Blog Assignment Week 3

The song that I chose to write about for the purpose of this comparison is “Heartbeats,” originally by The Knife, and covered by Jose Gonzalez.

Jose Gonzalez’ cover of “Heartbeats” by The Knife is a very different song than the original. Both versions of the song have the same exact lyrics but have a very different feel to them. The songs have such different feels to them because virtually everything used to create the song aside from the lyrics is different. Everything from the singer to the tone of voice to the instruments used is drastically different. In the original version the singer is a high-pitched female, while in the cover the singer is a fairly deep voiced male. Not only is the gender of the singer different, but the singers also have a very different style of singing. In the original, the singer Karin Dreijer Andersson has a very shrill voice, while in the cover Jose Gonzalez has a very mellow and calming voice. The original version is also primarily electronic whereas the cover ditches all electronics and is entirely acoustic. The original version of the beat is very upbeat and poppy; almost danceable, which I feel contrasts the actual tone set by the music itself. Because the cover is acoustic and is sung by a very mellow male voice, it gives the song a much more fitting and sad tone than the original. Even though it may not seem like it because of how stripped down the cover is, Jose Gonzalez’ version is also slightly faster. I think it might be sped up because even though he wanted to change the feel of the song to make it his own, he didn’t want it to sound like too much of a ballad which might happen if he kept the tempo the same and stripped away all of the electronics. Between the versions of the song, the melody is kept the same. Jose Gonzalez probably kept the melody the same because it uses some pretty distinct vocal jumps and if he were to change that it would probably give the song a drastically different feel, and likely one that he did not desire.

I think that all of these changes that Jose Gonzalez made to his cover of the song in turn create a song that provides a completely different listening experience. Because the original version is very poppy and danceable, it creates a contrast with the melody that gives it an interesting feel to it. The cover on the other hand ditches the pop and smoothes the sound out creating a different, but arguably better suiting sound for the melody. Despite that though I would have to say that I prefer the original version. While I do really like the cover Jose Gonzalez did, I am a big fan of electronic music so I prefer that sound. I also like the way the pop style of the original clashes a bit with the tone and I think that makes for a more interesting listening experience.