“Music is everybody's possession. It's only publishers who think that people own it.” - John Lennon.
BBC’s Radio 1’s Live Music Lounge located in the United Kingdom is the perfect studio to exemplify these candid words.
In this studio, artists from all around the world, if they’re lucky enough, may receive an invitation to record a live set of both their own musical numbers as well as do covers of others.
Sure, some covers are better than others, as we have all experienced. Sitting inside a restaurant for an hour the other day, I heard six different versions of “Baby it’s Cold Outside” and could barely even tell when it was a new pair singing the cookie-cutter duet.
The covers found in the Live Lounge, however, possess a special quality. Maybe it has to do with the successful artists that are featured in the sessions. But, I feel that it often has less to do with levels of success of the artists and more to do with the idea that Lennon brought up. The Live Lounge allows for the artists- not the publishers- to come in and do whatever they please with music. It doesn’t matter the singer or group, or the style of what their music generally is, BBC allows for their creative genius to be developed in any way they like.
Due to the fact that I, myself, am not really educated in the field of music, all of the factors that go into writing and producing a song seem to go over my head. What with the different elements involving beat, rhythm, lyrics, and tone, sometimes all I can say in the end is, “Well that drum solo was sick.” Honestly, it took me a long time to understand exactly what parts of songs were being played by a bass and not a guitar.
But one thing I do know, that I’m sure holds true for the masses, is what I like, and it’s not necessarily just one thing. I can listen to an N.W.A song, followed by an old My Chemical Romance, then just as easily sing along to one of Justin Bieber's latest singles. The really cool difference between musicians and myself is pretty self-explanatory: they know what they’re doing and I do not. Because of this, they know how to make music, and not only that but often, make music even better. This is exactly what is showcased when artists step foot into the Live Lounge.
If you’ve never heard a uniform alternative group cover a single from a well-respected rapper, then you’re missing out on the true beauty of music. Including a range of artists from Bastille, Miley Cyrus, One Direction, or Ed Sheeran, to The Weeknd and everyone else in between, the Live Lounge’s studio sessions put music into an amazing new perspective. If you miss the actual set, their YouTube account allows for you to check out different styles of songs you are often forced to listen to repeatedly in their original forms (thanks to the “top hits” stations that so many businesses have playing on loop). Really, why would you want to listen to the same exact song again when you could hear how The Arctic Monkeys cover "Hold On We’re Going Home"?
BBC Radio 1’s Live Lounge isn’t just another recording studio for artists to go and sing their single for the millionth time, it’s a place where a pop star can cover a country song if they’d so happen to be interested in that; it’s a place where music really is everybody’s possession, as Lennon once said. It doesn’t matter who is singing what, as long as music is being made.
Check out my newest obsession thanks to BBC as Hozier (famous for “Take Me To Church”), covers Ariana Grande’s "Problem”- and in my personal opinion, kills it.
