{"id":15332,"date":"2019-02-12T02:29:53","date_gmt":"2019-02-12T02:29:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=15332"},"modified":"2019-02-13T20:21:23","modified_gmt":"2019-02-13T20:21:23","slug":"weezers-cover-album-is-the-rock-band-honoring-or-exploiting-the-originals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/weezers-cover-album-is-the-rock-band-honoring-or-exploiting-the-originals\/","title":{"rendered":"Weezer’s cover album: Is the rock band honoring or exploiting the originals?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ryan Raul Ba\u00f1agale<\/a>, Colorado College<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve noticed the 1980s hit \u201cAfrica\u201d playing on the radio more than usual, you likely weren\u2019t listening to the original version by Toto<\/a>. Instead, it was probably the recently released cover by Weezer<\/a>, which has already been heard over 25 million times on Spotify.<\/p>\n

Maybe you know the backstory: A teenage fan started a joke Twitter account, @weezerafrica<\/a>, in order to persuade her favorite band to cover her favorite song. Days later, the hashtag #WeezerCoverAfrica went viral, and, after months of virtual prodding, the band indulged the request.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Weezer\u2019s \u2018Teal Album\u2019 is entirely made up of cover songs \u2013 and their fans love it.<\/span>
\nAtlantic Records<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To everyone\u2019s surprise, Weezer suddenly had a chart-topping hit \u2013 its best performing single in a dozen years<\/a>. And it isn\u2019t even the band\u2019s own song. Now Weezer has released an entire album of covers \u2013 a self-titled EP affectionately known as the \u201cTeal Album,\u201d which has already hit No. 5 on the Billboard 200<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As a musicologist<\/a>, Weezer\u2019s successful foray into cover songs made me think about the overall trajectory of the practice.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re usually a fun way to memorialize an existing song and pass it along from one generation to the next. But the practice isn\u2019t free of controversy.<\/p>\n

Enriching our collective musical memory<\/h2>\n

The editor of a book on cover songs, communication scholar George Plasketes<\/a> writes that covers are \u201cabout favorite songs and great songs. Classics and standards.\u201d They show how \u201cmusical artifacts are kept culturally alive, repeating as echoes.\u201d<\/p>\n

To Plasketes, regardless of what a musician might add or subtract in the process, cover songs capture and convey a collective musical history.<\/p>\n

The concept of covering has been around as long as music has been written down. The earliest choirs for Catholic masses often sang versions of earlier Gregorian chants. These \u201ccovers\u201d were intended to both teach and entertain \u2013 to attract worshippers and spread Christianity. Then, as now, covers circulated culture.<\/p>\n

Scholars have identified many categories of cover songs, but people are probably most familiar with two of them: the \u201cstraight cover\u201d and the \u201ctransformative cover.\u201d<\/p>\n

The former, also known as a \u201ckaraoke cover,\u201d sounds almost exactly like the original, which is the route taken by Weezer. Such an approach might pay homage to a music influence, like The Beatles\u2019 \u201cTwist and Shout<\/a>,\u201d which had been popularized by The Isley Brothers<\/a> but was originally recorded by The Top Notes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A straight cover can also form a sort of ironic commentary. Cultural theorist Steve Bailey notes that<\/a>, while such covers \u201ctend to ridicule the originals,\u201d they also \u201ccelebrate the continued vitality \u2026 of the music and its importance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Certainly, there\u2019s a dose of irony to Weezer\u2019s \u201cAfrica\u201d \u2013 the band recorded it at the request of fans, not necessarily out of some deep connection to the music or as a nod to Toto\u2019s influence. We can\u2019t be certain, but it seems as if Weezer\u2019s poking fun at the \u201880s hit, while still staying true to the original.<\/p>\n

More frequently, covers fall into the transformative category, which is when musicians put their artistic stamp on a song.<\/p>\n

Consider a hit such as Whitney Houston\u2019s \u201cI Will Always Love You<\/a>.\u201d Houston was able to transform Dolly Parton\u2019s original country song<\/a> into a pop anthem.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s Aretha Franklin\u2019s \u201cRespect<\/a>,\u201d which famously flipped the gender dynamics of Otis Redding\u2019s original<\/a> \u2013 all of a sudden it was a woman asking \u201cfor a little respect when you get home.\u201d<\/p>\n

The contradictions of the cover<\/h2>\n

It\u2019s fun to hear one performer emulate another or to experience a familiar song made anew. But the question of \u201cwho gets to cover whom\u201d reveals one problematic aspect of the genre.<\/p>\n

As white rock ‘n\u2019 rollers usurped black rhythm and blues artists<\/a> in the 1950s, countless covers became known not as covers but rather as the definitive version.<\/p>\n

Did you know that Elvis Presley\u2019s \u201cHound Dog<\/a>\u201d was originally performed by rhythm-and-blues singer Big Mama Thornton<\/a>? Or that Bill Haley\u2019s \u201cShake, Rattle and Roll<\/a>\u201d was first recorded by blues shouter Big Joe Turner<\/a>?<\/p>\n