Music cover, the effects of it and The attitudes of NEU’s students to Music cover in Vietnam

National Economics University Faculty Of International Education ***************** Project Topic: Music cover, the effects of it and The attitudes of NEU’s students to Music cover in Vietnam Submitted to: MS. Le Thi Thu Mai Student: Ngo Thi Thuy Ha Class: I4P December, 2009 INDEX Abstract……………………………………………………………3 Part I: Introduction…………………………………………..4 Part II: Body……………………………………………………..7 Part III: Conclusion…………………………………………..16 Part IV: Recommendation………………………………..17 Part V: Appendix……………………………………………..18 ABSTRACT This report researches about one of many concepts which a lot of people don’t understand exactly which is called “Music cover”. This paper is expected to give readers a deep understanding of music cover. In order to do that, music cover definition in general and that of NEU’s students are shown. Besides, the author also indicates some problems and makes her own prediction about music cover in the future This research is divided into three main parts: Part I includes 6 ideas which are background information, rationale, scope of the study, research question, methodology and overview of outline. Introduction expresses a general look about music cover. First, “introduction” will show the reason why people need entertainment, especially music, and then emphasis on one of aspects of music: music cover. After that, it is the reason why choosing this topic to research. Secondly, “introduction” mentions scale, main point, etc… of the research. Part II is the main and the most important part of the study. It concentrates on researching more deeply about music cover. It comprises two smaller parts: Literature review and Data analysis and discussion. In Literature review, the report reviews on previous studies and shows what the achieved points and the weakness in each study are. After that, it states personal opinion of reporter about previous studies and the purpose to do this research. Data analysis will summarize what have done and give analysis about three purposes of the research. Part III is the conclusion. In this part, the matter in the study will be summarized again. Besides, perhaps there are limitations or some recommendation for further study. At the end of the paper there are two extra parts: appendices and recommendation. PART I: INTRODUCTION 1. Background information: Today, the more Vietnam develops, the higher the standard of living is. They are cared by the government so they live in better conditions and more stable lives than before. Now it is not enough to “Ăn no mặc ấm” (just enough for living) as Ho Chi minh president desired. As they can earn more money, they begin to care for more and more things in their life such as good accommodations, good meals, beautiful clothes, etc. But it’s only about their material life. How about their mental life? In fact, they concern about their spiritual life more than their material one. Many people think that they worked hard all day so they should take a rest or relax. A question is raised “how to relax in this modern life?” entertainment is necessary for working people but also for others especially young people . Moreover, modern young people are very active and dynamic. They are very adaptable too. Hence, in this changing world, they need more than one means to serve their demand for entertainment. Besides many different entertainments such as game, magazine or movie…, the youth seems to care about music the most. In other words, music becomes an important part in young people’s life. Seeing the need of youngsters- the group of audience has the most difficult standard with music, many kinds of music stream are increased, music cover is a typical example. 2. Rationale: Nowadays, finding covered songs are so easy, they appear in most CDs of most singers. “Music cover” is not a new concept. Most singers choose to cover a song of other musicians or singers to make their home “music market” more plentiful. They have reached high position in music class-list. But in fact, there are some people don’t understand exactly definition of “music cover”. There are different attitudes which are followed, some people think the stream is detrimental to the Vietnamese music, someone admits that they like and support music cover because of its diversity, and the others don’t care at all. So what is an exactly concept of “music cover”? To have a clear concept about this issue, the study was done. It gives some reasons for people’s answers. The paper is finished by researching young audience who are usually the fastest to update new music and are the most objective examiners. With limited exposure to all types of students in other university, NEU students are the perfect entity to take the research. The study illustrates the effects of music cover and NEU students’ behaviors towards the spread of the music cover trend at the moment. In the paper, there are three important points which are mentioned: (1) The real definition of music cover and NEU’s students’ knowledge about the definition (2) The influence of music covers on Vietnamese music; (3) The thoughts of NEU’s students about music cover in Vietnam. 