten's The Tide Is High, or (worst of all) of All Saints' Under The Bridge?

Yelbakk - hoping nobody will make a dance remix of any Springsteen song.

Frankie Goes to Hollywood did a cover of "Born to Run", but it was much like the original.

Not only Europe, but covers in general.
Years ago I was driving along listening to "Hazy Shade of Winter" sung by Simon and Garfunkle.
My sister's friend was in the car and said...
"Hey, that's a really cool version of that Bangles song"
I screeched the car to a holt, made her get out and walk home.
BLASPHEMY!!!!

I've said it before and I'll say it again, All Saints (and their B**t**d offspring Appleton) will suffer eternal hell and damnation for doing that to Under the Bridge

There does indeed seem to be nothing but covers in the UK charts these days.

Anything by Destiny's Child, Atomic Kitten, Gareth Gates, Will Young, etc. is almost bound to be a cover (although admittedly the odd one is a bad PWL style original record). It's a sad state of affairs really but then I was never one for the standard pop stuff anyway.

I blame boyzone...not for any reason I just blame them

Geeez, so I am not the only one...

Glad to hear that.

Maybe it wasn´t such a good idea to start this thread. I had completely forgotten about All Saints "Under the bridge". This song made almost made me cry....

Somebody earlier said that this type of music would die down, when most music would be distributed over the net. Why? I still reckon that kids would listen to that stuff...

And the story about the bangles-cover.... I had a gigantic argument with my girlfriend about "To france". She actually like that song and did not believe me that it is a veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery badly done cover.

Ouzo

you asked why it would die down when music is distributed over the net.

once you have peer to peer selling, so you can buy any song in the back catalogue of any artist, the people will be able to avoid listening to the hype that currently puts manufactured bands into the charts and keeps original artists out.

it is only the hype that keeps these bands working. this is one reason why record companies want to ban peer to peer, as it takes their power to control the market away from them.

There is already some sucess with this, as one big heavy metal band got fed up with the record company creaming 70% of the revenue of the top and using it to create manufactured cover bands, so they used their website to take orders for the new album. once there was enough orders, they wrote it, recorded it, and sent it out, with not a record company in site.

and they got to keep 100% of the profit, with no risk of making a loss.

Here, what about those IDIOTS Mad House who have just released an ENTIRE ALBUM OF MADONNA COVER VERSIONS!!! For what purpose? To what greater good?!!

Sorry, mate, I still don´t get it....

So we have peer-to-peer-selling, that allows me, being old and knowing my way around music, to order any song from any artist. I could even get very old recordings, that are not put on CDs anymore, right?

But why would any 14 year old buy an original version of a song, if they just play the cover on the radio? How come that the teen would even know about the radio song being a cover?

True, it´s the hype that makes the sale. But the hype is getting worse not less. Just ceck around the p2p-clients, there is heaps of new cr*p to be found, but the classics? They are still very hard to find...

And don´t forget: there is a whole TV-Industry relying on the hype. Wether it is MTV or anything else.. We even got this sort of concert-show here in Germany. It is called "the Dome" and it is exclusively to hype those manufactured bands.

To put it short: I think you are giving the net way more credit than it deserves...

Ouzo

<< I think you are giving the net way more credit than it deserves >>

Sadly, I agree...

The market for all this schmuck is predominantly teenaged *individuals*

How to be a *individual* :
Listen to / buy whatever all the other *individuals* are in to

The marketing machine behind the boy/girl band cr*p got rolling 50 years ago and shows no sign of slowing - it is all pervasive and self perpetuating...

six7's
*nostalgia sure ain't what it used to be*

in the short term, you are right.

peer to peer is at the moment currently full of stuff from cd's people havebought which are in the charts.

but we are talking about the internet here.

in the long run, either things get linked together better, or they don't get found. this is why it is called the net.

also, peer to peer is not going to disappear, and groups or individuals who have been around for more than a few years are not going to keep paying the record companies 70% of the income from their records, they are going to sell albums direct from the official band website.

also, bands that play at the local pub don't get taken seriously by the big record companies, but can cheaply have their own website.

as this phenomena takes off, the little bands get bigger without needing the big record companies and the big bands don't need them either. this cuts into both ends of the record companies profit margins, leaving them with less money to pay to hype "constructed" boy bands.

do you get it now?

Granted - apart for the market that demands hype rather than content

true, but the hype only works because of the control of a few chanels of publicity by the recording industry.

this is getting less relevent.

when you have 500 tv channels, it is very expensive to give comprehensive coverage to all of them, which is what the hype market depends on.

it already doesn't really work for heavy metal band, and that will spread to other sectors over time.

people want to get the music they want, when they want it, how they want it. if the record companies (and the video industry as well for that matter) don't recognise this fact, then they will be replaced by those who do.

and no amount of copyright protection systems will get aound that.