Discussion 2

In the 50s, white artists often covered the songs of black artists, often completely out selling the original recordings because the white covers were played on mainstream radio, sold nationally, and because the bawdy lyrics of the original songs would be “cleaned up” for mainstream audiences (read the story of “Shake, Rattle, and Roll”). These type of covers are often viewed as exploitative and controversial. At the same time however, the white covers ended up introducing the music of black America to a wider mainstream audience which would indirectly help the careers of some of the more prominent black artists. Black artists were most often not paid for their songs and were essentially ripped off by the record companies. This was before the protections of modern copyright laws were developed to help protect the intellectual property rights of artists for their songs, lyrics, and recorded music.

Another type of cover is one where an  artist pays homage to another artist by covering their song. For instance, many artists have covered songs by the Beatles, the list is staggering. Search Wikipedia for the “List of cover versions of Beatles songs.” Amazing.

This brings me to a related topic – one way to differentiate artists is to note which artists write their own songs versus artists who sing other people’s music. Elvis Presley is an example of a singer who collected songs to sing. He was always on the look out for a great song to interpret in his own special style. Then their were artists like Chuck Berry who wrote his own songs and became know for his songwriting as much if not more than his performance. Chuck Berry is particularly noteworthy because he is regarded as the best rock-n-roll lyricist and songwriter of the 50s as well as the most influential rock guitarist of the 50s.

I’ve always given artists who write their own material more credit or historical importance than artists who are simply singers and performers of other people’s music.

How do you feel about covers?