3. Scope of the study: In this paper, it is impossible to mention a large number of audiences. Although depending on each person, he/she has a personal opinion about the issue. For instance, there is someone who agrees with it, or the others think it is completely untruthful. However, as we have just said above, the youth are usually the fastest to update with new stream of music. Therefore, the study is concentrated on researching a part of them – students. Because of limited time, it deals only with NEU’s student’s thoughts. 4. Research question: 1. What’s “music cover” and how do NEU’s students define it? 2. How does music cover influence Vietnamese music? 3. What do NEU’s students think about music cover in Vietnam? 5. Methodology: To research the topic, used both primary data and secondary data: Finding documents in the Internet and magazine Overview previous researches which have the same topic Surveying in 100 students in National Economics University 6. Overview of the outline: 1) What’s real definition of “music cover” and how do NEU’s students define it? - The way NEU students define it. - The real definition of “Music cover”. 2) How does music cover influence Vietnamese music? - Good effects: + On market music of Vietnam. + On audiences. - Bad effects: + On Singers. + On musicians. + On audiences. 3) What do NEU students think about music cover in Vietnam? - They think about quantity of covered songs. - Their attitude of “music cover” trend: + Agree + Disagree + Don’t care * Forecasting the future of Music cover trend. PART II: BODY I. Literature Review: Recently, “music cover” becomes popular in Vietnamese music market. It is not a strange word but it can be a new problem for all people to discuss, even research. Because of it, there were many previous topics which researched about the stream of music cover in Vietnam. Each research has different strong points and weak points. In the first place, we have to take Berne Convention into consideration. Hence, “Under the Convention, copyrights for creative works are automatically in force upon their creation without being asserted or declared. An author need not "register" or "apply for" a copyright in countries adhering to the Convention. As soon as a work is "fixed", that is, written or recorded on some physical medium, its author is automatically entitled to all copyrights in the work and to any derivative works, unless and until the author explicitly disclaims them or until the copyright expires. Foreign authors are given the same rights and privileges to copyrighted material as domestic authors in any country that signed the Convention”. That means, people all around the world pay much attention to music cover. They mainly agree with the regulations in that Convention because it can protect the intellectual property for musicians all over the world. Personally the author agrees with the Convention because it is beneficial for both composer and the singers who cover music of other musicians. Music cover receives some different opinions. For instance, on , the writer didn’t criticize or denigrate the stream, however, he admitted that “... foreign songs have been covered that will have influenced on audiences than Vietnamese song”, he also said “…music cover is simple a stream, it will be no longer to have quietly been weakened in Vietnamese music…” As the researcher understands that the writer is an advocate to music cover. In terms of the development of music in Vietnam, I share the same thoughts with him. Moreover , some opinion exhibit to sympathize with music cover such as there are a title “ Covering foreign music shouldn’t be blamed” on and have also got much regard. II. Major findings: 1. The way NEU student define “music cover” and general definition of it The way NEU students define “Music cover”. Sometimes, we listen to music and suddenly realize that the song you're listening to has a similar melody to a well-known foreign song. You are very surprised and don’t understand the song you're listening to is “music copy” or “music cover”. Even you may not know exactly the definition of both these terms. Although young people today listen to music regularly, they are not very interested in “who composed the song”, or “where the song comes from?” During the survey, some people think that “music cover” is simply the foreign music track and Vietnamese lyrics. Others think it’s the song was written Vietnamese lyrics based on copying foreign music or they believe: these songs were agreed to have Vietnamese lyrics by musicians who write the original songs, and they have registered copyright. And most of people don’t understand much about this concept. Chart 1: the understanding of “Music cover” The real definition of “Music cover”. To explain and make everybody understand clearly about “music cover” and “music copy”, the report researched Bern Convention and found that: “Music cover” appears after the 26th, October 2004, since the Berne Convention into force in Vietnam. Berne convention-the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, is an international agreement governing copyright, which was first accepted in Berne, Switzerland in 1886. “Under the Convention, copyrights for creative works are automatically in force upon their creation without being asserted or declared. An author need not "register" or "apply for" a copyright in countries adhering to the Convention. As soon as a work is "fixed", that is, written or recorded on some physical medium, its author