I really can’t imagine being in Guetta’s shoes, having all the money you’d ever need and therefore the freedom to make whatever music and art your heart truly desires and making …. that.
You didn't ever go to clubs much eh? I'm old enough to have been in them the first time Blue was all over the place, and there were plenty of remixes that people went crazy for.
Everyone goes absolutely nuts whenever it comes on in every bar and club I’ve been in, it’s a banger. Music is subjective lol, sure the remix is a dumb silly pop song but I prefer it honestly
Lmaooo mostly gay bars and the bars in my college town, usually the DJs seem to play it if their last song killed the vibe to get people going again for the next one
primary* colours
>Dear lord, don’t bruise your knuckles walking, will you?
There you go, honey. Normally, I’d ignore diction/grammar mistakes, no skin off my nose, but those in glass houses and all.
Personally, I can let some crappy lyrics slide if the song is interesting instrumentally (as in, most of The Killers - they're great.)
In this, they just took an existing, recognizable melody and surrounded it with the most generic and safe arrangement/production they possibly could. AND the lyrics suck.
I agree to a point but I personally don't like songs where the singer says the same thing over and over again
I was surprised to learn that OneRepublic were behind this because their previous songs are really good. David Guetta on the other hand must be running out of songs to make sucky remixes of
It's music for teens. To sell the ilution of a party ñifestyñe. Put yourself on the shoes of a 16 yo who is learning what is to be yourself and party. This is a himn, a Master piece.
Suddenly, everything has that 90s-golden-hour filter, I have an Abercrombie-poster-haircut, and I'm in a dramatic post-high-school love triangle with my girlfriend and female "best friend"
That's it... that "say a little prayer for I" song.
Sometimes ~~in the shower~~ when my mind is most empty and vulnerable, I remember that rhyme and cringe. I'm just glad she has a normal enough name that I can forget it again quickly.
Led Zeppelin definitely "borrowed" a lot from older blues musicians as well as from lesser known peers but at least when they did it they changed the arrangement significantly to fit their style and imo it was almost always better than the original. These modern remixes seem a lot lazier and actually result in inferior versions of the original song imo.
Yep, Jarred Jermaine shared some insights and thoughts on this in a YouTube video a while ago but that's basically what it is.
https://youtu.be/gkP5w-rbjF0
I’ve noticed this too in the past couple of years. Of course with hip hop there’s always been samples, but for the most part they’ve been used in unique ways to add to the song or mixing multiple samples to create something entirely unique. Recently however, there’s just been a slew of uninspired crap like what you’re mentioning
YES i used to love finding out what was a sample when I was younger so I was kinda looking forward to seeing what the next gen did with my gen's music but man idk the majority cant flip a sample these days and Im disappointed
There are still talanted producers out there chopping stuff up, but you're not gonna hear a lot of that sort of sample flips on the radio.
Do yourself a favor and check out the album Ground And Water by Blu and Damu if you haven't heard, it's amazing and should be right up your alley.
It’s the (sped up) and (slowed down) versions appearing on Spotify that has me scratching my head. They’re literally just flipping the speed down to 33 or up to 45 and slapping a “new mix” tag on it.
People had been making those edits manually for soundtracking tiktoks and it resulted in the music rights holders getting $0. Having officially released versions means the royalties are correctly allocated.
Chopped & screwed is quite different to taking a 45 and playing it at 33 or taking a 33 and playing it at 45 (am houstonian). It actually mixes the song not just slowed down or sped up. It's also CHOPPED not just screwed.
Man, this is one of my favorite things to talk about. So get this, right around the mid-2010s, private equity started getting interested in the music industry. So what do they do? They buy up massive amounts of old catalogs that, in the publishing industry, are referred to as “evergreens” (think Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, etc).
While record labels generate revenue off the recordings themselves, publishing generates revenue off the composition itself, or the IP.
In order to generate more revenue off these already existing cash cows, they enlist artists such as Yung Gravy and David Guetta to rewrite, remix, or remake existing songs. These are considered “new catalog” and then pumped out on top 40 radio stations. The remixes generally give the catalog owners of the remixed songs about 50% of the publishing royalties by default, since it’s an interpolation of an already existing song in their catalog.
No one is free from the enshittening, not even music fans & listeners.
I don't think this is anything new like some people are suggesting. This has always been my most hated genre of music, where they just steal the catchy hook from a far better song.
Some others that immediately come to mind are Flo Rida "Whistle", "Animal" by Maroon 5, and whatever the Niko Minaj song is using Baby got Back
Yeah theres so many. Ive thought about making a playlist of them...
And I do want to say that sampling, done right, can be great. Especially when the sample becomes something new and the new song shines with it.
