At one point, taking someone else's song, tweaking the music and distributing your new edition, would have been considered plagiarism.
Now, however, with Boyce Avenue adding an acoustic hint to Bruno Mars' 'Grenade' and Rita Ora's tranquil twist to Gotye's 'Somebody That I Used to Know', cover songs are becoming burning YouTube sensations.
With videos of nine-year-old Sophia Grace Brownlee singing Nicki Minaj's 'Superbass' on 'The Ellen Degeneres Show' going viral, to Sam Tsui and Kurt Schneider's regular mash-ups of the top hits of the year, cover songs are increasingly gaining appreciation — as fast, if not faster, than the original tracks.
Twenty-year-old Aruj Shukla feels that as long as covers are done with a bit of originality, they are good to go.
"I do like renditions of popular songs, especially when the covering artistes add a dash of their own style to the existing song. This puts it in a brand new light," he appreciates.
"I like how artistes pick up songs from diametrically opposite genres and tastes," he says, referring to some of his favourite covers — Ellie Goulding's soulful version of Rihanna's 'Only Girl in the World,' a funky adaptation of Bieber's 'Baby' by 'Neon Trees,' and Karmin's peppy take on 'Pumped Up Kicks' by 'Foster the People'.
However, he also finds it hard to come by good covers with an authentic hint. "Very few artistes actually add their own touch to it, causing most covers to be repetitive and less than ordinary," he complains. However, he does not hold the artistes responsible for this. "The problem arises because listeners are not very receptive to change," he grumbles, adding, "They almost always tend to compare covers to their originals."
Besides the different take on popular songs, there are other problems with accepting covers as well. "Some people look at it from the point of view of copyright infringement," says first-year law student, Afaan Arshad. "But if you ask me, I feel that as long as the original artiste of the song is named and recognised with due credit, one can go ahead with making and distributing covers," he reasons. One of his favourite cover artistes is 'The Piano Guys'.
"I really enjoy 'Peponi,' — their take on Coldplay's 'Paradise', as well as Adele's 'Rolling in the Deep' is nice," he says. "The beauty of the song is brought out by the music direction," he muses, adding, "listening to a song you love repeatedly gets boring. These newer improvisations of the songs spice things up for the listeners."
Be it classical versions of latest tunes or snippets of various songs mixed together into one track, these mixed and matched songs are being recognised more and more each day. Whether you like them or hate them, the catchy covers have made their way to TV shows like 'Glee' and are even becoming an infectious online phenomenon.
"Covers offer something new to the listeners. The feel of these adaptations is very different, and very refreshing," feels Aruj.
Afaan agrees, adding, "The evolution of music over time is inevitable." Contemplatively, he continues, "Some very good songs have diminished in popularity because people get accustomed to newer music. Cover songs help uphold the value of evergreen numbers throughout the ages."