is automatically entitled to all copyrights in the work and to any derivative works, unless and until the author explicitly disclaims them or until the copyright expires. Foreign authors are given the same rights and privileges to copyrighted material as domestic authors in any country that signed the Convention.” (Wikipedia). So, if Vietnamese musicians want to cover a song, they must have agreement by musician who compose the original song, and have registered the copyright, while “music copy” is the term that the songs do not comply with the provisions above. That’s illegal. Some kinds of music are usually chosen to cover. Besides it, in order to understand clearly about knowledge of students of Music cover, the author also asked them about the categories "music covers" that they know, and the answers are: 53% choose pop music; 13% choose rock music; 11% choose hip-hop music; 13% choose rap music and only 10% choose all of these genres. Based on the results, seeing that young people in Vietnam in general and especially NEU’s students in particular often listen to pop music. Furthermore this study find out on the internet, young people today also like listening pop music. The reason why pop music is become popular like that is because of its gentle, easy to listen to, may be appropriate to listen to in all circumstances, feelings. While rock music has strong melodies, so mainly boys or people who have strong personality like listening this genre. So, to satisfy audience's different music hobbies, Vietnam’s musicians and singers, who cover music, often chose pop songs to write Vietnamese lyric. You can easily find these songs on the internet, television or in every CD store. For example: “Proud of you” (Fiona Fung), “Yesterday” (The Beatle), “10 minutes” (Lee Hyori)… As like that, the category of rock, rap, and hip-hop were covered by a lot of Vietnam’s musicians and singers. Such as “Girl friend” (Avril lavigne), “The Accolade of Hip-hop” (Lee Huyn Do)… 2. The effects of Music cover in Vietnamese music. As you can see, music cover is becoming more and more popular, so does it have any effects on Vietnamese’s music market. To make clearly this issue and answer the research question number two: “How does Music cover influence on Vietnamese music? ”. There are two ideas about this. 2.1. Good effects. Chart 2: the good effects of “Music cover” 2.1.1. Enrich Vietnamese music and give people more choices. Music cover influence very well to Vietnamese music. Follow the survey paper, there are 50% say that: Music cover contributed to make music market of Vietnam richer or more abundant. Several years up to now, Music cover suddenly break out as a tendency. Most of musicians and singers cover and sing a lot of songs which have melodies like foreign songs. So this tendency made music source more and more plentiful especial about quantity. Almost singers cover songs which have melodies from foreign countries. They register copyright of one song and then write Vietnamese lyric for this song. Certainly, music market had at least 2songs which have the same melody. For instance: “Take me to your heart & Nu hon biet ly”, “Wild dances & Vu dieu hoang da”…. Completely, covered songs make audiences have more choices and comparisons among original songs and covered songs. In the survey paper, there are 36% think this is one influence of Music. 2.1.2. Impact melodies and lyrics in covered song on audiences. Besides, 11% NEU students think: melodies and lyrics of covered songs so beautiful and meaningful and make they have positive emotion. Sometimes, when they listen to a covered song which about beautiful love, peace or some good things they feel love their life more and more…so they were listened a song with nice melody and “mother tongue” lyric. But the more society develops, the more students hear foreign music especially English music. They want to communicate with music in the world. That’s why NEU students hear covered songs which have Vietnamese lyrics less. Apart from 3 effects mentioned, only 3% NEU students have different opinions. Follow them, Music cover help people who don’t know foreign languages but want to understand meaning of that song can choose to hear covered song. 2.2. Bad effects. Chart 3: The bad sides of “Music cover” 2.2.1. Lessen the creativeness of both singers and musicians Music cover has bad influence to Vietnamese music. The research finds that when music cover appears as a tendency led to the changes in music market of Vietnam. The biggest effect is that it makes most of singers just insist on searching successful original songs from other countries and they only would like to sing covered songs. They are indifferent with Vietnamese songs and make Vietnamese culture forgotten. 