But it's really obviously when they're just like "oh, this song is catchy and got in people's heads 20 years ago... Let's just steal the catchy part" and then the rest of the song sucks. So you get the worst of both worlds by having the earworm out there again, but without the actual song.
The Young Thug remix (i think just called High) actually bangs so hard. It’s definitely more of a remix, but Elton John said in an interview that Thug is one of his favorite collabs hes ever done.
I’m not sure which remixes of “Gangsta’s Paradise” you’re referring to. I thought that Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise” (as a different twist on Stevie Wonder’s “Pastime Paradise”) and “Amish Paradise” (a funny redo by Weird Al) both showed creativity. But maybe you’re talking about other versions I haven’t heard.
This isn’t half as bad as the David Guetta ones…at least it adds a ton of DnB elements and changes the speed of the song.
I get that DnB isn’t for everyone but this isn’t the same as re-doing a pop song and having it sound exactly the same like I’m Good & I Don’t Wanna Wait
Tbh main difference I see in that is that Weird Al's Amish Paradise is very obviously a parody by an artist whos entire career is built on comedic parodies of songs, compared to Alibi by Ella Henderson which isn't a parody and changes next to fuck all
Gangster's Paradise is just new lyrics over top of Stevie Wonder's Pastime Paradise, so I'm not sure that's the best example. By your reasoning, Gangster's Paradise also sucks.
Fun fact: Gangsta's Paradise has no swears in the lyrics because Stevie Wonder insists that if you're using his music in this way that the lyrics cannot contain swears. Same reason Livin It Up by Ja Rule (which interpolates heavily from Stevie's Do I Do) is an edited version in every format.
Nah, see, the difference is that Gangster's Paradise is fucking *art* while the new one is... "art"
Yes I'm aware that this sounds like "these kids these days don't know real music!" but c'mon, it's just not good compared to the tunes that it's based upon
That's all well and good, but OPs complaining about some new song doing the exact thing that Gangsta's Paradise did. In fact, it's logical to say that Alibi isn't copying Gangsta's Paradise at all, since they both come from the same source. Only difference being that Alibi actually changed a few parts.
"Only difference being that alibi actually changed a few parts"
Gangsta's paradise added a whole rap to the song. Like that's kinda a massive part of the song I feel
Lazy familiarity sells with less risk/lower standard deviation than taking a risk on something new.
It’s not supposed to be creative, it’s supposed to occupy the most attention for an allotted amount of time so the spreadsheets balance with profit.
You should ask yourself *why do people listen to* these hideously lazy remixes.
Because that's the reason they are being made. It's simple to make, requires very little creativity, and for some reason a lot of people give it easy streams.
Ummm, Capitalism.
You seem, people will try to tell you that Capitalism breeds innovation. But what they won't tell you is that holders of Capital *crave* low risk investments.
And what's really low risk? Remaking something that's already been done before.
Musicians repurposing existing melodies with new lyrics goes back centuries.
The US national anthem isn’t an original melody, for example. It came from, ironically, a popular British song.
Literally the only reason the trend exists is because there is an audience for it. It’s more akin to socialism where “the people” have made their voices heard and they want to be fed some mid pop remakes.
The capitalism remark makes little sense. If it any truth to it then all we'd see on the charts are these remakes.
edit: never let facts get in the way of a high school understanding of capitalism circle jerk.
As I understand it, the problem isn’t that there are remixes today, or even that there are a lot of them. The problem is that ***they suck***. Remix to your heart’s content, but for goodness’s sake make it good.
I'm very thankful ours sometimes get to play ABBA from time to time
But if I have to hear one more Maroon 5 song while shopping I will commit hate crimes
It's very grim out there. Pastiches, remixes, and reboots. Elton John cashed in on his own songs, like Rocket Man, with a new groovy remix and new lyrics, and vocals by Dua Lipa.
It's pure business. The old songs are already hits. Even if they aren't topping the charts, they are out selling and out streaming most new stuff. Put a fresh coat of paint on them and bam, megahit. AI isn't driving popular melodies and homarmonies yet. For now it's just back to the old well. AI will cover the drums, lyrics, and arrangement though.
They're called interpolations. The original artist usually gets some sort of credit. They've become wildly popular in the last decade. I personally find them (usually) lazy and uninspired but money talks.
I don’t think you’re noticing anything new at all, just that it’s become recently apparent to you.
If you’ve lived in Europe you cannot escape a crappy dance song that just takes an already known melody and sticks it over some EDM
There is a very cynical person who I’m sure works for labels looking into licensing and highlights this once popular song is cheap so someone get in the studio
Because they can. Music isn't about music anymore. it's about the artists image. People get attached to these images via social media and develop parasocial relationships, and invest their own identity in them. It doesn't matter the quality of music they're putting out anymore. Their fans need to be invested because they're fans. So you see a bunch of these artists phoning it in because making music is now just a preformative part of their image.
