{"id":735,"date":"2018-10-15T05:10:07","date_gmt":"2018-10-15T05:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wri-101c-f18.andrewrippeon.com\/blog\/?p=735"},"modified":"2018-10-15T05:44:08","modified_gmt":"2018-10-15T05:44:08","slug":"how-creative-are-covers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wri-101c-f18.andrewrippeon.com\/blog\/writing-project-2-voice-in-its-cultural-contexts-and-consequences\/how-creative-are-covers\/","title":{"rendered":"How Creative are Covers?"},"content":{"rendered":"<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-735-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"http:\/\/www.wri-101c-f18.andrewrippeon.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Take-Me-On_-The-Art-Of-The-Cover-Song.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/www.wri-101c-f18.andrewrippeon.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Take-Me-On_-The-Art-Of-The-Cover-Song.mp3\">http:\/\/www.wri-101c-f18.andrewrippeon.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Take-Me-On_-The-Art-Of-The-Cover-Song.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<p>Make it sound like you, not the original artist. Find something new by mashing different styles together, but make sure your version feels contemporary and says something about the times we currently live in as well. Perhaps most importantly, make sure this new version you have created is out of everyone else\u2019s reach so as to steal attention from the original (How to Create\u2026). These are only a few tips for how to create the perfect cover song in a 2015 BBC article appropriately titled \u201cHow to create the perfect cover version\u201d. But what is a \u201cperfect\u201d cover song? Often, the public is unaware that a popular song is actually a cover of a lesser-known original. Take Gladys Knight &amp; the Pips\u2019 \u201cMidnight Train to Georgia\u201d for example. The song was originally shot down by Gladys and recorded as Jim Weatherly\u2019s \u201cMidnight Plane to Houston\u201d. It took another few years, reimaginings, covers as well as even a style transition for Gladys and her backup singers to consider the song again (Padgett). The rest is history, but the long road and many covers taken for that song to get to that point proves that BBC\u2019s formula for the perfect cover song may not be as foolproof as one would like to believe, some of the most popular covers being a little off-the-wall themselves.<\/p>\n<p>Stephen Thompson, editor and reviewer for NPR Music and author of \u201cThe Good Listener: Can You Build The Perfect Cover Song?\u201d believes that \u201cgood cover songs are about necessity\u201d (Can you build&#8230;). If the original song is amazing and nothing can be done to improve upon it, then why would someone need to change it whether that be a cover or a remix? For this reason, artists must be careful about what songs they choose to focus their attention upon as some songs work better than others for an artist to cover. Thompson argues that a general disguise of the genius of the songcraft of a song gives an artist reason to reinvent a song or re-create a song word-for-word, but some artists such as Kanye West disagree. A self-proclaimed \u201ccreative genius, and there\u2019s no way around it\u201d, West is famous for his narcissism and not following the rules when it comes <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wri-101c-f18.andrewrippeon.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Kanye.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-738 alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/www.wri-101c-f18.andrewrippeon.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Kanye-300x140.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"652\" height=\"304\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.wri-101c-f18.andrewrippeon.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Kanye-300x140.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.wri-101c-f18.andrewrippeon.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Kanye.jpg 634w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 652px) 100vw, 652px\" \/><\/a>to making music, meaning he most definitely won\u2019t shy away from taking a song and putting his own spin on it no matter how amazing his fans or outlandish his critics say it is (jnelliott). Two songs West uses outside material from are \u201cPt. 2\u201d from the Life of Pablo and \u201cBlood on the Leaves\u201d from Yeezus. Both were fairly successful and broke Billboard\u2019s Hot 100 chart, yet neither follow any one specific cover song formula. Taking BBC\u2019s article once again, for example, one can see how two very different cover songs can be equally successful while ignoring the status quo surrounding how they should be written.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPt. 2\u201d is a complete reimagining of Desiigner\u2019s \u201cPanda\u201d and appears on West\u2019s seventh studio album titled the Life of Pablo. The first point made in the BBC article was that a cover has to \u201csound like [the cover artist], not the original artist\u201d, but this brings into question whether or not Kanye West even has a particular sound to call his own because \u201cPt. 2\u201d doesn\u2019t sound that much different from the original \u201cPanda\u201d (How to Create\u2026). As a matter of fact, half of \u201cPt. 2\u201d is Desiigner\u2019s version with roughly thirty seconds of The Life Of Pablo-esque lyrics and a very slightly remixed beat to accompany it on either side. Two other points of BBC\u2019s article are to \u201cunearth new meaning\u201d not seen in the original song and to make sure your cover says something about the current times. This is questionable in \u201cPt. 2\u201d as both \u201cPt. 2\u201d and \u201cPanda\u201d speak of West and Desiigner\u2019s immense respective successes. West does change some lyrics in order to bring attention to the long road he had to traverse in order to get to \u201cAtlanta\u201d and even mentions his own very successful Yeezy clothing line as one of his bragging points, but the gist remains the same between songs. One could guess what \u201cPanda\u201d is about after listening to \u201cPt.2\u201d. \u201cBlood on the Leaves\u201d, however, is a different story.