37% of surveyed students agree with this idea. Because singers sing covered songs so musicians are lazy to compose. In order to have fast success, they also cover foreign music. They become passive musicians. Maybe nowadays, audiences like listening covered songs but in 5 years, 10 years…perhaps the taste of audience especially the young students may change. If musicians are lazy in composing new songs, they can make music market go down even “die”. There are 35% of students think the same. 2.2.2. Lose the belief of Vietnamese audience on our own music In addition, as covered songs overwhelm Vietnamese music market, viewers and listeners are often confused between “Music copies” and “Music cover”. In fact, a lot of singers “borrow” foreign songs without “permission” of authors and then they said those are their songs. Furthermore a lot of people don’t really understand about Music cover, they just think all songs which were rewritten based on foreign melodies are music copy. For that reason, Music cover was understood as Music copy and there are 25% think so. Only 3% think Music cover influence to Vietnamese music on different aspects. For example, most of songs when were covered don’t have nice lyrics, so they make original songs lose meanings. When audience can understand the lyrics of the original song and they make comparison, they mainly recognize that major of covered songs are not as good as the original ones. Hence, they may look down on the musicians, singers and even the music market in Vietnam. 3. Evaluation and attitude of NEU student about “Music cover”. Nowadays, in Vietnam, the cover music is very popular. And there are many different opinions about that. In the world, the covering music is very normal, but the singers or bands have to have permission of the artist. Covering music is an art and the lyric writer is a person, who made the song newer, brings the song back to the listener with the whole new style and the performance is completely like remaining the life for the song. The cover music in Vietnam is the kind of music, which has Vietnamese lyric based on the melody of the song of other country. Therefore, some people think the melody is stolen. For that result, they don’t like this music. There are some familiar faces, which usually cover music in Vietnam. They are Bao Thy, Tra My, Minh Hang, Hoang Hai… Although cover music is not good but in Vietnam, it is suggested that cover music is the best in the world. The Vietnamese people listen to it and have their own feeling, opinion about that. 3.1. Evaluate about quality of covered songs. After surveying in 100 students, the consequence is collected is very interesting. There are 46% of people think the music have nice melody, which is very unusual in Vietnam. They have some correct views. The melody, which is used to cover music, is usually chosen carefully. They attracted a lot of listener and may be become famous in their country. The listener find the cover music because they curious, they do not know how the music covered. It is suggested that by the covered song, listener remember the songs, which is famous in that days. Some people covers a song, they help it have a new vitality and then may be the old song’s influence may be declined. Besides, 27% of people think the melody and lyric is not suitable. This opinion can be understood when the artist of the melody have different emotion with the lyric writer. 12% people believe that the music is very nice and suitable with the taste of Vietnam. When people listen to a song, they have many different emotions. They can touch the music with their memory. Therefore, the melody can be used to be made other song with the new lyric writer. And 15% people have other opinions. Chart 4: The evaluation of “Music cover” Covering music is the way, which is not really bad, but if we abuse too much, the listener will have bad reaction, especially the youth, who love foreign music. Anyway, with the real V-pop-fans, being enjoyed a beautiful song from their idol, which is “high quality Vietnamese product”, the listeners are happier, aren’t they? According to different evaluation above, people also have different emotion. The author did a small survey question “What is the emotion when people listen to music cover?” and the answers are: 46% people think the melody is beautiful but the lyric is not good, they only like the melody. 11% people like the melody, and the lyrics also very nice. 32% people like lyric, because it is very suitable with the melody and there are 11% people have other opinion. 3.2. NEU student’s attitudes towards cover music trend in Vietnam. 3.2.1. Agree. This day, music industry improves so fast. Oppositely, the number of real talented musicians seems to decrease. They cannot compose songs which live forever as previous famous musicians. Therefore, they decided to cover songs. In addition, “music cover” is just a tendency. So, students very sympathize with these composers and agree with this trend. However, only 13% of asked students totally agree with “Music cover” trend in Vietnam now 3.2.2. Disagree. There are some disagree opinion of the listener: “I don’t agree with this. I’m a fan of foreign music; I think it is offensive to the artist and the singer with the first song.” “If covering music still keep continuing, it just make the show bit of Vietnam is declined. How can we develop V-pop when we only sing the song of other people? Why don’t we make our own song?” In general, there are a lot of critical about cover music. They want the Vietnamese singer give back the clean for the V-pop. With the foreign music’s fan, they do not want the song of their idol covered. They do not really care the song have the copyright or not. The “No” answer accounted for 55 % 3.3.3. Don’t care. Opposite with people who have their own thinking, there are 45% students don’t care about music cover become a tendency or not. They just care about the quality of