Covering"the musical practice of one artist recording or performing
another composer's song"has always been an attribute of popular
music. In 2009, the internet database Second Hand Songs estimated
that there are 40,000 songs with at least one cover version. Some
of the more common variations of this "appropriationist" method of
musical quotation include traditional forms such as patriotic
anthems, religious hymns such as Amazing Grace, Muzak's
instrumental interpretations, Christmas classics, and children's
songs. Novelty and comedy collections from parodists such as Weird
Al Yankovic also align in the cover category, as does the
"larcenous art" of sampling, and technological variations in dance
remixes and mash-ups. Film and television soundtracks and
advertisers increasingly rely on versions of familiar pop tunes to
assist in marketing their narratives and products. The cover
phenomenon in popular culture may be viewed as a postmodern
manifestation in music as artists revisit, reinterpret and
re-examine a significant cross section of musical styles, periods,
genres, individual records, and other artists and their catalogues
of works.The cover complex, with its multiple variations, issues,
contexts, and re-contextualizations comprises an important and rich
popular culture text. These re-recordings represent artifacts which
embody artistic, social, cultural, historical, commercial,
biographical, and novel meanings. Through homage, allusion,
apprenticeship, and parody, among other modes, these diverse
musical quotations express, preserve, and distribute popular
culture, popular music and their intersecting historical
narratives. Play it Again represents the first collection of
critical perspectives on the many facets of cover songs in popular
music.
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