Just Beat It

There are a lot of songs in my repertoire, but one of my all time favorite songs has to be “Beat it” by Michael Jackson. In this topic I will compare and contrast the King of Pop’s original masterpiece to the punk rock band Fall Out Boy’s cover of the song. The lyrics stay consistent in Fall Out Boy’s arrangement of the tune which is pretty standard and common among covers. The melody is also the same as the original with some added harmonies as well which can add a nice effect to the song. One of the biggest differences between the songs is the style that comes across when you listen to it. In Michael Jackson’s version, its got a pop-rock feel to it; however, even though the same instruments are used in both songs, the sound quality of the guitars are different providing that difference in style. Fall Out Boy’s guitars are much more modern sounding than the Eddie Van Halen counter part. The drum set in the Fall Out Boy version also gives a little bit more intensity to the song. A lot of cymbal crashes can add a hefty amount of intensity. The rhythm of the drums also provide the drive of the tempo in both versions of the song. The drums in the Michael Jackson version have a different timbre than the drums in the punk version causing a completely different type of “feel” to the song. In the Michael Jackson version, I feel like dancing or singing along. In Fall Out Boy’s version I feel like I need to be jumping around or acting super rowdy. What creates the largest difference between the songs is the vocals. Depending on whose singing a song can change the entire mood of a song. Michael Jackson is arguably one of the greatest singers and/or musicians of our time. Covering one of his songs is taking a giant leap of faith, so if you’re going to cover one, you’d better have a damn good singer. If you don’t have a good singer, you could potentially ruin the song totally and completely. Although Fall Out Boy is not a group I regularly listen to in any sense, I have to commend them for their courage to cover “Beat it” and in my opinion they did a fairly good job. I believe that taking the speed of the song up a few clicks provided a more up beat feel which I enjoyed hearing. After listening to the Fall Out Boy version I tried my best to look at it subjectively rather than objectively; however, with Michael Jackson being high on the list of my creative influences, my choice in song would have to go to his version. He is just such a musical genius that I feel like putting Fall Out Boy over Michael Jackson is not allowed under any circumstances. I will admit though that I do like the Fall Out Boy Version a lot; however, I don’t like the singers voice, which was the deciding factor for me.