these songs, even care about their feeling when they hear them. * Forecasting the future of Music cover trend. In fact, it depends on the law, the control of the government and the attitude of people in Vietnam. Although the law of Vietnam does not permit cover music, the control of the government is so undisciplined, “music cover” tendency still develop. Even by accident, but the cover of the singer made music industry of our country has prospered more chaotic, making the audience diluted emotion with Vietnamese songs. In spice listening very much but some people cannot distinguish the Vietnamese music and foreign music, emerge the easy acceptance of singers and songs. However, the almost audience still want to listen high quality Vietnamese song more than mawkish cover music, which is truly like laments. Thus, we should understand about the copy right, know which is covered song, which is real song. It is the first step to continue protects Vietnamese music in the best convincible way. PART III: CONCLUSION Music cover is still in debate. There are many opposite opinions about this topic. However, music cover mainly considered being detriment of Vietnamese music. We cannot deny that it enriches Vietnamese music and offers more choices for audience particularly young audience. It is very clear that music cover now partially influences on “market” of domestic music. The problem now is the copyright, Vietnamese singers and authors must be responsible for covering songs. It makes them also take care of the quality of the covered song than ever before. It will help music cover that is received more acceptance in Vietnam. In fact, many young audiences’ still support songs covered, as if they are crazy about original songs. In order to make audience satisfied, we still need to do a lot with music cover. If the author have another chance with more time and supported material, the author would like to come back to look insight this issue deeply. PART IV: RECOMMENDATION The author finished to research the topic about “Music cover”. In this paper, most of definition of “music cover” was made clear. Hope that people can understand deeply and clearly about this issue. Besides, the authors also studied about some effects of Music cover in Vietnamese music market and the attitude of NEU students about this issue. “Music cover” trend is more popular all over the world, especially Vietnam. It affect sharply in music market and the taste of audience. The Government should have solutions to protect not only musicians but also listeners and help Vietnamese music improves in a right way. Because of limited time, the author cannot cover all problem related to this topic. Moreover, she feels really not enough knowledge to research deep troubles around it. Thus, if anybody is attracted, they would like to continuous to research it. As music is really an interesting topic so they can also study more about it such as Music copy, the tendency of Hip hop music, as so on… PART V: APPENDIX I. Questionnaire. 1. How do you understand about the definition of music cover? A) “Music cover” is simply the foreign music track and Vietnamese lyrics They are songs that are written Vietnamese lyric based on copying foreign music They are songs that are “foreign melodies and Vietnamese lyrics”, they are accepted by foreign author and are registered by copyright Not really understand 2. What kinds of music are often covered that you know? ( You can choose more than one answers) Pop Rock Hip hop Rap Other: ……………………………………………………………………………… 3. What are the good effects of Music cover on “Music market” in Vietnam? ( You can choose more than one answers ) Enrich Vietnamese music Audiences have more choices and comparisons among original songs and covered songs Melodies and lyrics so beautiful and meaningful and make audiences have positive emotion. Others: …………………………………………………………………………… 4. Is Music cover has any bad influence? Singers follow the tendency that just sing covered songs It can make musicians compose music in passive resistance Songs that have already been covered can be understood as a stolen song because of copyright Others: …………………………………………………………………………… 5. How do you evaluate about the quality of songs that have already covered? Songs have melodies good and beautiful that V.pop has little Music is not in accordance with lyric Lyrics are good and suitable for Vietnamese liking. Others: …………………………………………………………………………… 6. How do you feel when you listen to covered songs? Nice melodies, but lyrics are not good. I just like melodies. I like lyrics, especial Vietnamese lyrics which so beautiful and fluent. Lyrics are written very correspond with melodies. I like those songs so much. Others: …………………………………………………………………………… 7. Your attitude about the tendency of “Music cover” in Viet Nam? Sympathetic Object Don’t care 8. According to you, how will the tendency of “Music cover” in Viet Nam in the future? More and more develop Can be “cancelled” II. Reference. 1. Nguyen Thu, T., Why the youth listens to covered version, Retrieved from 19 March 2009. 2. Cao,V., Let listen to them, Retrieved from 27 May 2007. 3. Thu, H., Berne Convention, Retrieved from http:/en.wikipedia.org/ 28 December 2004. 4. Bui Duc, T., Cover or copy, Retrieved from 7 April 2008 . 5. Nguyen Viet, D., Singers and cover music trend, Retrieved from 14 March 2009.