This cover story is a hit

Srishti Millicent

We all have heard the story of Aladdin and the magic lamp that changed his life forever. Something similar happened when Justin Bieber posted his covers of various songs on YouTube and got discovered by a talent manager. He never thought his life would turn around in a night and he will be soon performing with none other than Usher to become the next revolution in the pop music industry. Other artists to win such lotteries include Carly Rae Jepsen, Charlie Puth, Melanie Martinez and Ed Sheeran. All these young artists used YouTube to showcase their talent to the world. Bieber’s fellow Canadian singer Shawn Mendes is another artist who stole the spotlight by covering songs and uploading his videos on Vine, an app where one can upload 10 seconds long video. Although the app has been shut down, the legacy of Shawn Mendes still stays with the lad being recognised for Stitches.

Isn’t it astonishing how covers and mash-ups today are popular enough to compete with original tracks?  Boyce Avenue, an American rock band trio formed by brothers Alejandro Luis Manzano, Daniel Enrique Manzano and Fabian Rafael Manzano, comes to one’s mind. The band has amassed millions of followers and global tours (including an India tour) for covering songs like Stay by Rihanna, When I was your man by Bruno Mars and Demons by Imagine Dragons, to name a few.

Closer home, Vidya Vox is the face of YouTube these days. She kissed fame with her mash-up of Closer by The Chainsmokers, featuring Halsey, and Kabira from the movie Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani. Vidya Iyer, professionally known as Vidya Vox, is Chennai-born and Virginia-raised. She uses this to her advantage, singing in English, Hindi and Malayalam and juxtaposing them so, it leaves behind no trace that the two songs are of different genres or by different artists. One of her most popular mashups include Lean On (originally by Major Lazer) and Jind Mahi, for which she collaborated with musicians Ricky Jatt, Raashi Kulkarni and Roginder “Violinder” Momi. Other popular names on the bandwagon are Sanam Puri, Sanah Moidutty, Shankar Tucker Band, Studio Unplugged, etc.

Now, the trend isn’t really new. Most of us here would recall the early 2000s when a remixed Kaanta Laga by DJ Doll, originally sung by Lata Mangeshkar, came out. It, along with the voluptuous model, was a huge hit. What followed was a deluge of remixes of old Hindi songs by the likes of Bombay Vikings and DJ Aqeel. And how can we forget Pardesiya featuring Rakhi Sawant? ‘Cover music culture’ had arrived in India in back then. However, it is social media that has made today’s artists stars overnight.

Riding high on hit tunes and absolute recall value, covers are surefire attention catchers. Purists may fume, but melomaniacs only want good music. Old or new, who cares. 

Chartbusters

• Hardy Sandhu’s Punjabi song Soch was reprised for Airlift
• Ae zindagi gale laga le covered by Arijit Singh in Dear Zindagi. The original song from movie Sadma was sung by Suresh Wadekar
• J-Star’s Na na na has been remixed and featured in the movie Raabta as Main tera boyfriend, tu meri girlfriend
• Maahi ve from Wajah Tum Ho movie is the cover of Maahi ve song from Kaante, sung by Richa Sharma
• Kala Chashma from Bar Bar Dekho is the cover of the original track Kala Chashma sung by Amar Arshi ft. Dr. Zeus