Effect of Popular Music Covers Designed in Different Styles on Acclaim of Preservice Teachers by Murat Devrim Babacan

This academic peer-reviewed article is by Murat Devrim Babacan and focuses on the differences between original songs and their covers. While reading the article, it showcases a lot of interesting points about the appeal of covers.

What? An academic journal article? For a blog about song covers? Say what??

Yep, covers are an excellent topic, and anything can be a topic for an academic article. Try searching for gummy bears or tattoos on Google Scholar, and you’ll see what I mean.

Using junior and senior preservice music teachers as participants, the research examines the idea of cover songs. The study uses a qualitative research method, meaning that the researcher collected data that are more subjective, not just numbers. The participants listened to three original songs with two cover versions each and then filled out a survey afterward.

Within the article, Babacan aims to find out.

1. What is the distribution of music types that the subjects would like to listen to?
2. What criteria do the subjects consider when deciding to like or dislike a song?
3. What is the distribution of the preferences between original and cover versions of songs?
4. What are the reasons for liking the song chosen by the subjects?

Throughout the article, there’s a lot of helpful information in the report, so feel free to read it here. For this post, we will focus on the cover songs and the participant’s opinions.

First Set

Original 1 Billie Jean by Michael Jackson
Cover 1 Billie Jean by The Civil Wars
Cover 2 Billie Jean by Anderson & Roe

Song/Cover	N	%
Michael Jackson	14	28.6%
The Civil Wars	26	53.1%
Anderson & Roe	9	18.4%

Moreover, The Civil Wars cover was preferred over the original and the other cover. Compared to the original, the cover by The Civil Wars was better within the “opinions regarding the sensations and emotions raised in the listener’s mind.” Differing from the others, this cover is more “sentimental and sincere, and appealing to the soul.” Essentially, the cover by the Civil War had more emotional appeal than the other songs.

Second Set

Original 2 All About That Bass by Meghan Trainor
Cover 1 All About That Bass by Avi Kaplan
Cover 2: All About That Bass by Kate Davis

Song/Cover	N	%
Meghan Tailor	17	34.7%
Avi Kaplan	12	24.5%
Kate Davis	20	40.8%

For this song, the cover by Kate Davis was preferred to the original because of the vocals. As described in the survey, this song was “performed by a human voice in its entirety.” Then, the listeners appreciated the lyrics as being impressive and giving the song a very different style. Kate Davis, a vocalist for Postmodern Jukebox, brings a new sound to this song that gives it that extra stylistic edge.

Third Set

Original 3 Değirmenler by Bülent Ortaçgil
Cover 1 Değirmenler by Deniz Sipahi
Cover 2 Değirmenler by Teoman

Song/Cover	N	%
Bulent Ortaçgil	16	32.7%
Deniz Sipahi	17	34.7%
Teoman	16	32.7%

As you can see, Deniz Sipahi’s cover did better than the others because of the instruments and the piece’s arrangement. Furthermore, the guitar was specifically mentioned as it “added a distinct quality to the song.” this cover fared better because of how the music was presented to the audience. All in all, Deniz Sipahi’s cover provided a different sound with the instruments.

In conclusion, it seemed that these specific cover versions are preferred over the originals. Yet, the reasons for this are extremely diverse. They range from an emotional response vocal quality to instrumental and arrangement. Thus, covers can be seen as better than the originals for various reasons. However, this article provides evidence of three songs and two corresponding covers. This doesn’t give a full view of all songs or all covers. I think it does offer an interesting point that cover songs are legitimate as a musical form. It also highlights that everyone has their subjective tastes in music.

Citation

Babacan, M.D. (2016). Effect of Popular Music Covers Designed in Different Styles on Acclaim of Preservice Teachers. Educational Research and Reviews, 11 (8), 812-822.

Do you agree with the responses of the participants? Check out the song links, and let me know what you think.