Cover songs have been around for decades. You might feel inclined to like the originals and loathe the cover. Other times the cover just blows the original into obscurity. Covers can range from being an absolute copycat of the original to the song being recreated to fit an artist’s style.

When the cover is better than the original, sometimes people forget the original exists. One of the best examples is Girls Just Want to Have Fun by Cyndi Lauper. This is probably one of those songs that make you think “Cyndi Lauper” right away. Except for the fact that she wasn’t the original performer. That song was originally by Robert Hazard. Hold on. A man is the original artist who made Girls Just Want to Have Fun? If you didn’t know that already, I can’t blame you. Hurt by Nine Inch Nails is another one worth mentioning. When people hear the Johnny Cash version, they don’t even try to compare it to the original. Johnny Cash’s cover of the song reworked the meaning to the point where Trent Reznor liked his cover better than he did originally.

Then there are covers that are clearly made as a joke. Britney Spears’ “Oops!..I did it again” was covered by Finnish melodic death metal band Children of Bodom as a bonus track for their 2005 release “Are You Dead Yet?” This was clearly made as a joke by the band itself but some fans saw this as a betrayal, saying things such as “they’re not metal because they’re covering a pop song” as if it means anything. Making covers that are out of field is a lot more interesting at times than covering something that’s already in your style.

Speaking of covers in their style, sometimes bands will cover something that sounds like something they would’ve made themselves. Epica will sometimes do a live cover of Follow In The Cry by After Forever. This makes sense as Mark Jansen, rhythm guitarist and harsh vocalist of Epica used to be in After Forever before being let go in 2002. Then you have Once Human covering Davidian by Machine Head. Just like how Mark Jansen used to be in After Forever, Once Human guitarist Logan Mader was in Machine Head early in their career. Some people called the cover soulless as they feel like it’s overproduced, from possibly using drum samples to just noticing how clean it is compared to the original. For covers that stay true to the original, I like to look at Trivium’s cover of Metallica’s Master of Puppets. Other than being a half step lower and noticeably faster (reminiscent of Metallica’s live performances), they kept it pretty close to the original, even down to Matt Heafy tapping into his inner James Hetfield. Speaking of Metallica, they’ve done a cover of Queen’s Stone Cold Crazy that’s pretty close to the original, minus James Hetfield not sounding that close to Freddie Mercury. Hetfield would later perform Stone Cold Crazy with Queen along with Black Sabbath guitarist Tomy Iommi during Freddie Mercury’s tribute concert. For covers that try to adapt to another style, Heaven Shall Burn did a cover of Blind Guardian’s “Valhalla.” The original was more of a thrashy power metal song while the cover tried to adapt it into melodic death metal/metalcore.

There will always be covers where people will prefer the original over any cover. People are often critical of Five Finger Death Punch, and their cover of Faith No More’s From Out of Nowhere is no exception. The common complaint is that they made the song unnecessarily heavy, which isn’t wrong. The synths were replaced with guitars which can take away from Faith No More’s distinct sound. Another notable case is Bullet For My Valentine’s cover of Pantera’s Domination. The big complaint people have here are the vocals. The metalcore screams don’t exactly fit the song as they should have. Again, people aren’t wrong. There’s also Cellar Darling’s cover of The Prophet’s Song by Queen. Most people do like this cover but Queen fans feel offended that someone would attempt to cover a song that’s already perfect for them.

You might also see covers on YouTube or any other social media. Some people are pretty supportive of those who do covers. Someone who has been gaining traction is Beast In Black vocalist Yannis Papadopolous. He’s been doing covers for years now, ranging from metal to pop. One of his most notable examples is his cover of Ghost Love Score by Nightwish. This song is usually done by a female singer since that’s what Nightwish always had. For a ma to hit every single one of those notes in the original key and octave is a feat not a lot of male singers can do. Considering the number of times female artists sing songs that were originally done by male artists, this is a nice change. Another artist that has been doing covers lately is Kristin Starkey. She is an operatic vocalist who has been doing metal covers such as Epica’s Essence of Silence and Twilight Force’s Twilight Horizon (which she has performed live with on tour).

Speaking of performing covers of artists they have performed with, Gee Anzalone uploaded a drum cover of DragonForce’s “Through the Fire and Flames,” back in 2011. When then-drummer Dave Mackintosh left the band a few years later, Anzalone joined the band which can be seen as his biggest accomplishment. The biggest success story of being a cover artist to joining the band is Tim Owens. He was in a Judas Priest cover band for a while, even gaining the nickname “The Ripper” which is a reference to a song off Sad Wings of Destiny. When Judas Priest was looking for a singer to replace Rob Halford, drummer Scott Travis directed the band towards Owens and was given the gig, singing with them until Halford’s return in 2003.

People’s standards for covers will always be weird. They either want them to be close to the original, completely different or not touched at all. However, covers are going to stay as long as people love the artist. There’s no bigger sign of respect than having someone do a cover of your song.