Right away, I’ll say that cover artists are a key part of the music experience and shouldn’t just go extinct.

Though, there are good cover artists and bad ones.

I’ve talked about how some big artists started out as cover bands, such as Nickelback.

And it’s not always cover bands that cover other people’s music, it’s also some big names like Alien Ant Farm.

But there are also some cover bands that take an amazing song and either try to mimic it too closely or just straight-up ruin the song.

For example, Alien Ant Farm’s version of Smooth Criminal from 2001.

When I listen to it, I can’t help but compare it to the version by Michael Jackson and there’s a lot of that magic that Jackson’s version has.

Maybe it’s just me but this is not a song that should have been converted to rock.

Another example of bad covers is Pseudo Echo’s version of Funkytown.

It does the same convert to rock that Alien Ant Farm did but on a song that is the definition of 80s pop.

But, there are also good songs that have been covered. Take for example Whitney Houston’s version of I Will Always Love You.

But why is that a good cover compared to the other two mentioned?

For me, it’s because Houston didn’t just try to copy the song into her genre. She changed the song and made it her own.

And that’s what a cover song should be in my opinion. Not someone copying a song but a reimagination bringing something old into something new.