Journey & Glee

The original song Don’t Stop Believing was performed by Journey and there have been many covers, but my favorite was the recent one covered by the television series Glee. The biggest difference is the people singing the song. For the original version it was just one man, the lead vocal of Journey. In the Glee version it is mixed between their two lead singers Rachel and Fin. Using the contrast of a girl and a boy really changes the pitch up instead keeping it the same as the original. The most interesting part is the introduction of the songs and how they differ. Glee uses the voices of the club to make the noises for the introduction. Another big difference is within the chorus, where in the original the lead vocal sings. In the cover the entire group of singers in the glee club are singing.  The voices in the background the entire time really made the speed seem quicker with the faster rhythm. The original song uses solely its instruments. I think the way they decided to uses the glee members to sing the background beat really added a new dynamic on the song. I like the cover better, because it is more musical and passionate. The original relies so much on the instruments, which is still good but the Glee version adds so much depth to the song. When all of the members join in to sing the chorus it really makes the song seem bigger. It really adds to the intensity. The intensity is how loud or soft a song seems. I think the cover had a louder sound to it, so the intensity increased. The intensity of the original was softer giving a less passionate feeling to the music. The lyrics all stay the same and the timing was very accurate. The organization is identical to the original they only changed the singing style and the background music. Overall I enjoyed the Glee version, which is the cover. The original is definitely a classic, but Glee put a better twist on it. They added in some new voices and created a duet. The duet added so much more interesting dynamics and really created a new version. Some covers seem to be identical to the original, but Glee did a great job of making it different but keeping the same spirit in the song. Also with the visual used in the television show it adds a lot more to the song. I have not seen a music video for the original, which may cause me to be bias to the Glee version. The visual definitely added depth and intensity. It made it seem louder and more interesting than just listening to the song. But even without the visual part the songs are still easy to compare and contrast. They both have the same lyrics and organization Glee just took another route with singing. It was probably down that route because the songwriters wanted to include everyone in the glee club, instead of the one lead vocal. I think decision sets it apart from other covers and is one of my favorite cover songs ever.