Today was an odd day in many aspects. First of all, I realized once more that each and every resident working with me was a lazybum. Then I spent a lot of time with a few patients talking about their problems and giving them solid medical advice. Besides, I had strong doubts about my own integrity as a morally correct doctor; one of the patients who I was talking to was a sort of attractive man in his 40s. Anyway, Orthopedic surgeons are not supposed to be the talking-kind among doctors. Therefore, I was rather unusually pleased at what I had achieved.
Then came a whole afternoon and evening which I could spend the way I wanted. Of course, there was this cricket match on TV that I longed to watch. I had plans to sleep, to iron clothes, to read some books, to write songs and to study. To be honest, I know that I tend to overdo my planning always and always end up not doing the stuff that I had planned.
But today was different. I didn't even do a single thing that I had planned. Well, I managed to make some music for one of my upcoming metal songs! But that's about it. All throughout afternoon and night, I spent jamming and talking and arguing with my friend S. I took the guitar gear downstairs and tried to watch the match while jamming. Therefore I lost out on the first half of the match.
During the second half of the match, we were jamming with the drums upstairs. Then, even later into the evening we ended up arguing about an apparently simple topic - How to classify a song to categories such as Pop, Rock, Ballad, Alternative etc.
It actually started out when we were trying to jam one my own songs. My friend S. said that it was like a poppisy, ballad kind of a song. Something like Michael Learns to Rock or Backstreet Boys. Of course, I firmly believe, still, that it is much better than that. I believed that it was more like a Alternative, melodic rock kind of a song.
Now, I classify my songs based on the melody, chord progressions and the rhythm/timing used in the song. But my friend said he classifies the songs by the gut feel. He said that an grunge song by a band sung by a different singer with acoustic instruments can be re-classified as a ballad. Well, actually what he said was this; Change 'band' from the last line with 'Peal Jam', 'song' to '"Alive"' and 'different singer' to 'Christina Auguilera'.
I said that the PJ classic 'Alive' wouldn't change it's genre even if it was sung my Christina Aguilera with Piano on the accompaniment! I still believe that it is true.
My friend actually was quite pissed by my tenacity in arguing. He was quite visibly tired and would need a couple of Intravenous infusions comprising of Amino Acids and Lipids to get back in shape to face another day.
But the question of the day is - Can a song's genre change if you change the instruments and singer while still keeping all the melody and arrangements?
2 comments:
I don't think the genre changes although perhaps the dynamics of the song might change a little.
I actually disagree with you pretty strongly. For example, Tori Amos covering "Smells Like Teen Spirit" - it became a piano ballad... it was no longer a grunge song. "Comfortably Numb" becomes a disco song when covered by Scissor Sisters.
In college, a friend of mine had an album of Metallica songs performed by a string quartet. Believe me, they sounded nothing like metal songs, even though they were obviously the same songs as the original Metallica recording.
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