Bands rerecording (and occasionally butchering) their own music

[Slime_Punk]

For the life of me, I cannot understand why bands rerecord music*. Being a hobby producer / songwriter myself, I understand the desire to get your album remixed, remastered or whatever needs to be done if the original somehow sucked (usually this isn't even the case for the bands in question) but recording entirely new performances, usually with way too much autotune and occasionally entirely different vocal melodies... I will literally never understand why anybody would ever do this.

What's your take on it? Maybe I'm being too Greg-like about this but I have literally never heard a rerecording that was somehow better than the original... and I'm a huge production snob.

* = Not to be confused with remixing or remastering, which are simply done by producers and engineers to fix problems in the recording and usually require no band-member input whatsoever. I'm talking about the band literally entering the studio and playing the songs over again for... reasons I still don't quite understand

 

[Gerontius]

One reason is technology!

I have here with me the first record ever of Rhapsody in Blue, by George Gershwin. Gershwin plays the piano part and Paul Whiteman's Orch. does the others.

It was recorded again four years later.

The first recording was done with acoustic equipment, in 1924, using only the sound waves from the instruments to cut a wax master. By 1925, the Western Electric Laboratory had developed a new process, in conjunction with Victor Talking Machine Co., called "Orthophonic Recording" in which the music was saved using vacuum tube amplifiers driving a cutting head with an electric signal. The fidelity no longer had the slightly hollow sound from the recording horn, but early electric discs sometimes had a whistling sound near the end of the recording as the wax cooled.

This was serious business. Every phonograph in the country was obsolete overnight, and everyone wanted an Orthophonic record player. I have a number of early pre-1925 machines and they are okay but the ones after 1925 are comparable to a good radio set.

So in 1928 Gershwin did that arrangement again but it went out on an Orthophonic electric process record this time, because they had worked the kinks out of the new process and introduced a new type of phonograph, the Orthophonic Victrola, to play them.

Both takes are excellent and I'm happy to say I have both the 1924 and 1928 renditions.

 

[MildredHubble]

I hate Autotune! Hate, hate, hate, HATE it! I seem to be extremely sensitive to it, so I often notice it when others don't.

I have mixed feelings about, remixes (no pun intended). I like an artist called Andrew Bird and he is forever re jigging songs. Not really in a remix sense. More like he will take a song from an earlier album and completely change the arrangement. I quite like that.

But remixing and artists putting out a "dance" version of a particular song irritates me some times. Like when a really intricate song is reduced down to a couple of lyrics repeated over and over with a thump thump 4 to the floor drum beat and repetitive bass hook. Then everyone thinks that is the real song.

I will never forget the first time I played Tori Amos Professional Widow (Album version) for a school friend and they were shocked at how different it was to the remix in the charts. They'd thought I was in to dance music as a result!

 

[Mr. Stevens]

For the life of me, I cannot understand why bands rerecord music*. Being a hobby producer / songwriter myself, I understand the desire to get your album remixed, remastered or whatever needs to be done if the original somehow sucked (usually this isn't even the case for the bands in question) but recording entirely new performances, usually with way too much autotune and occasionally entirely different vocal melodies... I will literally never understand why anybody would ever do this.

What's your take on it? Maybe I'm being too Greg-like about this but I have literally never heard a rerecording that was somehow better than the original... and I'm a huge production snob.

* = Not to be confused with remixing or remastering, which are simply done by producers and engineers to fix problems in the recording and usually require no band-member input whatsoever. I'm talking about the band literally entering the studio and playing the songs over again for... reasons I still don't quite understand

Which bands have done this with autotune?

I love rerecordings, but I'm thinking of jazz music or people like Zappa, where the work is reinterpreted.

 

[330]

So there are a few reasons why bands or artists do this ,here are a few

1.They personally did not like the original
2.They are having fun
3. Being forced to re release by management or record company
4. To make a new master to make royalties .

I will elaborate on example 4.
When you record a song and release it properly that recording is considered a master recording.
In the past the record companies swindled lots of songwriters and artist out of their own royalties pertaining to the master recording .They did this by making the songwriters sign the rights of the master recording over to the record companies. So the record company will own that recording . Being the owners all rights and money being made off of that Master recording is the record companies.

