1980s: Song Analysis

The development of the cover through the 1950's and 1960's spurred many positive and negative connotations. However, these two pro's and con's are usually intertwined in some manner. A positive aspect to covers is it provided many artist in this instance R & B artists with large amounts of publicity and many financial benefits. These R & B artists thus spurred the creation of what is now know as "rock and roll" with the help of many established artists one in particular was Elvis Presley. However, many of these covers grew to be so popular that the original artist and genre of that song would be forgotten. Leading to the main connotation of covers, as these songs become more and more popular the roots and the original artist seem to become

This creates a beautiful blending of the two parts together and shows that this song was written to showcase the vocals.

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”, from their second album “Nevermind” is Nirvana’s most successful song. It’s not their first hit, but it’s definitely the biggest. The album quickly became the number one, replacing Michael

As this was a cover version, King probably intended for there to be a specific focus on guitar improvisation, as there are 3 different solo sections in the song.

Songs are very diverse in today’s day of age. From the smooth sounds of Jazz, energizing pop, and disruptive Rock; almost everyone can find their own taste of music. A popular song from the 1930’s, "Creep" by Radiohead, recently got a cover in 2015 by a band called Scott Bradlee's Postmodern Jukebox, which change alternative Rock song to Jazz. But through this change of genre of the this song, how does the cogitation of the song change? Scott Bradlee’s version of “Creep” suggests a sad person who is explaining the things wrong with them; meanwhile the Radiohead’s version of "Creep" suggests a person who is frustrated at the world. This contrast can be established through the differences in the songs’ vocals,

In 2001, Alien Ant Farm’s second album, ANThology, became a sensation on the strength of its first single, a cover of Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal.” It is, by all means, a great cover, managing to pay homage to the King of Pop while at the same time injecting a dose of punkish rock and humor to a song about a murder. It was a huge hit, but it somewhat stereotyped the band as a one-hit wonder, even though the next two singles from the album, “Movies” and “Attitude,” were well received and ANThology would eventually go platinum.

Heavy metal in the 1980’s is hard to describe. Its static style did not change much from the 1970’s, but the lyrics, image, and theatrics took a step forward. Heavy metal had a huge impact in the 1980’s and there were many successful bands.

Darlene, played in a happy upbeat major key opens with a “one, two, three, four” allegro tempo count-in from John Bonham, which gives the song quadruple meter. Very similar to the take that eventually surfaced on “Coda”, it pummels along in friendly conjunct legato form, live in the studio style. This is clearly a consonant harmony, exemplifying verse and chorus form. Robert Plant’s vocal mix set can be detected after the “Pink carnation and a pick up truck” line. From that point he accompanies Jimmy Page’s delightful fortissimo solo adding, “I don’t care what they say, I love you anyway, I’ll drive you wild .” Like most of these Polar mixes, instead of fading out; the homophonic track grinds to a halt with a tinkling of John Paul Jones’ electric piano played mezzo forte.

Fearless Records has announced the 6th edition of the Punk Goes Pop compilation series, which will be released on November 17th. Punk Goes Pop has been the most successful, and frequently occurring, strand of the Punk Goes… series, which also includes the likes of Punk Goes Acoustic, Punk Goes Classic Rock and Punk Goes Crunk. Evidence has shown that cover versions of well-known songs can lead to big business in today's market. One quick browse of YouTube is enough to prove their popularity, as a host of user-generated cover videos can often be seen populating the suggestion bar whenever you view an artist’s official music video.

Sharp’s version has four different versions of the song. The first is what one would call the “original” with it being the most common of all the versions to be

Specific Song Chosen (if doing a cover): The Man Who Sold the World- David Bowie

The song “Another one bites the dust” was sung by the british rock band called queen and was written by bass guitarist John Deacon. This song was in their 8th studio album called The Game in 1980 and was a worldwide hit. this song was credited with the band's best selling single. There were over 7 million copies made. This song was number 34 on the Billboard's All Time top songs and won an American music award for favorite Rock single.

I don’t know many people would could say that remember the first song they ever heard on the radio. For me, that song was David Bowie’s “Changes”. I was in pre-school, and my Mom had just picked me up at school. When she turned on the radio, I heard a song that I enjoyed. I didn’t know what the words were that Bowie was singing or understood

This gives it the dark and foreboding mood that Cohen seems to be going for with his lyrics. The first cover decides to speed up the tempo a little, but still maintains a long drawn out approach that Cohen has in the original. Additionally, the artists chose to maintain that sparse backing using only a simple percussive backbeat, a bass and an electric guitar that again places emphasis on the lyrics. The guitar acts in a similar fashion in that it only chimes in the space when the vocalist isn’t singing, though it is featured more prominently with a solo at the 2:23 mark. Overall, though the tempo is a bit faster, the same sad mood is

Over decades covers were used by artists to pay tribute to and sometimes even compete with other artists to showcase their perceptive musical ability. With Lana Del Rey’s debut extended play record, Born to Die, having sold more than 7 million copies worldwide, followed by her Paradise extended play record reaching Billboards Top 10 and her song “Young and Beautiful,” off of the Great Gatsby soundtrack going platinum, she has proven that her title as an incredibly skilled singer and songwriter is genuine, having prevailed over constant critique (Cooper). However, Mary Costa and Bill Shirley, both critically acclaimed singers and actors appeared in productions such as “The Great Waltz”, “I Dream of Jeannie”, and the legendary “Sleeping Beauty”. Although Ms. Costa and Mr. Shirley delivered a cinematic, classic version of “Once Upon a Dream”, Ms. Del Rey’s version with its whimsical instrumentation, angelic vocals, and eerie tone revitalizes the legendary Disney song.