Finding the Rhythm

I’ve blogged in the past about cover songs, and I guess I just find myself fascinated by this aspect of the dance music business. On my final day at the Billboard DMS (see other recent blog entries for more about that here and here), I was having dinner with my better half and some members of the CAPP Records team (Rikah and Dom), Tim and Ron from GoRainbowRadio.com, as well as artist Ohsha Kai, and this topic happened to come-up and got me thinking again.

The night before, we watched Marian Records recording artist Ella perform her new single, Missing, a cover of the Everything But the Girl song. Ella is young and attractive, and she has a terrific voice with tons of commercial potential. I found her stage presence in need of some work, but that’ll come with time and practice. I didn’t find a whole lot to dislike, honestly—except the song choice. I had made a remark that night, and again at dinner with the folks above, that the song was too recent to warrant a cover.

Today, I think I might well retract that remark. For starters, it’s disingenuous; one of my very favorite new songs right now is Uninvited from Freemasons and Bailey Tzuke, a cover of an Alanis Morissette song that, like Missing, is roughly 10 years old. While I still didn’t like her song choice, on reflection, I think my issues with the song are three-fold:

First, it was a dance/electronic style song to start with. Everything But the Girl isn’t really a dance act per se as much as a group that uses rich electronic arrangements, but they have had some dance remix hits of their own, so direct comparisons are a bit inevitable. Most dance covers are not of dance songs; some, like Hannah Jones’ Bridge Over Troubled Water are of songs so far removed from the dance genre that any halfway decent dance cover is apt to sound fresh and interesting.

Second, whoever programmed or produced Ella’s version did a good job with it, don’t get me wrong, but it didn’t really add anything new, and didn’t really improve on the original in my view. This is related to the point I just made; for a cover song to actually work, and work well, it should bring something new to the table. Maybe that’s using an opposite-gender vocal (which itself can be a risky move and often fails miserably), tweaking the arrangement to a greater degree, departing more radically from the original (Eric Prydz’ popular pseudo-covers come to mind), or otherwise freshening things up a bit.

This was the main problem I had with the recent 9 to 5 cover which I blogged about; these overly-close-to-the-original covers can be intriguing at first, but they lose their interest after a play or two because the listener has “been there, done that.” In other words, they have essentially novelty value only.

Third, the song was just covered by another artist. ShakeTwo (feat. Nicola Fasano) out of Europe released a cover of it only this past summer. Now granted, lead times for producing new tracks will occasionally make it pretty much impossible to avoid this sort of thing from time to time, but going after a more obscure song or perhaps an older one might minimize the chance of encountering this potential dilution of a cover’s potential.

I’m not honestly certain what has driven the dance industry to churn-out covers left and right. I’ve talked to label folks about this some, and I’m not sure there’s consensus. Some say it’s about “search sales” (someone searches for the original, and stumbles on the cover), some say it’s because the songs of the past were so strong, some say it’s because 80’s music (perhaps the most popular choice for covers) lends itself so well to such treatment.

I suspect (though it’s not confirmed by any means) that it comes down to sales. Making a new hit song is tough in any genre. With dance music representing such a small segment of the music industry, coupled with the overall struggles of the broader music industry itself, making an original dance song succeed is pretty tough business. Pop remixes do well because they ride the coattails of the broader industry, and leverage the popularity of artists like Justin Timberlake. But a fresh song, in the dance format only, comes down to a labor of love. There’s no “name brand” artist to leverage, and no familiar song to ride the back of.

When you craft an effective dance cover, there’s immediate recognition, immediate familiarity, and the potential for an immediate sales burst. Good tracks, bad tracks or otherwise, every time I get a new cover song in a bundle of DJ promo music, there’s an initial excitement when I first play the track. It’s the second play, the third play, and so on where the chaff starts to get separated out from the wheat.

Back to my point… I’d really like to see producers and artists who do these cover songs start to focus more on freshness and quality, and less on novelty. While either might yield some airplay or club play, and either might generate some sales from familiarity alone, novelty is like a sugar rush: A short burst of energy followed by a crash landing. For the same reason that dietitians suggest complex carbohydrates over simple ones (sustained energy vs. short-lived bursts), taking the time to make a song your own is more likely to pay the sort of dividends any dance artist or producer is looking for.

For a terrific example of this, look no farther than Eric Prydz’ take on Call On Me. As dance songs go, this one was an international megahit. So was Benny Benassi’s take on Satisfaction. In both cases, the producers diverged quite far off the original course of the songs, and managed to make them resonate for a huge audience. Had either of them stuck as close to the original as the aforementioned 9 to 5, I would wager they would have had a lukewarm commercial reception at best.

I have no issue with cover songs per se. Les Adams’ Twist in My Sobriety and DJ Skotty’s take on Goodnight Tonight are just two recent examples of solid covers that may not diverge as far from the originals as Prydz and Benassi did, but nevertheless are not just déjà vu all over again (especially true of Goodnight Tonight). But in general, I think the dance community can—and should—do a much better job with them.

Turn up the volume. Wes.