Katy Perry is an extremely popular artist that I must admit (grudgingly) that I listen to from time to time. Her song "Teenage Dream" is not something that I enjoy for its moral standards, but it is ridiculously catchy and has the makings of a fun party song.
However, this acoustic cover done by Boyce Avenue is an entirely different story. All of the catchy parts are gone and replaced by a more calm, soothing style.
Though they are both roughly based on the same things, these two variations are, in reality, two completely different songs. The groove of the cover is completely different, shifting from an up-beat, catchy rhythm to a slow, thoughtful tune. Because of this, the entire purpose of the song seems to have changed. No longer made for a party scene, Boyce Avenue has turned "Teenage Dream" into a meditative love song that has the opposite effect on the listener. The original song is a song for fast dancing, for getting adrenaline racing, and for having a good time.
It uses strong affinity, where most of the stanzas utilize the same techniques and sound to keep the energy high. The cover, however, is performed in a way that inspires one to think about someone for whom they have a strong, sincere love. Also, the climax of the song is in strong contrast to the first two thirds of the song, causing heightened emotions in the listener when the music goes from silence to a strong vocal solo.
The love theme is reinforced by the lyrics because the lead singer actually rewrites about half of them to change the feel of the song to a meaningful love song that is quite tender. The lyrics in the original song are shallow and very sexual, and Katy Perry sounds more interested in having sex than she is in carrying on a meaningful relationship. The cover, however, is the exact opposite. Alejandro expresses his feelings for the subject of the song eloquently and through that shows that he values her as a person whom he loves.
Through the lyrics, both songs are very didactic in the way they convey their meaning. Neither encourages much active listening, because they are both very straight-forward about their subject and their intent toward the subject.
The timbre of the song changes completely because of the change in instrument choice and the different vocal qualities of the two singers. Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream" is much more noisy with higher-pitched vocals. Boyce Avenue's cover is more tonal with lower-pitched vocals.
Between the two, I strongly prefer the cover by Boyce Avenue because I think it is much more meaningful in terms of valuing people as people and not objects of pleasure. I also appreciate that the feeling behind the lyrics is much more apparent because it is coming from a deep love instead of a shallow lust. This dichotomy exemplifies the strong contrast exists between mainstream pop music and
other types of music that are less mainstream. Mainstream pop music usually aims for popularity in the party scene, where it can be popular with a large, diverse audience. It does this with upbeat melodies and driving baselines that take the focus away from the fact that the music itself has very little substance. Other genres, such as folk, acoustic, and indie, tend to do this less because they are aiming for a more niche audience instead of everyone possible. As a result, they have more substance in general, and more thought is put into the composition of the music and the lyrics. I find this more meaningful because when listening to music I usually do so because of what the song means to me. However, this means that songs like Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream" have very limited significance in my life. It is encouraging to me, though, to know that even that song can be repurposed into a song with deep meaning and love.
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