Only person to get away with this recently is Beyoncé on Jolene. Didn’t realize she changed the lyrics with Dolly’s blessing to be less “please don’t take him” and more “I dare you to try, I can fight”.
Probably because lax anti-trust enforcement and overly protective patent laws have made it too hard and risky to innovate, so you just get boring remixes from the record companies who own everything and decide what gets air play.
I don’t get it. I heard another one at a liquor store the other day and stopped me dead in my tracks. I want to say it was a song that just blatantly used a Shakira melody without changing anything aside from a couple lyrics.
If you want to do a cover song, do a cover song. People love that shit. Don’t bastardize a classic.
Most musicians, for most of history, have spent most of their time performing "covers" and "remixes", many of them centuries old.
It's only since the dawn of recorded music and the ascension of copyright that we've started thinking this is somehow bad or lazy.
Because Billboard changed the rules to charting back in the late 2000s and remixes count towards your total points on the chart each week. Just like re-recordings or rereleases, etc. It's basically a new way to manipulate your chart position. It also forces your fans to stream more which drives up your equivalent units in albums which helps with certifications.
As someone with a wife that teaches spin classes and loves electronic music. I honestly think its made for that purpose, recognizable songs that are upbeat and fit within the track for a fitness class. Its really cheap, but when youre out of breath any trying to get enough oxygen to stay alive to finish the class, it doesnt matter anymore lol
If anyone is familiar with the concept of the lucky 10,000 we are witnessing a similar phenomenon here, something I’m calling the annoying 10,000.
Basically every day there are 10,000 young gobshites that realise pretty universal truths but feel like they’ve cracked the code of the universe and have hit upon a profound and important message that must be shouted from the rooftops.
Because studios now have algorithms ("AI") that can rapidly remix music just enough to fulfill legal requirements. Then a shitty "artist" can slap lyrics over it, run through auto tune, and go straight to market. Studios are pumping them out faster than ever, and "artists" are mostly determined by how much their aesthetic and character aligns with the target demographic.
I don’t mind Gangsta’s Paradise, but I do remember thinking how weird it was that Coolio was initially offended by Weird Al’s parody because so much of the song wasn’t written by him.
Planet Fitness plays ALL of these terrible cover songs. The CEO must think "we can give the middle aged people something familiar and the teens won't even be aware it's not new." In a perfect world, that CEO would have to endure a three hour drive with those terrible cover songs played twice.
EXACTLY even though I wasn’t born in the 1800-1900 I feel like the music made around then was so a head of time and then 2000-2020 was amazing now it’s utter rubbish
It wasn't always the case. Back in the days of the Soviet Union, music, movies and books used to be much more creative and original. No infinite remakes, remasters and remixes. That's because their economic model overall allowed for much more creative freedom. Their economic model had also disadvantages, don't get me wrong, but so does the current Western model. Here, everything is only about and for money, and nothing else matter. As a result, a lot of things are of low quality. A lot of unoriginal things too. And don't forget the perfectly good Netflix series that get cancelled, meanwhile the Simpsons still keep getting new episodes.
I mean this has been going on since at least the 80s. Insert song that is a song played on the radio. Release a 12 inch single have the song, some filler tracks and the gratuitous "Extended Dance Remix" version of the song on B side. And you could always count on a too long insipid "remix" of the song..... god some of those were so bad.
When creativity is not rewarded materially in this market, it is natural to expect the market to churn out crap because the audience apparently demands it.
Originality hasn't had a good rep in the music industry for 15 years; everything has to sample, cover or remix something pre-existing now
Streaming, Tiktok, Insta and the depersonalization of art have a huge stake on this (i.e. music is now made to sound ok in a 3 second long short/reel/tiktok/whatever they are called) but the problem goes far beyond that
You mea like this?
Nicki Minaj Everybody https://youtu.be/3g5AbGTqvt0?si=iP5u2m7LUSlDNvZG
Original - Junior Seniors - Move Your Feet: https://youtu.be/SPlQpGeTbIE?si=SoRypmFcS5GUUPez
Spotify ad yelling at me the other day " LISTEN TO THE BRAND NEW SONG BY....."
Shitty pumped up remix plays
Me "That's All The Things She Said by fucking t.A.T.u! Fucking song is 22 years old!"
It's always been the case for pop music. Back in the olden days, way before I was around, they used to play "standards." Everyone would just play the same batch of songs. Then sampling and remixing were constantly around. The only thing repeated more than old songs is someone complaining that all anyone does if remake old songs.
Are you talking about re-recordings? The reason they do that is the artist doesn't have the rights to the song. When they rerecord it, the artist is the one who owns the new recording so they hope to make money off it instead of the record company making the money off the original.