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Pt. 2\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/mT1LJFP7uJo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Desiigner - Panda (Official Audio)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4NJlUribp3c?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201dBlood on the Leaves\u201d hails from West\u2019s sixth studio album titled Yeezus. It is the opposite of \u201cPt. 2\u201d as it samples Nina Simone\u2019s \u201cStrange Fruit\u201d rather than covering it, but the BBC article can still be applied. \u201cBlood on the Leaves\u201d accomplishes the feat of redefining the sound of a song to fit the cover artist considerably well as the whole song sounds like it belongs on Yeezus, even Simone\u2019s \u201cparts\u201d which come from a completely different song in a completely different time period. As for unearthing new meaning from the original, Simone\u2019s \u201cStrange Fruit\u201d is a song written about historic black struggles, specifically the lynching of African American males in the Jim Crow south. Why, then, is West using clips from that song in his own song about the struggles of a high-class, arguably toxic, twenty-first-century relationship? Sure, new meaning is brought to Simone\u2019s original in the context of current times, but not the new meaning co-founder of The Velvet Underground John Cale meant when he said, &#8220;If you unearth new meaning, or someone else realizes something, it\u2019s, &#8216;Holy cow! That\u2019s what that song is about!? It\u2019s great&#8221; (How to Create\u2026). The title might vaguely suggest it, but one wouldn\u2019t know that \u201cStrange Fruit\u201d is about the struggles of black men during the Jim Crow Era after listening to \u201cBlood on the Leaves\u201d. \u201cPt. 2\u201d is very different from \u201cBlood on the Leaves\u201d in West\u2019s manner of covering, but they may not actually be as different as they seem at their first glance.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Blood On The Leaves\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/nn0Pu2Qun-E?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Nina Simone - Strange Fruit\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/BnuEMdUUrZQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Although West chooses to listen to and ignore different steps BBC outlined in order to create the perfect cover song for both \u201cPt. 2\u201d and \u201cBlood on the Leaves\u201d, he chose to use two of the same tips in both songs. Arguably one of the most important of BBC\u2019s points is to \u201cfind something new by mashing different styles together\u201d, which West most definitely did in both \u201cPt. 2\u201d and \u201cBlood on the Leaves\u201d (How to Create\u2026). By mixing Desiigner\u2019s trap hit with the Life of Pablo\u2019s smooth, deliberative lyrics, West \u201cput the song out of everyone else\u2019s reach\u201d, as BBC\u2019s last point instructs (How to Create\u2026). \u201cBlood on the Leaves\u201d does essentially the same thing by mixing Simone\u2019s jazzy, old-school, drawn-out vocals with Yeezy\u2019s trademark fast-tempoed aggression. Why were these two songs so popular, then, if West chose to ignore some of what BBC deems are vital elements for any decent cover song? And how are they both so popular if they both chose to ignore different parts of the formula? An NPR 1A podcast titled \u201cTake Me On: The Art Of The Cover Song\u201d seeks to answer that question.<\/p>\n<p>Joshua Johnson, host of NPR\u2019s 1A, believes that there are many different ways to make a cover song successful whether that be \u201ca total reimagining, like Devo singing \u201cSatisfaction,\u201d \u2026 or a performance that brings a new energy or feeling to the original, like Earth, Wind and Fire\u2019s \u201cGot To Get You Into My Life\u201d\u201d. One of the only things that Johnson\u2019s guests Ray Padgett, author of the book &#8220;Cover Me,&#8221;, Amanda Petrusich, staff writer for The New Yorker and Scott Bradlee, creator of &#8220;Postmodern Jukebox,&#8221; a music collective that makes vintage covers of pop songs could agree on during the nearly fifty minutes long podcast was that a cover is about the intention more than anything else. Of course, all three have their own views on what makes a cover song successful to their ears, but those criteria largely did not stay the same from person to person. Likewise, Kelsey McKinney\u2019s father (a solid Gen X-er and avid grunge rock listener) hated Britney Spears\u2019 &#8220;Satisfaction (I Can&#8217;t Get No)&#8221; so much he introduced her to the Rolling Stone\u2019s original, &#8220;(I Can&#8217;t Get No) Satisfaction&#8221; (McKinney). This example proves that different cover songs are successful in different people.