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Originally Posted by Redlemon
Ah, that's the question I was coming in to ask. What makes the color change? What if...
... a metal band covers a soft rock song?
... a metal band does an acoustic cover of one of their own songs?
... a band replaces their lead singer and sings the same song?
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Those are interesting questions. The thing is, they're a bit difficult to answer, because it's not a rational thing. I'll need examples of each situation. Let's see...
a metal band covers a soft rock song
A good example of this would be HIM covering Wicked Game. Chris Isaak's version is quite soft and mellow. HIM's version on the other hand.. well, isn't. Melodically, they're similar and the vocals are quite close. But HIM's cover is pretty much the opposite end of the spectrum in terms of colours. The power chord chugga-chugga-chugga is a deep blood red, where Isaak's is more of a blue, bordering on purple. If I were better at identifying colours I might be able to describe it better, but I tend to think in terms of the primary and secondary colours for the most part. Also, Isaak's is.. sloppier somehow. It's like wet paint that he smears around with his fingers, whereas HIM's cover is tighter and harsher. It's all peaks and spikes. This property seems to be tied to the previously mentioned power chords.
a metal band does an acoustic cover of one of their own songs
I can't think of any examples of this, so I'll use Dave Grohl's acoustic cover of Everlong. Most Foo Fighters is very orange and the cover incorporates a lot of that, but the shape is quite different. For one, being just a guitar, it's much simpler; there are less elements involved. It's also softer, and more inviting but doesn't have the same energy. It doesn't move as quickly. Dave's voice adds a blue element to both, but there's less going on in the acoustic and his voice isn't processed or overdubbed. That tends to concentrate it and really bring it out. It's much more noticeable. The acoustic version is much more melancholy.
a band replaces their lead singer and sings the same song
I think this one requires a bit of further explaining. I've taken to referring to songs by their dominant colour, but it's rare for a song to be just one colour. All of the various elements add their own hue and the colours themselves are not static; they move and change depending on what's going on in the song. So when I say that a song is red or orange or green or what have you, it's really something of a shorthand, because unless I've decided specifically that I'm going to describe everything that's happening (like in the other thread) I'm probably not going to break it down like that. I just pick the dominant colour and go with that.
So what happens if we replace the singer? Well, that depends. The singers may be close enough stylistically that there is no significant change. Or they may not and the whole song might be altered by replacing that one element. The example I think of is AC/DC. Bon Scott and Brian Johnson are similar, but they're not identical. Brian's voice reminds me of cotton that's been pulled, so that it's thin and sort of translucent. Bon's voice was much thicker and cord-like. In terms of colour, Brian seems to be brighter, but other than that they're pretty close (I'm using two versions of Highway to Hell, one live and the other the studio version, for comparison).