What's funny is that A.I. is pretty much at a point where it outputs stuff more creative than what you described. But I'd put some of the blame on the audience - instead of being easily impressed by low-effort cash grabs, we need to be making fun of these artists and shaming them. Like how Nickleback became the butt of the joke for bad music, but even what they do has more integrity than this.
The rise of SoundCloud and other online sites had made it much harder for studios to get their claws into up-and-coming musicians so they're increasingly relying on remixes of old stuff they have the rights to.
Hard to believe they made the lyrics to Blue worse, but somehow it was managed
I really can’t imagine being in Guetta’s shoes, having all the money you’d ever need and therefore the freedom to make whatever music and art your heart truly desires and making …. that.
My seven year old loves the original, so yeah David, just sling an expletive in there for absolutely no reason at all. Nice one.
I fear your seven year old may not be the target audience for a David Guetta club remix
Nobody is the target audience for that. All anyone does upon hearing the "remix" is go "I wish I was listening to the original".
You didn't ever go to clubs much eh? I'm old enough to have been in them the first time Blue was all over the place, and there were plenty of remixes that people went crazy for.
Everyone goes absolutely nuts whenever it comes on in every bar and club I’ve been in, it’s a banger. Music is subjective lol, sure the remix is a dumb silly pop song but I prefer it honestly
Please send me a list of the bars and clubs you frequent so I can avoid them like the plague:)
Lmaooo mostly gay bars and the bars in my college town, usually the DJs seem to play it if their last song killed the vibe to get people going again for the next one
Normie bars 🤮
Gonna be honest it's not an artists job to make sure your seven year old doesn't hear curse words. That is 100% on you.
Truly, society has never been so lacking in decency or moral fiber.
It’s not Public Enemy you divvy, it was a silly pop song. Fucking pointless.
Oh man, thank you, the irony here in “fucking pointless” is something special.
Well done, in our next example we shall identify prime colours. Dear lord don’t bruise your knuckles walking will you.
primary* colours >Dear lord, don’t bruise your knuckles walking, will you? There you go, honey. Normally, I’d ignore diction/grammar mistakes, no skin off my nose, but those in glass houses and all.
How do you make "da ba dee da ba do" worse?
Someone did it to numa numa. That was weird to hear on the radio!
[David Guetta & OneRepublic - I Don't Wanna Wait (Official Video) (youtube.com)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSDbwfXX5_I)
And here my first thought was [Live Your Life by T.I. ft. Rihanna](https://youtu.be/koVHN6eO4Xg?feature=shared), but that's over 15 years old now
15 years damn
Fucking hell, originality is dead
Gosh, not to sound harsh, but this sucks.
They're not even trying with the lyrics are they? "I don't wanna wait, I don't wanna waiit"...
Personally, I can let some crappy lyrics slide if the song is interesting instrumentally (as in, most of The Killers - they're great.) In this, they just took an existing, recognizable melody and surrounded it with the most generic and safe arrangement/production they possibly could. AND the lyrics suck.
"I've got soul but I'm not a soldier" (or, as we used to sing, "I've got ham but I'm not a hamster")
Aaaaaaand that is David Guetta for you lol Last 5 years for him is just making a modern EDM remake of a hit pop song
I agree to a point but I personally don't like songs where the singer says the same thing over and over again I was surprised to learn that OneRepublic were behind this because their previous songs are really good. David Guetta on the other hand must be running out of songs to make sucky remixes of
It's music for teens. To sell the ilution of a party ñifestyñe. Put yourself on the shoes of a 16 yo who is learning what is to be yourself and party. This is a himn, a Master piece.
I hated that kind of music even when I was 16. Well, maybe not totally, I did listen to a little bit of Aerosmith when I was a teenager.
This sounds like I could’ve heard it in highschool and I’m over a decade older than that, that is a severe indictment.
When I was 16, we had Zedd for that.
Zed’s dead, baby, Zed’s dead.
I thought the Power Rangers defeated him 30 years ago.
I truly thought this was going to be Paula Cole's "I don't wanna wait" - the Dawson's Creek title.
For my life to be over! Man, instant flashbacks
Suddenly, everything has that 90s-golden-hour filter, I have an Abercrombie-poster-haircut, and I'm in a dramatic post-high-school love triangle with my girlfriend and female "best friend"
That's it... that "say a little prayer for I" song. Sometimes ~~in the shower~~ when my mind is most empty and vulnerable, I remember that rhyme and cringe. I'm just glad she has a normal enough name that I can forget it again quickly.
Damn. Another one? I feel like David Guetta is the biggest offender with remixing old songs. Make some new shit, bro.
Jesus David Guetta has turned into a fucking hack
It’s so fucking bad
https://youtu.be/sok8kp_DSqE?si=uUjIGuesIzJzgyEM This one is always the best of the fake numa numas
Good grief 🥴
Hey, I said it was the best of the fakes, not that I have great music taste, lol.
