There are a lot of great songs from some genres of music I like (but are not very widespread) and I thought that it’s a shame that most people are missing out on these great melodies, just because they are in a genre they don’t listen to or like.
It seems to me that many great melodies can be transplanted to other genres (e.g. pop/rock) and sound great to the fans of these genres.
I can’t thing of great examples at the moment, but one example is “nothing compares 2 U” which was totally changed by Sinéad O’Connor and was a hit.
A better example is “Billy Jean” which was changed from a pop song into a rock song by Chris Cornell and sung by David Cook on American Idol. Both the original pop version and the new rock version sound great, in their own ways.
So, would you say that all great melodies are universal (i.e. can be transplanted to new genres and still sound great) or are some melodies irrevocably tied to their genre (and the specific vocal and instrumental quirks of that genre, e.g. country music twang)
It’s not that unusual for pop songs to be based on melodies from classical music. Examples that spring to mind are the songs from Disney’s Sleeping Beauty that use melodies from Tchaikovsky’s ballet, and the 80’s pop song “Midnight Blue” based on a melody from Beethoven’s “Pathetique” piano sonata. Although not all classical music is based on songlike melodies; I’m not sure how you’d get a song out of the famous “di-di-di-dah” motif from Beethoven’s 5th, for example.
It goes the other way too: there are plenty of arrangements of popular songs in classical style for symphony orchestra or string quartet.
What I had in mind was songs from other cultures, like Guantanamera, that could be translated into western pop/rock.
It seems a shame that there are so many beautify melodies in other countries’ national music catalogs, that people in the west are not exposed to in a format/genre that they are more likely to enjoy.
Also, it’s like, why re-invent the wheel by coming up with brand new melodies for western pop/rock songs when you could mine other cultures’/genres’ melodies and adapt them?
I think there are several reasons why this doesn’t happen that often, and maybe one of them is that some melodies just work better in some cultures/genres than in others.
Melodies are like ideas in general, they’re a dime a dozen. They’re also often not the most important thing in a song, and definitely aren’t the only thing that makes a song good to listen to. Sometimes it’s the hooks and motifs that are the most important part, sometimes its the rhythm.
And chances are there are songs in Western rock pop that have inadvertently used variations of melodies written in other cultures. But composers, writers and musicians in general don’t go out ‘looking’ for melodies half the time. In pop the melody is generally driven by the lyrics and the chord progression. It just wouldn’t occur to most writers to even bother using a melody from another song in another culture. I’m sure it happens though!
I’m hearing a lot more Indian influence on songs these days. Taro (by Alt J) for example features what I’d describe a very ‘Indian’ hook between the versus (1:17 is the first instance). But that’s probably not what you’re looking for!
It has been done as flamenco and pop. Rumba catalana as well, I think.
While Miguel Ríos has always been classified as “rock”, he’s also been known to sing a range going from tangos to the Ode to Joy; this last one has been in his required list since 1970 to his recent retirement. Recorded live here; please disregard the video problem at the beginning. His short speech around the 1:42 mark means “this is a song which must represent us as human beings, which has to make us and has made us much more worthy, much better people; against all ideologies, against anything that demeans humanity, I sing this and I ask that you sing with me.”
Waka-waka was based on a Camerunese song (Zangalewa) which was in turn based on traditional rythms; according to the Spanish-language wiki a part of Zangalewa had been used by, among many others, a Dominican group before Shakira’s hit (no equivalent page in English).