Are People Covering Songs Too Much?

ya know..me being a little..ok – alot – older, I was a tad disturbed when all the remakes started coming out. but it didnt take long for me to recognize the beauty in it and see it as a GREAT thing. On the other hand, I think it is an unspoken rule, that you should do a good job at it!! Or at least not do it for the sake of doing it and cheapen the work. I think it is a great way to share older songs with the new generation and it is a testament to the timelessness of many songs, in their quality of artistic, ideological, musical, etc expression.

With that said, I see music in general, goes in cycles that seem to pick up something new each time around, and build upon the previous generation. The old adage "there is nothing new under the sun" is a wise insight…however, nobody’s INDIVIDUAL expression or interpretation of the same idea will ever be the same. This is a beautiful truth that we as musicians should always recognize, live and act upon.

It’s a bit like Mash Ups. A well thought out mashes (no matter how obscure the combinations) can work really well. But sometimes folks think they can ram any 2 tracks together expecting them to work.
On other forums I visit there are usually a high percentage of tracks that I think don’t work and finding that gem of a track can take a lot of listening to find.

Some cover versions, particularly those that are well thought out, can improve a track while others screw the original up so much that it’s painful to listen to.

For example A1’s cover of "Take On Me" was terrible (in my opinion) considering that the original is a corking track and the Reel Big Fish punk cover was also a good one.

I think that the record companies think "Oh that was a good track back in *insert year/decade* lets get one of our ‘artists’ to redo it so we can make some money from the kids that haven’t heard the original and know no better.
"It might not be as good as the original but who’s to know. Mwhahahahaha!"

I don’t mind cover versions as long as the artist/s add their own character to the track. I think most of them nowadays are done simply to earn a bit of cash or to give a group/artist running out of new material something to work with.

With the technology we have now though it would be great to hear a crystal clear version of some of the older 60s, 70s etc tracks that sound muffled when you listen to them.