Blog Assignment 3A

            The song I have chosen is “Careless Whisper” originally by Wham in 1984 and covered by Seether in 2009. “Careless Whisper” is kind of a moody song about regret, the singer regrets betraying the trust of the person who he’s singing about. As a result the music is both dark and soulful. Wham’s version of the song has a stereotypical 80’s pop sound and I suppose you could say Seether’s cover has a stereotypical grunge metal sound. The two versions use almost the exact same lyrics and rhythms despite having vastly different intensities and instrumental organization. Despite their completely different styles, both versions are great songs.

            Wham’s version of “Careless Whisper” has an obviously 80’s pop sound through the use of background synths and jazzy vocals and saxophone. In fact, the saxophone intro is similar to something you’d hear in an elevator or while on hold with customer service. The lyrics are smooth and soulful reflecting the 80’s pop sound. There is emotion in the singers voice but not to the point where it’s excessive. The musical quality also screams 80’s with it’s catchy rhythm, moderate intensity, fairly slow speed, and use of synths in the organiztion. Also you can tell the tracks age simply by the recording quality of it. It’s pretty clean for the most part but it doesn’t have that freshness quality that modern recordings have.

            Seether’s cover of “Careless Whisper” is at a completely different end of the spectrum. Apart from the melody and actual words of the lyrics it’s almost completely different than Wham’s version. Seether’s version has raspy, sometimes screamed or yelled lyrics, which is direct contrast to Wham’s smooth lyric style. Also, I tend to feel more emotion coming from the singer in Seether’s cover because of the more impassioned lyrics. Also, the musical quality of Seether’s cover is radically different from Wham’s. Seether delivered a very high intensity and used a much different organization, favoring guitars and bass over saxophones and synths. However, the rhythm and speed remained virtually unchanged.

            In terms of which version I like better the choice is easy, Seether’s cover. I know there are a lot of people out there who say the original versions of songs are always better but I have to disagree. Wham’s version is great in it’s own right, it pulled of the 80’s pop sound very well. However I appreciate the hard rock/ nu metal style of Seether more. That’s not to say I don’t like 80’s music, I was raised on 80’s rock, I just feel more of an emotional connection to the modern version. The loud raspy vocals evoke more of a reaction from me than smooth jazzy vocals and I prefer the sound of a screaming electric guitar to a saxophone any day. That said, Wham’s version was very successful, it reached the number one spot in 25 different countries and was number one I the US for three weeks, far outdoing Seether’s cover which peaked at sixty-third on US Billboard’s Hot 100.