POLL: Original vs. Remix/Cover (songs)

[bb88]

What song do you enjoy more? The original or the modern remix or punk cover? Examples: Landslide orginally by Stevie Nicks, and later redone by the Dixie Chicks. Example 2: My Heart Will Go On by Celine Dion vs. the punk cover version by NFG.

So hopefully you get what I'm asking by now :)

Anyway, I tend to enjoy the remixes and covers a bit more. I think most punk covers are EXCELLENT and keep the original tone of the song while adding more flavor and life to it.

[SupremeChampion]

i tend to like originals better, but there are some exceptions.]

~The Italian Stallion

[Austrian ViceMaster Alex]

There are a couple of songs that have a re-made version that's actually better than the original but that's an exception in my opinion. Nowadays newly formed groups simply redo an old song to get into the charts and get a boost on the way up. That's pretty pathetic in my opinion, instead of showing what lyrics and music they get together themselves they start their careers off with somthing like that.

[AntiAsh Superstar]

It really depends on who's covering/remixing what (tho as a rule I steer well clear of remixes unless they happen to have been touched by Trent Reznor...) For example, I reckon New Found Glory easily improve the track 'Everything I Do I Do It For You', I found it quite dull originally but punking it up helped immensely. Obscure goth band Manuskript cover A-ha's 'The Sun Always Shines on TV' admirably as well. Then you've got things like Bowling For Soup covering 'Summer of 69', which is done quite well but is not that much of an improvement on the original. Finally on the levels of goodness we have things like Reel Big Fish covering 'Take On Me', they totally butcher the song but it's cool enough in its own stupid way. I think what I'm driving at is that I like most covers by bands I would like anyway, tho whether I prefer them to the original version is sometimes a matter for debate. ^_^;;;

[JamieC]

Covers are only worth while if they make you listen to a song in a new way. Most covers these days in the British charts are appalling little girl groups making twee and painful versions of old classics (Atomic Kitten vs Blondie 'Tide is High' battles)

Wheatus did good though with Erasure's 'A Little Respect' - a new direction for the song, and worth the listen...

Oh, and clubbed up old songs are just getting a bit old and samey now - Music has lost its way a touch recently...

[en0miz]

Since I listen to mostly rap and r&b music, almost every mainstream song has a remix, sometimes even more than one. o_O Usually the remix has a nicer beat and an extra verse (or another rapper even). They usually turn songs into more of a club song. R&B music has a rapper rap a verse in the song or just have a totally new song. One example would be R Kelly ... even though his morals are completey off-wack, his remixes to his songs are great, atleast I think so. *listens to Ignition[remix] right now* :d

[Master Rudy]

IMO it all depends on the artist and style of music. On the one hand there have been some great remixes of old songs (AAF's cover of Smooth Criminal comes to mind). However there have also been some really poor attempts at trying to make a better or different version of a song. However the opinion can differ from person to person. For example I prefer the remix to "In the End" while all my friends think the original is the best version. I guess it just depends on what someone likes and prefers

[vegetrunks]

I generally find that the original versions of most songs are better than covers.

This is not all of the time though. There are a few covers that I actually thought were much better than the original. For example, the stereophonics version of handbags and gladrags was much better than Rod Stewarts original IMO. And AAF did a much better smooth criminal than wacko Jacko despite his version being the original (and the fact that he wrote the song).

Yet most covers are quite pitiful in comparison to originals. Maddona's version of Don McLeans "American Pie" was simply awful and those of you who have heard Will Youngs attempts at "Ain't No Sunshine" and "Sweetest feeling" and Gareth Gates version of "Mack the knife" probably wish you hadn't (note that I don't own any of these albums its just that my little sister is crazy about production line pop).

One thing that I do not like however are samples. They seem to me to be the cheepest way to throw out a song without actually writing the music yourself. This is one of the reasons that I have grown to hate rap music. They steal other songs, mess round with the lyrics, and people go out and buy it. And the original artists get little credit at all. Sometimes none. Some of you may have seen Vanilla Ice's interviews in which he consistently insists that he did not sample David Bowie and Queens "pressure" and that the song was wholly original. Of course listening to the two songs it is blatantly obvious it is a sample.

Remixes. Well they suck really. Most of them are old eighties power ballads with a bit of a techno beat in and they somehow find their way into the charts. Most of the songs are bad to start out with but are actually made worse by these pop DJ's such as Flip and Fill etc.

[Lady Vulpix]

While I don't want to completely dismiss the chance of a remix being good, I like originals much better. I did hear some good covers, though, but they weren't remixes; they were just free versions. I do some of my own too.