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

This report researches about one of many concepts which a lot of people don’t understand exactly which is called “Music cover”.

National Economics University Faculty Of International Education

students to Music cover in

Vietnam

Submitted to: MS Le Thi Thu Mai

Student: Ngo Thi Thuy Ha

Class: I4P

December, 2009

 Abstract………3

 Part I: Introduction……… 4

 Part II: Body……… 7

 Part III: Conclusion……… 16

 Part IV: Recommendation……… 17

 Part V: Appendix……… 18

This report researches about one of many concepts which a lot of people don’tunderstand exactly which is called “Music cover” This paper is expected to give readers adeep understanding of music cover In order to do that, music cover definition in general andthat of NEU’s students are shown Besides, the author also indicates some problems andmakes 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 ageneral look about music cover First, “introduction” will show the reason why people needentertainment, 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, itstates 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

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1 Background information:

Today, the more Vietnam develops, the higher the standard of living is They arecared 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 presidentdesired As they can earn more money, they begin to care for more and more things in theirlife such as good accommodations, good meals, beautiful clothes, etc But it’s only abouttheir material life How about their mental life? In fact, they concern about their spiritual lifemore than their material one Many people think that they worked hard all day so they shouldtake a rest or relax A question is raised “how to relax in this modern life?” entertainment isnecessary for working people but also for others especially young people Moreover, modernyoung people are very active and dynamic They are very adaptable too Hence, in thischanging 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 youngpeople’s life Seeing the need of youngsters- the group of audience has the most difficultstandard with music, many kinds of music stream are increased, music cover is a typicalexample

2 Rationale:

Nowadays, finding covered songs are so easy, they appear in most CDs of mostsingers “Music cover” is not a new concept Most singers choose to cover a song of othermusicians or singers to make their home “music market” more plentiful They have reachedhigh position in music class-list But in fact, there are some people don’t understand exactlydefinition of “music cover” There are different attitudes which are followed, some peoplethink the stream is detrimental to the Vietnamese music, someone admits that they like andsupport music cover because of its diversity, and the others don’t care at all So what is anexactly concept of “music cover”? To have a clear concept about this issue, the study wasdone It gives some reasons for people’s answers The paper is finished by researching youngaudience who are usually the fastest to update new music and are the most objectiveexaminers

With limited exposure to all types of students in other university, NEU students arethe 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 thepaper, there are three important points which are mentioned:

(1) The real definition of music cover and NEU’s students’ knowledge about thedefinition

(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 someonewho agrees with it, or the others think it is completely untruthful However, as we have justsaid 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, itdeals 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?

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

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 agreewith the regulations in that Convention because it can protect the intellectual property formusicians all over the world Personally the author agrees with the Convention because it isbeneficial for both composer and the singers who cover music of other musicians

Music cover receives some different opinions For instance, on

http://www.dep.com.vn/ , the writer didn’t criticize or denigrate the stream, however, headmitted that “ foreign songs have been covered that will have influenced on audiencesthan Vietnamese song”, he also said “…music cover is simple a stream, it will be no longer tohave quietly been weakened in Vietnamese music…” As the researcher understands that thewriter is an advocate to music cover In terms of the development of music in Vietnam, Ishare the same thoughts with him Moreover , some opinion exhibit to sympathize with musiccover such as there are a title “ Covering foreign music shouldn’t be blamed” on

http://www.maivoo.com, and have also got much regard

II Major findings:

1 The way NEU student define “music cover” and general definition of it

1.1 The way NEU students define “Music cover”.

Sometimes, we listen to music and suddenly realize that the song you're listening tohas a similar melody to a well-known foreign song You are very surprised and don’tunderstand the song you're listening to is “music copy” or “music cover” Even you may notknow exactly the definition of both these terms Although young people today listen to musicregularly, they are not very interested in “who composed the song”, or “where the songcomes from?”

During the survey, some people think that “music cover” is simply the foreign musictrack 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 ofpeople don’t understand much about this concept

Chart 1: the understanding of “Music cover”

1.2 The real definition of “Music cover”.

To explain and make everybody understand clearly about “music cover” and “musiccopy”, the report researched Bern Convention and found that: “Music cover” appears afterthe 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 thesongs do not comply with the provisions above That’s illegal.

1.3 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 theanswers 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, seeingthat young people in Vietnam in general and especially NEU’s students in particular oftenlisten to pop music Furthermore this study find out on the internet, young people today alsolike listening pop music The reason why pop music is become popular like that is because ofits 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 personalitylike listening this genre So, to satisfy audience's different music hobbies, Vietnam’smusicians 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 likethat, the category of rock, rap, and hip-hop were covered by a lot of Vietnam’s musicians andsingers 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 haveany 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, thereare 50% say that: Music cover contributed to make music market of Vietnam richer or moreabundant Several years up to now, Music cover suddenly break out as a tendency Most ofmusicians 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 Almostsingers cover songs which have melodies from foreign countries They register copyright ofone song and then write Vietnamese lyric for this song Certainly, music market had at least2songs 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 havemore 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 beautifuland 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 lifemore 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 Englishmusic They want to communicate with music in the world That’s why NEU students hearcovered 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’tknow foreign languages but want to understand meaning of that song can choose to hearcovered 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 whenmusic 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 originalsongs from other countries and they only would like to sing covered songs They areindifferent with Vietnamese songs and make Vietnamese culture forgotten 37% of surveyedstudents agree with this idea Because singers sing covered songs so musicians are lazy tocompose In order to have fast success, they also cover foreign music They become passivemusicians Maybe nowadays, audiences like listening covered songs but in 5 years, 10years…perhaps the taste of audience especially the young students may change If musiciansare lazy in composing new songs, they can make music market go down even “die” Thereare 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 andlisteners are often confused between “Music copies” and “Music cover” In fact, a lot ofsingers “borrow” foreign songs without “permission” of authors and then they said those aretheir songs Furthermore a lot of people don’t really understand about Music cover, they justthink all songs which were rewritten based on foreign melodies are music copy For thatreason, 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 ofsongs 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 differentopinions about that In the world, the covering music is very normal, but the singers or bandshave 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 andthe performance is completely like remaining the life for the song The cover music inVietnam is the kind of music, which has Vietnamese lyric based on the melody of the song ofother country Therefore, some people think the melody is stolen For that result, they don’tlike this music There are some familiar faces, which usually cover music in Vietnam Theyare Bao Thy, Tra My, Minh Hang, Hoang Hai… Although cover music is not good but in