Disney Songs vs Pop Covers

I wasn't sure where to post this, but I wanted to get this off of my chest and see what other people thought. Everyone has a right to their opinions on the matter, and I find that this does get some constant arguments when I hear people talk about it.

I thought more about the subject after the new movie Frozen came out (no spoilers for the movie plot or anything, just the song I will be taking about). There is this beautiful song in the movie called Let it Go. The message of the song is gorgeous, and it is easily my favorite in the movie.

In the movie, the song is sung by Idina Menzel, and it brought tears to my eyes by how much emotion was in her performance. I like the way the instrumental of the music is, and there is something about her voice that just grabbed me (granted Idina Menzel did this in Wicked for me too). The beginning was a bit nasally for my taste, but I still liked it.

In the credits, they played a covered version of this song sung by Demi Lovato. I personally feel this version is... okay. It isn't in any way bad, in fact Demi sounds fantastic, but it doesn't have the emotion in her voice that I liked. The instrumental I didn't really love either, it tried to make it more upbeat and good for radio, even though the original pace was fine.

Now I'm not here to rip on this song, I am here to talk about pop covers in general, and this wasn't the best example, it was the one on my mind. So I will use another song as my example.

I take you back to Aladdin, with "everyone's favorite song" A Whole New World. Now, I honestly wasn't entirely fond of the movie Aladdin, but I really loved this song. It was just an overall fun song. I loved the singing voices, Aladdin's voice bugged me sometimes but I loved the overall sound of it. I never got emotional over it, but it was a pretty song.

Now, Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson's cover of it... I honestly hate. I think it is droned on too long, the voices are regular pop voices, and it bored me. I felt like this version was done just to cash in on the fact that people's favorite pop singers were singing a popular song.

So... overall. What do you guys think of the Disney vs Pop Cover debate? I guess my answer is a general "I don't really love the pop covers, but they are okay."

 

I don't really care so much. I guess most of them are pretty terrible but there are a few that tug at my heart strings. Not so much for the same reasons the originals do, but they're still kind of charming or 'decent' in their own right imo.

Second Star to the Right

A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes

Once Upon a Dream

I think a lot of people compare Disney's pop covers to the originals and it's like aaah they're covers of course they aren't going to be like the original ones they're not meant to be a perfect rendition of the original song, they're like ... tributes to them. I don't think there's anything wrong with that.

I also really like this Japanese pop version of Beauty and the Beast.

I think as long as you listen to them for what they are and don't try to hold them to the brilliance of the originals they're okay. In any case, they're avoidable and I don't really care that much.​

 

To me, I do not really have a preference between the two, but the original ones gave me nostalgia most of the time....

 

Disney just released a cover album in France, which is the first I ever heard of. This thread reminded me to give it a go on youtube. Turns out it' s not that bad, I actually like a lot of them.

The thing is, France doesn' t really do pop songs, we mostly sing variety. That' s why we have such trouble exporting our songs. Variety is a better match than pop music when it comes to Disney songs if you ask me.

Here' s a few of them :

L' histoire de la vie (Lion King)
Tout le monde veut devenir un cat (Aristocats)
Etre un homme comme vous (Jungle Book)
Je suis ton meilleur ami (Aladin)

The only song in the album that isn' t a cover is the one from Frozen, it' s just the French theatrical version. If you feel like comparing :

Libérée délivrée[DOUBLEPOST=1386589130][/DOUBLEPOST]I just googled variety to make sure and came up empty handed, apparently the English term for "variété" is "middle of the road" and it' s mostly used as a pejorative term.

 

I believe that the thing is that the majority the big songs that you remember from Disney are basically musicals. Watching Frozen, I couldn't help but think that they really wanted it to be a stage musical (maybe due to the fact that they have Avenue Q writers and musically trained singers in their cast). Many of the songs deal with deep emotion, and it's hard to capture that same emotion when you turn it into "pop" or just singing it because it sounds pretty.

Taking a non-Disney and pop detour, I absolutely love Les Miserables, but hearing "I Dreamed a Dream" can sometimes be a trying task for me. Yes, it sounds pretty when you sing it pretty, but that's not the point of the song. Fantine has hit rock bottom, she's singing a song about basically giving up on life, and people love to sing pretty and belt it out. I feel that it loses a lot of its meaning doing that. However, Anne Hathaway really captured that about Fantine. She didn't go for pretty; she went for honest.

So, when it comes to Let it Go, I absolutely adore Idina Menzel singing it, she captures what Elsa is going through. Demi Lavato's version isn't terrible, but I don't necessarily like it. I feel that she doesn't capture the kind of hurt and hope that the song carries. Take it out of the context and just look at it as a regular pop song, it's very mediocre due to the fact that I don't feel the impact that the lyrics seem to carry. Sure, she can hit pitch, but not much else.

As for favorite covers, I really like Go the Distance performed by Norm Lewis (Javert in the Les Mis 25th anniversary). Yeah, he's not necessarily pop, but he is big when it comes to theater.

link here

 

I usually prefer the disney versions of them. I like the sound of them more generally, but I suppose part of it is because I grew up with Disney, and the songs from those earlier disney movies will always hold a special place in my heart. It's not just the older ones though, I mean I listened to both of the versions spoken of in the OP, and I believe the disney variant really is better.

 

Originals are usually better because well... they're originals. The song is meant to be more emotional and better sounding especially because Disney movie-singers are chosen if they have a slight Broadway musical sound to them. Pop covers just try to appeal to the masses, therefore, they're more generic and regulated. There's apparently some unwritten rule in the American music industry where original soundtracks don't belong on the radio. I've never once heard a song from a soundtrack on the mainstream radio unless the song was made before the movie, or a pop artist was covering it.

Personally, I feel the original Disney movie songs are better because they have the context of the emotions the character's going through at that point in the movie. It's more emotionally appealing. I mean, they call it covers because there's no depth behind them right? No real experience, emotion, story behind copying a song. Not saying covers are bad, but yeahh..