So an artist or band will re record a new version of a song and they will own the master copy of the new recording, and by doing so will be able to collect more royalties off of their work .

Understanding royalties is a bit complicated. There is multiple different ways we collect royalties off of our music.

Master recording
Songwriting publish percentage
Live performance royalties
Mechanical royalties

 

[Raggamuffin]

This is the reason I never enjoyed live music. Compared to the studio songs I knew and loved, the tempo, sound and vocals during live performances literally made my brain fizz.

Ed

 

[Owliet]

I hate Autotune! Hate, hate, hate, HATE it! I seem to be extremely sensitive to it, so I often notice it when others don't.

I also hate auto tune. It is very sensitive to listen to and feels like running fingers on the chalkboard to me. It’s also obvious when the person cannot sing and uses auto tune.

This is the reason I never enjoyed live music. Compared to the studio songs I knew and loved, the tempo, sound and vocals during live performances literally made my brain fizz.

Ed

I have only been to some concerts live: Tokio Hotel, Bigbang, and BAP. All of them were pretty good but it was very obvious the differences in live compared to studio produced music.

As for remaking old songs. I really like some old bands but when they have done remakes of their music, it is not the same as what they have done originally. I also dont like covers from other artists Of the same song.

 

[Judge]

I occasionally look back to old 60s music tv shows and chuckle at how all the artists lip-synced to a master recording that made them popular. But hearing a great hit was what counted, even when lip-synced.

Mainly because on very rare occasions I'd hear them play the same song for an outdoor audience and I'd always be perplexed as to how lousy they sounded. Though I also realized how some bands could play live much better than others.

But it never changed things for me that those studio-crafted songs were the bomb. A standard so high that if I were one of those musicians, I'd cringe to have to play a hit live, with a lackluster arrangement in comparison.

And worse when they'd rerecord such hits. Yeah. Totally agree with the OP.

Could be even worse though for some. Imagine fans clamoring to hear Kraftwerk sing a capella.

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

My cousin is releasing, an "album" of new music on February 17 0n Spotify I guess if you want to make a living as a musician you need to release something as cd tapes do not exist anymore what consumers want is the information not the media. A lot of band use session players on their live performances Fortunately Eddie is a session drummer in Toronto does not need autotune. Being a very technical drummer. on Top of drumming, he sings concurrently and live. Great voice. award winning Juno

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

I also hate auto tune. It is very sensitive to listen to and feels like running fingers on the chalkboard to me. It’s also obvious when the person cannot sing and uses auto tune.

I have only been to some concerts live: Tokio Hotel, Bigbang, and BAP. All of them were pretty good but it was very obvious the differences in live compared to studio produced music.

As for remaking old songs. I really like some old bands but when they have done remakes of their music, it is not the same as what they have done originally. I also dont like covers from other artists Of the same song.

We started going to a local bar in thev last few months young kids playing covers of rock bands I liked years ago only one sounded any good Anvil as they still had the original members. AC/DC covers, and Led Zeppelin needed work. THE original LED Zeppelin Was so good live as two of its musicians were session. players

 

[Progster]

For me, it very much depends on the recording. Some work, others don't. For example, after their vocalist/songwriter and drummer left the band, Skyclad, a folk metal band, released an album of reworked classic tracks as a more melodic rock/hard rock songs. Some die-hard metal fans might not like it, but I thought it really worked.

For me the most annoying thing is if they get rerecorded with an irritating disco beat going through them, that's a definite no-no for me.

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

For me, it very much depends on the recording. Some work, others don't. For example, after their vocalist/songwriter and drummer left the band, Skyclad, a folk metal band, released an album of reworked classic tracks as a more melodic rock/hard rock songs. Some die-hard metal fans might not like it, but I thought it really worked.

For me the most annoying thing is if they get rerecorded with an irritating disco beat going through them, that's a definite no-no for me.

I loved it when Van Halen did a cover of Pretty Woman, years ago.