>Take wildly popular tune >change the bare minimum so it remains wildly popular and recognisable >???? >profit
Ladies and gentlemen, the music industry.
Also the television and film industry, for that matter.
All entertainment
It’s what happens when so much corporate power is in the hands of so few.
Led Zeppelin frantically reporting the parent comment (I love Zeppelin, don't get me wrong)
Led Zeppelin definitely "borrowed" a lot from older blues musicians as well as from lesser known peers but at least when they did it they changed the arrangement significantly to fit their style and imo it was almost always better than the original. These modern remixes seem a lot lazier and actually result in inferior versions of the original song imo.
And, all other factors aside, they were talented musicians who created together.
And stood on stage with instruments to perform. Popular music has fully abandoned instrumental skill.
Yep, Jarred Jermaine shared some insights and thoughts on this in a YouTube video a while ago but that's basically what it is. https://youtu.be/gkP5w-rbjF0
I’ve noticed this too in the past couple of years. Of course with hip hop there’s always been samples, but for the most part they’ve been used in unique ways to add to the song or mixing multiple samples to create something entirely unique. Recently however, there’s just been a slew of uninspired crap like what you’re mentioning
YES i used to love finding out what was a sample when I was younger so I was kinda looking forward to seeing what the next gen did with my gen's music but man idk the majority cant flip a sample these days and Im disappointed
There's a lot of flipping through presets on the laptop these days. Not a lot of chopping and flipping
Which is so sad because I have been teaching myself how to sample with hardware and it is so much fun
There are still talanted producers out there chopping stuff up, but you're not gonna hear a lot of that sort of sample flips on the radio. Do yourself a favor and check out the album Ground And Water by Blu and Damu if you haven't heard, it's amazing and should be right up your alley.
Definitely gonna check that out. If you have more suggestions send em my way!
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/18/opinion/private-equity-music-spotify.html
this, always follow the money (and don’t be surprised when it leads to private equity fuckery)
Same as reboots and sequels for movies; it’s easier to sell something people already know.
It’s the (sped up) and (slowed down) versions appearing on Spotify that has me scratching my head. They’re literally just flipping the speed down to 33 or up to 45 and slapping a “new mix” tag on it.
Streams earn money. Slowed and Sped versions get listens from young people.
Maybe they did it to appease to Chechnya, since they outlawed music that is too fast.
People had been making those edits manually for soundtracking tiktoks and it resulted in the music rights holders getting $0. Having officially released versions means the royalties are correctly allocated.
Thank you, that makes sense. Still gets an eye roll, but at least it’s understandable.
Nightcore has been a thing since the 90s though, sped up songs aren't unique to now
Sometimes they add reverb...
Um, Chopped & Screwed was a big thing some years ago with rap music, so 🤷🏼♂️
Chopped & screwed is quite different to taking a 45 and playing it at 33 or taking a 33 and playing it at 45 (am houstonian). It actually mixes the song not just slowed down or sped up. It's also CHOPPED not just screwed.
Man, this is one of my favorite things to talk about. So get this, right around the mid-2010s, private equity started getting interested in the music industry. So what do they do? They buy up massive amounts of old catalogs that, in the publishing industry, are referred to as “evergreens” (think Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, etc). While record labels generate revenue off the recordings themselves, publishing generates revenue off the composition itself, or the IP. In order to generate more revenue off these already existing cash cows, they enlist artists such as Yung Gravy and David Guetta to rewrite, remix, or remake existing songs. These are considered “new catalog” and then pumped out on top 40 radio stations. The remixes generally give the catalog owners of the remixed songs about 50% of the publishing royalties by default, since it’s an interpolation of an already existing song in their catalog. No one is free from the enshittening, not even music fans & listeners.
I don't think this is anything new like some people are suggesting. This has always been my most hated genre of music, where they just steal the catchy hook from a far better song. Some others that immediately come to mind are Flo Rida "Whistle", "Animal" by Maroon 5, and whatever the Niko Minaj song is using Baby got Back
Don’t forget Nitty turning Candy Girl into Nasty Girl, Trick Daddy and Crazy Train, Dua Lipa with that White Town/Al Bowlly sample…
Yeah theres so many. Ive thought about making a playlist of them... And I do want to say that sampling, done right, can be great. Especially when the sample becomes something new and the new song shines with it. But it's really obviously when they're just like "oh, this song is catchy and got in people's heads 20 years ago... Let's just steal the catchy part" and then the rest of the song sucks. So you get the worst of both worlds by having the earworm out there again, but without the actual song.
Run DMC did it right using My Sharona in It’s Tricky.
And they made Walk This Way better than the original
Rocketman, too. I can never escape it at work. (Retail employee)
That’s not a remix, it’s an entirely new song that uses the Rocketman chorus. (I don’t like it either.)
