Remakes

I was watching a Saturday Night Live rerun when they had this sketch spoofing the famous boombox scene from Say Anything. I saw the movie before but it’s just now that I noticed the song playing from the boombox. It was "In Your Eyes" by Peter Gabriel. What got me is that I know this song now because I know a version of this song by Sara Bareilles and I can say that hers is better. I thought that it was originally hers.

Stan in the famous boombox scene also spoofed in South Park

This is just an example of a remake where the new version is better. Most of the time especially on local music scene, the remake sucks. I don’t know if these artists still call themselves OPM which in turn reminds me of this shirt. 

I've read of this female singer Suy who made an entire album of cover songs. She did acoustic versions of top 40 songs which are well, new songs. About five years ago, M.Y.M.P. and Nina only release acoustic covers of 80s love songs. Now, they do the latest pop hits also. This sucks. Because of this, they had to pay the rights for releasing these songs. The tabloid write-up said that Ivory Records spent almost a million pesos(I dint really remember how much,hehehe) just to release this record. Waddup! It’s not just here in the Philippines, there’s this band Boyce Avenue that also came here last year which also "specializes" on acoustic covers.ahahaha. What a way to get famous just like that one hit wonder guy from American idol who did a Mariah Carey song.

What more of the people who like punk covers. Kamikazee did Britney Spears’ "Lucky" before and it was a success. They did it once but not anymore. They can create songs of their own. Their song "Narda" which was spoofed by Michael V.’s "Mamaw". Mamaw was also a big hit. There are also issues about this. Issues related to remakes but of different kind I guess.

Punk covers are around for a long time but of course people would not like the song if they did not know the original version. I think people who listen to these covers make them feel all punk and rebellious and stuff but still.. rockin on a Britney Spears song.hahaha.I still don’t know why they have to cover pop songs when they have legends like The Ramones or Sex Pistols which they can cover or why not create a new song. A punk song requires only 3 chords. They should be artists not just performers.

Not just punk, there’s also Bossa Nova. Bossa became a big fad years back because of Sitti Navarro. She did this album with her first hit an original "Para sa akin". It was a success beacause it sounds different, it is original and it is Filipino. Most of her songs are covers though. Suddenly, record label executives saw the market for this music then boom! A lot of bossa artists emerged, including Agot Isidro and 6Cyclemind.hahaha..Well the fad is over and all of these bossa artists are gone now except of course Sitti who still releases a new album this year.

Growing up I also hate watching Sunday noontime variety shows because it just exhibit the big network supposed artists(artista: n.all around showbiz talent) showing off their should be talents on dancing, singing and hosting(I dunno if this is counted as talent). More importantly, they do covers! If they can sing(e.g. if no ghost singers are needed for the performance), these covers will be released as singles and will be heard on the radio. Not again.. Getting famous on remakes. It is sad that there’s seems to be lesser good songwriters left because of this undying trend.

Remakes made a new turn when a TV show called Glee came. I don’t watch the show but when watching other shows on any Solar owned channel, they have this Glee commercial of a stupid performance from the show. They raped good songs mercilessly. I really hate that show. I still don’t know why people buy that crap. The show creator also thinks he’s a Jesus Christ of some sort as seen on this article. I really hope that show die in the very near future. Desperate Housewives is still on air. It sucks also so I guess my wish is still very far from reality.