Need Opinions for my journalism class

[shane hennessey]

For my journalism class i have to write a paper on a topic and i chose to write about stealing music. its called "Stealing Music, Who's really doing it?" and it will be about Artists that take songs and sample them or artists that make it big on covers. First of all I need help on what artists have covered songs, I have these so far:
Ataris- Boys Of Summer
Limp Bizkit- Got To Have faith
Orgy- Cant remember the name
Coolio- Gangster's Paradise

Second, if you can answer these questions, that would be great.

What do you think of artists covering a song and then making it big off of that song?

What do you think of artists sampling songs? Example: A rapper just came out with a song "lets go" featuring lil jon and the beat is the intro to crazy train by sabbath

Any help is greatly appreciated

[selftitled85]

For my journalism class i have to write a paper on a topic and i chose to write about stealing music. its called "Stealing Music, Who's really doing it?" and it will be about Artists that take songs and sample them or artists that make it big on covers. First of all I need help on what artists have covered songs, I have these so far:
Ataris- Boys Of Summer
Limp Bizkit- Got To Have faith
Orgy- Cant remember the name
Coolio- Gangster's Paradise

Second, if you can answer these questions, that would be great.

What do you think of artists covering a song and then making it big off of that song?

What do you think of artists sampling songs? Example: A rapper just came out with a song "lets go" featuring lil jon and the beat is the intro to crazy train by sabbath

Any help is greatly appreciated


i dont mind a band covering another bands songs and making it big on them. if they give you credit for it i dont think its bad.

sampling songs is a completely dif thing. if your gonna make your own song at least make your own beat.

[im_random]

Do the covers have to be recorded and actually on a cd? Or can they be from live shows and stuff, because that makes a huge difference in the amount of songs you're going to get.

[shane hennessey]

Do the covers have to be recorded and actually on a cd? Or can they be from live shows and stuff, because that makes a huge difference in the amount of songs you're going to get.
what i mean by covers is bands that have been put to the top of the charts just because of that song. Bow Wow Wow and Aaron Carter covered I want cady orginally made by the strangeloves, Orgy did Blue monday by new order and this made them famous and limp bizkit broke on the music scene with a cover. so i guess i am looking for recorded on cd

[im_random]

what i mean by covers is bands that have been put to the top of the charts just because of that song. Bow Wow Wow and Aaron Carter covered I want cady orginally made by the strangeloves, Orgy did Blue monday by new order and this made them famous and limp bizkit broke on the music scene with a cover. so i guess i am looking for recorded on cd

Oh okay, well that sure makes it a lot harder haha.

Uncle Kracker - Drift Away (originally by Dobie Gray)

That's the only one I can think of right now

[shane hennessey]

Orgy did blue monday by new order. (my dad's favorite song)
i hope the new order version is his favorite lol

[Anton Djamoos]

Alien Ant Farm - Smooth Criminal (Michael Jackson cover...they had minor success with "Movies," "These Days," and "Glow")

You could also do a whole thing about holiday songs I think. A lot of 'artists' rerecord the same songs over and over again. Think "Happy Christmas (War is Over)," "Last Christmas," etc.

[Anton Djamoos]

Question though for clarification. This is artists who have gotten famous and big because of the cover song, not original material. That means that Dave Matthews Band wouldn't apply because they had hits and were well-known before they did a cover of "All Along the Watchtower," correct?

[shane hennessey]

This is artists who have gotten famous and big because of the cover song, not original material.
correct. even if they have had hit songs after that cover, i am still looking for bands that first hit was a cover song

[YourLatestVicti]

My answer to both questions is that I really don't have a problem with covers or sampling, but for me at least it makes it that much harder for me to respect a musician who can't come up with their own music.

[Anton Djamoos]

What do you think of artists covering a song and then making it big off of that song?

I think it's fine as long as they are able to establish themselves with another hit. If they only have one hit and it is the cover, they immediately lose credibility to me and I won't bother listening to them. As long as they have other music that is good, I will still listen to them.

It does seem to be a gimmick to have your first song be a cover song, though. It's as if the record label doesn't think that your band is good enough to garner attention with your own material that the released record must be a new take on something people already know. That's probably the major reason that I'm skeptical of bands that I don't know that get famous because of cover songs.

What do you think of artists sampling songs? Example: A rapper just came out with a song "lets go" featuring lil jon and the beat is the intro to crazy train by sabbath


I don't really care because I don't listen to rap and that's where most of the sampling is. Sometimes it makes the song better; sometimes, as in your example's case, it makes it worse. That song is so bad. It conveys a certain mood though because when people hear that song, they'll associate it with "Crazy Train" and that will set the tone of the song. Most of the time though, sampling sucks.

Also...this may not work but Goldfinger's cover of Nina's "99 Red Balloons." They've had other songs that have gotten mildly popular, but I believe that this is the song that catapulted them from mediocrity to mainstream. It was even in the Rocket Power movie.