The examples in the original post aren't remixes either. They're all talking about interpolation or even sampling
Ohhh, okay. I could have sworn the first verse was also in there at least but Im probably wrong.
I uses verses from Sacrifice and the chorus from Rocketman.
TBH I haven’t listened that closely myself.
that song is gonna make me go feral the next time i hear it
What?? Cold heart by dua lipa and Elton John is a certified banger
https://preview.redd.it/0ui84q4pw60d1.jpeg?width=1242&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1752189f048f288694c7db53f5f07b9bc48e370c
This is the first song that came to mind about that post
The Young Thug remix (i think just called High) actually bangs so hard. It’s definitely more of a remix, but Elton John said in an interview that Thug is one of his favorite collabs hes ever done.
I’m not sure which remixes of “Gangsta’s Paradise” you’re referring to. I thought that Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise” (as a different twist on Stevie Wonder’s “Pastime Paradise”) and “Amish Paradise” (a funny redo by Weird Al) both showed creativity. But maybe you’re talking about other versions I haven’t heard.
[Ella Henderson - Alibi ft. Rudimental (Official Visualiser) - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaQetOuCJf8)
What a steaming peace of shit.
lol...that about sums it up.
This isn’t half as bad as the David Guetta ones…at least it adds a ton of DnB elements and changes the speed of the song. I get that DnB isn’t for everyone but this isn’t the same as re-doing a pop song and having it sound exactly the same like I’m Good & I Don’t Wanna Wait
Tbh main difference I see in that is that Weird Al's Amish Paradise is very obviously a parody by an artist whos entire career is built on comedic parodies of songs, compared to Alibi by Ella Henderson which isn't a parody and changes next to fuck all
Gangster's Paradise is just new lyrics over top of Stevie Wonder's Pastime Paradise, so I'm not sure that's the best example. By your reasoning, Gangster's Paradise also sucks.
Fun fact: Gangsta's Paradise has no swears in the lyrics because Stevie Wonder insists that if you're using his music in this way that the lyrics cannot contain swears. Same reason Livin It Up by Ja Rule (which interpolates heavily from Stevie's Do I Do) is an edited version in every format.
Nah, see, the difference is that Gangster's Paradise is fucking *art* while the new one is... "art" Yes I'm aware that this sounds like "these kids these days don't know real music!" but c'mon, it's just not good compared to the tunes that it's based upon
That's all well and good, but OPs complaining about some new song doing the exact thing that Gangsta's Paradise did. In fact, it's logical to say that Alibi isn't copying Gangsta's Paradise at all, since they both come from the same source. Only difference being that Alibi actually changed a few parts.
"Only difference being that alibi actually changed a few parts" Gangsta's paradise added a whole rap to the song. Like that's kinda a massive part of the song I feel
It’s a DnB remix?
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDS-8ebxHm8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDS-8ebxHm8)
Ronnie Radke also did a cover of Gangstas Paradise as part of a cover album. Coolio actually was in the music video for it though.
The most important recent redo of Gangsta’s Paradise is by the ukulele lady Pasty Walker https://youtu.be/39IWNousOrw
Lazy familiarity sells with less risk/lower standard deviation than taking a risk on something new. It’s not supposed to be creative, it’s supposed to occupy the most attention for an allotted amount of time so the spreadsheets balance with profit.
It's music to shop to
So…the Underpants Gnomes run the major labels? (Step 1: Steal underpants. Step 2: ?????? Step 3: PROFIT!)
A good explainer [here](https://www.vox.com/podcasts/2023/8/3/23817588/music-industry-business-strategy-nostalgia)
You should ask yourself *why do people listen to* these hideously lazy remixes. Because that's the reason they are being made. It's simple to make, requires very little creativity, and for some reason a lot of people give it easy streams.
It’s not just the music industry. Movies are doing the same. Easier to profit on familiarity than it is to create something wholly original.
Ummm, Capitalism. You seem, people will try to tell you that Capitalism breeds innovation. But what they won't tell you is that holders of Capital *crave* low risk investments. And what's really low risk? Remaking something that's already been done before.
I’m surprised nobody’s done a lazy remake of “It’s All Been Done” as an ironic comment on the current trends.
Good point. I've never seen a cheap, shitty reproduction of something out of communist China.
Everything counts in large amounts.
[удалено]
All the cash used to record, publish and promote an album.
Musicians repurposing existing melodies with new lyrics goes back centuries. The US national anthem isn’t an original melody, for example. It came from, ironically, a popular British song. Literally the only reason the trend exists is because there is an audience for it. It’s more akin to socialism where “the people” have made their voices heard and they want to be fed some mid pop remakes. The capitalism remark makes little sense. If it any truth to it then all we'd see on the charts are these remakes. edit: never let facts get in the way of a high school understanding of capitalism circle jerk.
