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Oct. 10th, 2007 10:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
listersgirlDiscussion at work today: what exactly counts as a cover?
I mean, Danny Michel sings a David Bowie song, that's clearly a cover. One pop artist performing the work of another. But what if he sings a Gershwin song? A Sondheim song? Is it the fact that he's a pop artist, and pop artists generally have a kind of artistic ownership over their music - does that automatically make everything he does that's not his own a cover? Or is it the song itself - does the song have to be specifically associated with a particular singer or group before you can cover it?
And the other way around - I would never consider a jazz artist doing a song by another jazz artist "covering". That's what jazz musicians do. But what about when Herbie Hancock releases his album of Joni Mitchell songs? Is that different somehow than if he released an album of John Coltrane songs?
And what about artists who always sing work by other people, like Broadway singers. I don't consider Audra McDonald doing "Bill" from Showboat a cover, but what about when she sings Rufus Wainwright's "Painted Ladies". Is that a cover? And to flip it over, what if a pop group did a version of a song from a musical? What about the disc of pop groups and artists performing songs from Hedwig and the Angry Inch? Are those covers? Or not, because songs from musicals are traditionally performed by all sorts of different people?
Is there a line that gets crossed? Does someone cover The Christmas Song, because it's so associated with Mel Torme, but just sing "Jingle Bells"? Do you cover traditional tunes? Is covering reserved just for pop artists?
Poll!
[Poll #1069398]
I mean, Danny Michel sings a David Bowie song, that's clearly a cover. One pop artist performing the work of another. But what if he sings a Gershwin song? A Sondheim song? Is it the fact that he's a pop artist, and pop artists generally have a kind of artistic ownership over their music - does that automatically make everything he does that's not his own a cover? Or is it the song itself - does the song have to be specifically associated with a particular singer or group before you can cover it?
And the other way around - I would never consider a jazz artist doing a song by another jazz artist "covering". That's what jazz musicians do. But what about when Herbie Hancock releases his album of Joni Mitchell songs? Is that different somehow than if he released an album of John Coltrane songs?
And what about artists who always sing work by other people, like Broadway singers. I don't consider Audra McDonald doing "Bill" from Showboat a cover, but what about when she sings Rufus Wainwright's "Painted Ladies". Is that a cover? And to flip it over, what if a pop group did a version of a song from a musical? What about the disc of pop groups and artists performing songs from Hedwig and the Angry Inch? Are those covers? Or not, because songs from musicals are traditionally performed by all sorts of different people?
Is there a line that gets crossed? Does someone cover The Christmas Song, because it's so associated with Mel Torme, but just sing "Jingle Bells"? Do you cover traditional tunes? Is covering reserved just for pop artists?
Poll!
[Poll #1069398]
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no subject
Date: 2007-10-11 02:49 am (UTC)Cover-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CymTfUKv8Tw
Not a cover-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_d1UmOpuRE