Simply Red, Victoria Beckham, Blue, The Idols , Westlife all releasing covers.

Please,please please give new music a chance and ban them all.

How refreshing it would be if all the charts every week were brand new tunes.

Surely these aforementioned talented artists among others can do their own stuff, surely?

Then again.............

Ooops meant to do an edit!

Posters all reinventing existing threads.

Please, please please give new threads a chance and ban them all.

How refreshing it would be if all the boards every day were brand new subjects.

Surely these posters among others can do their own stuff, surely?

Then again.............

Ah the resident smart arse. If you have nothing to say............

Whats Victoria Beckham doing a cover of then?

'Don't disturb this groove'. Not a bad cover and in a way gives a largely ignored track first time round some recognition, but it's still a cover!!

Stop buying the crap and they'll have to stop selling it

I see nothing wrong with covers if it brings a good song to the attention of a new generation !

I remember a while ago, the chart powers that be (whoever decides such things) bringing in rules about how long tracks could be on a single, and how many tracks could be on a single, else the single got banned from the charts (I suspect mainly to boost sales of pop, and hit sales of dance records, although it was sold as being to bring down the cost of singles - sure worked, didnt it ).

Its propably been suggested before, but it would be a nice if there were similar rules put in place on the overuse of covers.

My idea would be something like:

Only one in, say, 5 to 10 of any artists single releases can be a cover, else said infinging single gets banned from the charts (and perhaps they should have to release 5 singles before a cover is allowed - although charity records should be exculded).

Only two covers should be allowed per album, else the album gets banned from the album charts.

This would be a good compromise I think, instead of banning covers completely, and I'm sure this would boost new music, and give a boost to songwriters. Of course it wouldn' cure all ills, such as soundalikes (the girls aloud wonderwall clone springs to mind).

I guess it would have a fat chance of happening, to much pressure exerted to stop much an idea. Covers are such easy money, in a (relatively) struggling industry.

P.S. Big Brovas are at it again too (although I thought their first cover was good)

Can I ask a sincere and honest question, when did the covers ever finish?!

The owners of the original songs rights should starting blocking derivative cover versions. In most cases the cover is a direct port of the original negating the need for one at all.

The copyright owner of the song has to give persmission for the song to be covered. It's just that most artists sign over their copyright as part of the record contract, and lose all rights. And the ones that don't probably just see the £s they can make from their % take from the cover.

What about people who change the words like Billy Mack? LOL

Just an idea ...

Remember back when they split off compilation albums from polluting the album charts, hows about they rule that all covers only qualify for the "covers" chart?

Since the majority of covers are by past-their-primers or tweenager-fodder that should shake the industry up a bit.

We'd all know which chart had respect due.


G

Just as a point of intrest cover versions have been around as long as the charts have been around, in fact it wasn't unusual in the early days to have 2 or 3 versions of the same song in the charts at the same time

A man who knows what he's talking about!

Where would classical music be if the likes of Mortzart, Beethoven etc etc wasnt copied over the ions of time?

Screaming "cover" "cover" is just a simple way of insulting the artists who are doing them!

Victoria Beckham hasn't covered the song. She's used the melody - but the music is far removed - and taken a line out of the original, hardly a cover!

The important point to remember is that, with the exception of Simply Red, all the people you mentioned have never had any real songwriting talent whatsoever. So they are bound to rely on other people's songs.

Record company executives and shows like Pop Idol don't care about finding songwriters, so what do you expect?

I don't mind covers if they are not simply a (bad) rehash of the original or simply a way make some easy money (take a bow Simon Cowell!)

Step On by the Happy Mondays, Torn by Natalie Imbrugia and Hey, Mr Tamborine by the Byrds were all covers but also brilliant records.