Goofy cover gimmickry: Kinda fun or an abomination that must be purged from the face of the earth?

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Hayseed Dixie is about to make a tour stop at my town. Just as I was noticing this, I went through the promos in my store and found the Metallica Bluegrass Tribute Album - the second volume Metallica Bluegrass Tribute Album. Also in my store, we have sold a disturbing number of Vitamin Records String Chamber Tributes to the likes of Coldplay and Mars Volta.

Is all of this kinda cool and fun? Or is this the musical equivalent of reality TV and Hollywood remaking old movies - an indication that as a society, we seem to be running low on ingenuity in our artistic endeavors both as patrons and as creators?

― Brian O'Neill (NYCNative), Tuesday, 31 January 2006 23:45 (twenty years ago)

bah - I thought this was gonna be a thread about covers with gel-filled-sleeves and holograms and shit like that.

anyway, obviously gimmicky covers are horrible.

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 31 January 2006 23:53 (twenty years ago)

some of those bluegrass ones are cool - not necessarily more gimmicky than the music they're covering imo

― jcartledge (jcartledge), Wednesday, 1 February 2006 00:53 (twenty years ago)

Depends whether the gimmick enhances the music. I think Nouvelle Vague's loungey covers of New Wave songs tap the poignancy of the material - in some cases, like Tuxedomoon's In A Manner Of Speaking, they actually improve the individuals. They obviously love the songs and want to bring out new nuances and meaning, rather than just have a giggle. It's all about the cover band's motive. If Nina Gordon's acoustic cover of Straight Outta Compton is a bold way of recasting the lyrics to a song she admires, then it's great. If she's just taking the piss out of rap music then it's horrible. The weird thing is, you can't tell which one it is just by listening to the song.

― Dorian Lynskey, Wednesday, 1 February 2006 18:30 (twenty years ago)

In the 60s and 70s it would have been Hawaiian-style reworkings, Moog versions, and the odd ...Goes Country album. I don't see the current trend towards the kind of tribute albums mentioned upthread as an indicator of any downturn - as far as I can see, only the styles have changed.

― Deluxe (Damian), Wednesday, 1 February 2006 18:55 (twenty years ago)

i eagerly await the tijuana sounds of jandek

― frenchbloke (frenchbloke), Thursday, 2 February 2006 19:41 (twenty years ago)

FUN FUN FUN (unless it's boring and predictible and obvious, such as MarMan covers another dreary 80s pop number)

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Thursday, 2 February 2006 20:01 (twenty years ago)

Goofy covers seemed to work better in the early 80s, when music was totally segregated- between rock and RnB, between new wave and older rock. With vegas pop on the total outside. They seemed like humble admissions that a band enjoyed music outside their proscribed genre. Somewhere between the time of Run-DMC's "Rock this Way" and Ciccone Youth, it all got annoying. Or maybe I just got older.

― bendy (bendy), Friday, 3 February 2006 04:56 (twenty years ago)

It's also an admission that a great song is a great song, which can be realised within a number of different ways.

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 3 February 2006 09:56 (twenty years ago)

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