Remaking Songs from the Past
When did it become okay to use the musical composition from our past and put your own lyrics on it and called it your own. Today’s musical artist are taking songs from our past and recreating them over again with new vocals. How is this being original? Originality is the ability to think independently and creativity is the ability to create new ideas or things. Your imagination is the quality of being novel or unusual.
Most artists have already established a fan base, so releasing new original music would not be a hard task to achieve. There are so many talented music producers and songwriters in the country today. But you catch yourself singing right along with the song. However was that song that memorable or was it the original base line that you were singing and snapping your fingers too. Today’s music industry is very vast and I guess artist will do almost anything to bring their music to life. I do believe that you should not compromise on your originality and you should always try and be true and original to yourself. So as an artist, when you redo a song ensure you give the song some justice and do it right.
According to an article written on
Wikipedia “In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song, usually by someone other than the original artist.”
Artist will tend to do a cover version of a well-like song in order to achieve success. This was done because the song was unfamiliar.
The Federal Copyright law granted authors and artists the exclusivity to make and sell copies of their own works, create derivate of works and the right to perform or display them publicly. These rights will normally expire 70 years after and author’s death.
In an article written by
Jeff Leeds “Typically in record contracts money paid to license a song is split between the record label that owns the recording and the artist who performed it. But if a band remakes the song after it has ended its contract, it can retain ownership of the new version and license it without having to share the rewards with the record label. (Music executives typically insist on contract provisions that prohibit artists from re-recording their work for up to five years after their deal expires.)”
Cover versions of many popular songs have been recorded, sometimes with a radically different style, sometimes virtually indistinguishable from the original. Let’s take some example of covers songs from Hip-hop and R&B The band
Mindless Self Indulgence recorded a cover of the song "Bring the Pain" by
Method Man in which they completely change the entire rhythm and sound of the song. The only part of the original song retained in their cover is the lyrics. Early on in her career
Mary J. Blige recorded
Aretha Franklin “You Make Me feel Like) A Natural Woman”,
Chaka Khan’s “Sweet Thing” and I’m Going Down” by
Rose Royce.
D’Angelo remade
Smokey Robinson song “Cruisin”.
Bobby Womack song “If you think You’re Lonely Now” was redone by K-Ci of Jodeci. One of the biggest remakes of 2013 was “Blurred Line” by
Robin Thicke. The artist claimed that they were no similarities to
Marvin Gaye’s “Got to Give it Up".
Just listen carefully to the baseline of most of the songs being recorded today and you might here some similarities. We live in a time where being creative and unique is okay. Do something unique, something new; don’t do something that has been played to death for the last 40 years. Its time to create your own and take a chance that your audience will enjoy it.
The beauty of music is the creation of where it comes from, so be unique and different!
Sing, Compose and Produce from your heart!