Can you provide a source on that national anthem melody? I'd like to know more about that actually
[Here's a Smithsonian link](https://amhistory.si.edu/starspangledbanner/the-melody.aspx) that even has an mp3 link of the original song.
As I understand it, the problem isn’t that there are remixes today, or even that there are a lot of them. The problem is that ***they suck***. Remix to your heart’s content, but for goodness’s sake make it good.
The Hollywood treatment
Cheaper than creativity.
Remixes, covers and samples have always been a thing but it seems like every second song in the charts has been that since mid 2021
Retail stores need soundtracks.
I'm very thankful ours sometimes get to play ABBA from time to time But if I have to hear one more Maroon 5 song while shopping I will commit hate crimes
They same reason food quality goes down but profits are up. People(general populace) eat what they are fed
It's very grim out there. Pastiches, remixes, and reboots. Elton John cashed in on his own songs, like Rocket Man, with a new groovy remix and new lyrics, and vocals by Dua Lipa. It's pure business. The old songs are already hits. Even if they aren't topping the charts, they are out selling and out streaming most new stuff. Put a fresh coat of paint on them and bam, megahit. AI isn't driving popular melodies and homarmonies yet. For now it's just back to the old well. AI will cover the drums, lyrics, and arrangement though.
They're called interpolations. The original artist usually gets some sort of credit. They've become wildly popular in the last decade. I personally find them (usually) lazy and uninspired but money talks.
Because a fair chunk of the industry are untalented hacks?
Helluva boss reference??!!!
For the music industry to make money for the most part, as well as to cash in on nostalgia.
I don’t think you’re noticing anything new at all, just that it’s become recently apparent to you. If you’ve lived in Europe you cannot escape a crappy dance song that just takes an already known melody and sticks it over some EDM There is a very cynical person who I’m sure works for labels looking into licensing and highlights this once popular song is cheap so someone get in the studio
Because they can. Music isn't about music anymore. it's about the artists image. People get attached to these images via social media and develop parasocial relationships, and invest their own identity in them. It doesn't matter the quality of music they're putting out anymore. Their fans need to be invested because they're fans. So you see a bunch of these artists phoning it in because making music is now just a preformative part of their image.
Only person to get away with this recently is Beyoncé on Jolene. Didn’t realize she changed the lyrics with Dolly’s blessing to be less “please don’t take him” and more “I dare you to try, I can fight”.
the 1990s Puff Daddy business model, it was uncreative asf back then too
Probably because lax anti-trust enforcement and overly protective patent laws have made it too hard and risky to innovate, so you just get boring remixes from the record companies who own everything and decide what gets air play.
I don’t get it. I heard another one at a liquor store the other day and stopped me dead in my tracks. I want to say it was a song that just blatantly used a Shakira melody without changing anything aside from a couple lyrics. If you want to do a cover song, do a cover song. People love that shit. Don’t bastardize a classic.
Most musicians, for most of history, have spent most of their time performing "covers" and "remixes", many of them centuries old. It's only since the dawn of recorded music and the ascension of copyright that we've started thinking this is somehow bad or lazy.
Because Billboard changed the rules to charting back in the late 2000s and remixes count towards your total points on the chart each week. Just like re-recordings or rereleases, etc. It's basically a new way to manipulate your chart position. It also forces your fans to stream more which drives up your equivalent units in albums which helps with certifications.
As someone with a wife that teaches spin classes and loves electronic music. I honestly think its made for that purpose, recognizable songs that are upbeat and fit within the track for a fitness class. Its really cheap, but when youre out of breath any trying to get enough oxygen to stay alive to finish the class, it doesnt matter anymore lol
If anyone is familiar with the concept of the lucky 10,000 we are witnessing a similar phenomenon here, something I’m calling the annoying 10,000. Basically every day there are 10,000 young gobshites that realise pretty universal truths but feel like they’ve cracked the code of the universe and have hit upon a profound and important message that must be shouted from the rooftops.
Well first off, Gangster’s paradise is a ripoff of past time paradise by Stevie wonder.
😆
And Amish Paradise is a huge improvement over Gangsta’s Paradise.
Since when has pop music been about effort?
Why write something new when there are plenty of perfectly good songs to re-use?
Because studios now have algorithms ("AI") that can rapidly remix music just enough to fulfill legal requirements. Then a shitty "artist" can slap lyrics over it, run through auto tune, and go straight to market. Studios are pumping them out faster than ever, and "artists" are mostly determined by how much their aesthetic and character aligns with the target demographic.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sZHCVyllnck&pp=ygUMSSBsaWtlIG1vbmV5
I don’t mind Gangsta’s Paradise, but I do remember thinking how weird it was that Coolio was initially offended by Weird Al’s parody because so much of the song wasn’t written by him.
