Quote Of The Day:
Being a cover artist is not like being a real artist. That’s just copying what someone else did.
Hang on there Sebastian (Skid Row) Bach. I have to disagree with that statement. There are so many good reasons for doing cover songs and being a “cover” artist. For those of you who don’t know what a “cover song” is, it refers to when you play or record someone else’s song that has already been recorded and most likely has already been a hit.
In my younger days of playing bars and lounges 6 nights a week and before I wrote and recorded any original songs of my own, I was a singer in a cover band. As a burgeoning singer, I learned so many skills from the artists whose songs I was performing by emulating specific nuances from their styles every night for weeks on end. I would listen intently for the textures, trills, phrasing and other characteristics of their voice, figure out how to do it, then add it to my own repetoire of singing nuances. Eventually my own vocal style was developed from a culmination of all the things I learned by listening to other singers. Just to be clear, borrowing stylistic nuances from singers you really like is a positive thing. Trying to sound exactly like another singer isn’t as good unless you want to perform in a tribute band to that artist. (We’ll save my opinion on that for another blog).
As for recording someone else’s song as a cover, well, that has kick started a lot of new artist’s careers. Recently, a friend of mine posted a video of a young band doing Adele’s huge hit from last year, “Rolling In The Deep”. We all know and love Adele’s version and this brilliant young band gave it a different, but equally effective stylistic twist, and put their own spin on it. It’s fabulous and has garnered them over 700,000 hits on youtube. Check it out at http://youtu.be/nsqh9jHkHlM Other examples of cover songs that had a different twist and went on to become hits as well are UB40’s reggae version of the Neil Diamond song, “Red, Red Wine”, Whitney Houston’s power ballad cover of Dolly Parton’s country ballad “I Will Always Love You”, CCR’s ratty rock version of Marvin Gaye’s soulful “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” to name just a few. I know there are more current examples out there, but those are the first ones that came to my brain. Oh, what about Walk Off The Earth’s cover of Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used To Know”. OMG, they have over 100 MILLION hits on youtube for that song. To me, it says that a well-written song can translate into different styles, genres, tempos and be equally as sensational. It’s a great way to fill a set list if you are an original band that doesn’t quite have enough material to fill the show. Getting creative and putting a new spin or your own style on a cover song may get you noticed and have people buying your version on itunes and adding to the number of hits you get on youtube. The bottom line is, love the songs you do be it original or cover and that emotion will translate to your audience to give them a memorable musical experience too.
Until next time… Breathe and Happy Singing!
Angela
www.5pointsingingsystem.com
www.angelakelman.com
On a very exciting note, my 5 Point Singing System online vocal program is now available at www.5pointsingingsystem.com. Check it out and sign up for some free video tutorials. See you there!
— Delivered by Feed43 service