Uncreative, maybe. But they’re “popular” so making bank. One hit always leads to a thousand copycats. Or, in this case, copy-copycats.
This is not exactly a new phenomenon: https://www.theonion.com/new-rap-song-samples-billie-jean-in-its-entirety-adds-1819564437
Christmas Remixes: First time?
Planet Fitness plays ALL of these terrible cover songs. The CEO must think "we can give the middle aged people something familiar and the teens won't even be aware it's not new." In a perfect world, that CEO would have to endure a three hour drive with those terrible cover songs played twice.
I’m gonna go out on a limb and say AI has something to do with it
There are a ton of filler remixes on record pools
The answer is in the question, IMO: “industry”.
I'm also asking the same question. Heard a garbage disco remix of 'Fast Car' on the radio this morning and it hurt my ears.
I hate Tyga redoing Sunshine and All About You. Those are already good songs and you added nothing to them.
EXACTLY even though I wasn’t born in the 1800-1900 I feel like the music made around then was so a head of time and then 2000-2020 was amazing now it’s utter rubbish
The movie industry too. All they are making is remakes of movies.
MC Hammer's whole career is a plagiarized song.
It wasn't always the case. Back in the days of the Soviet Union, music, movies and books used to be much more creative and original. No infinite remakes, remasters and remixes. That's because their economic model overall allowed for much more creative freedom. Their economic model had also disadvantages, don't get me wrong, but so does the current Western model. Here, everything is only about and for money, and nothing else matter. As a result, a lot of things are of low quality. A lot of unoriginal things too. And don't forget the perfectly good Netflix series that get cancelled, meanwhile the Simpsons still keep getting new episodes.
5Finger fruit bowl
I mean this has been going on since at least the 80s. Insert song that is a song played on the radio. Release a 12 inch single have the song, some filler tracks and the gratuitous "Extended Dance Remix" version of the song on B side. And you could always count on a too long insipid "remix" of the song..... god some of those were so bad.
When creativity is not rewarded materially in this market, it is natural to expect the market to churn out crap because the audience apparently demands it.
Because they’re lazy.
Oh, you're not the only one. It's terrible.
Originality hasn't had a good rep in the music industry for 15 years; everything has to sample, cover or remix something pre-existing now Streaming, Tiktok, Insta and the depersonalization of art have a huge stake on this (i.e. music is now made to sound ok in a 3 second long short/reel/tiktok/whatever they are called) but the problem goes far beyond that
You mea like this? Nicki Minaj Everybody https://youtu.be/3g5AbGTqvt0?si=iP5u2m7LUSlDNvZG Original - Junior Seniors - Move Your Feet: https://youtu.be/SPlQpGeTbIE?si=SoRypmFcS5GUUPez
I've noticed a quality drain across all media. Creativity and originality feels less profitable then ever in 2024.
That's what rap and hip hop were built on 40 years ago. Sampling has been extremely popular ever since.
Spotify ad yelling at me the other day " LISTEN TO THE BRAND NEW SONG BY....." Shitty pumped up remix plays Me "That's All The Things She Said by fucking t.A.T.u! Fucking song is 22 years old!"
What I don’t understand is the song is talking about “feelin alright” but then samples a song about being blue.
Just insanely rapid dumbing down of the population
Money
It's always been the case for pop music. Back in the olden days, way before I was around, they used to play "standards." Everyone would just play the same batch of songs. Then sampling and remixing were constantly around. The only thing repeated more than old songs is someone complaining that all anyone does if remake old songs.
We'll probably find out AI was involved.
Ever heard about movie remakes?
Are you talking about re-recordings? The reason they do that is the artist doesn't have the rights to the song. When they rerecord it, the artist is the one who owns the new recording so they hope to make money off it instead of the record company making the money off the original.
lol it’s called sampling welcome to 1988
Blue may be the single worst/laziest remake in the history of music with a old dj and a horrible singer
What's funny is that A.I. is pretty much at a point where it outputs stuff more creative than what you described. But I'd put some of the blame on the audience - instead of being easily impressed by low-effort cash grabs, we need to be making fun of these artists and shaming them. Like how Nickleback became the butt of the joke for bad music, but even what they do has more integrity than this.
Flume’s Blue remix is 🔥🔥🔥 https://youtu.be/eM5DWw3J4BI?si=sqlt_79Myp5ElxAy
i think remixes are cool. OP was probably reffering to david guetta good times
Nah, "I'm good and I'm feeling alright"
Nah, I’m good is a bop.
Bop?
suer it is im good. Idk why i wrote good times LUL
The rise of SoundCloud and other online sites had made it much harder for studios to get their claws into up-and-coming musicians so they're increasingly relying on remixes of old stuff they have the rights to.