<\/p>\n<p>Johnson and his guests didn\u2019t seek to define a good cover song, they only sought to identify good and\/or famous cover songs as well as bad\/infamous cover songs and identify what made them so good and famous or bad and unpopular. What Johnson and his guests found was that no specific formula exists for a good cover song. With so many different music tastes, how could one cover song satisfy all of the wants of every audience? Furthermore, using the same formula for every cover song runs the risk of cover songs sounding repetitive and getting boring. This is where artists like Kanye West step in. Kanye makes his critics\u2019 jobs very easy when he chooses to bend the rules in the making of his music and step out on a limb, but he has also created some very popular music despite the critics. The key to writing a good cover song is to recognize that no one specific kind of cover song exists. The more one tries to tailor a cover to their audience\u2019s needs, the more they alienate themselves from the audience that made them famous in the first place. When an artist begins to realize that the only person they have to please with their music is themselves, they will start to please their audience too, and that\u2019s what their music is all about.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Works Cited<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Aaron Overfield. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Nina Simone: Strange Fruit<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">YouTube<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">,<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=BnuEMdUUrZQ\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=BnuEMdUUrZQ<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Accessed 15 Oct. 2018.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cCan You Build The Perfect Cover Song?\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">NPR.Org<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">,<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/allsongs\/2013\/05\/15\/184350690\/we-get-mail-can-you-build-the-perfect-cover-song\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">https:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/allsongs\/2013\/05\/15\/184350690\/we-get-mail-can-you-build-the-perfect-cover-song<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Accessed 10 Oct. 2018.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">DesiignerVEVO. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Desiigner &#8211; Panda (Audio)<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">YouTube<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">,<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=4NJlUribp3c\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=4NJlUribp3c<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Accessed 15 Oct. 2018.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">How to Create the Perfect Cover Version &#8211; BBC Music<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. 5 Nov. 2015,<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/music\/articles\/0adabb48-dcad-4c01-9fd2-68ccff6bf8e8\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/music\/articles\/0adabb48-dcad-4c01-9fd2-68ccff6bf8e8<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">jnelliott. \u201c\u2018I\u2019m A Creative Genius, There\u2019s No Other Way To Word It\u2019, Kanye West Explains.\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Source<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, 5 Dec. 2013,<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/thesource.com\/2013\/12\/05\/im-a-creative-genius-theres-no-other-way-to-word-it-kanye-west-explains\/\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">http:\/\/thesource.com\/2013\/12\/05\/im-a-creative-genius-theres-no-other-way-to-word-it-kanye-west-explains\/<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kanye West &#8211; Topic. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Blood On The Leaves<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">YouTube<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">,<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=nn0Pu2Qun-E\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=nn0Pu2Qun-E<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Accessed 14 Oct. 2018.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">&#8212;. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Pt. 2<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">YouTube<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">,<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=mT1LJFP7uJo\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=mT1LJFP7uJo<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Accessed 14 Oct. 2018.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">McKinney, Kelsey. \u201cThe Art of a Good Cover Song.\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Splinter<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">,<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/splinternews.com\/the-art-of-a-good-cover-song-1793848557\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">https:\/\/splinternews.com\/the-art-of-a-good-cover-song-1793848557<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Accessed 10 Oct. 2018.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Padgett, Ray. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cover Me: The Stories behind the Greatest Cover Songs of All Time<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Sterling, 2017.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cTake Me On: The Art Of The Cover Song.\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">1A<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">,<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/the1a.org\/shows\/2018-01-18\/take-me-on-the-art-of-the-cover-song\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">https:\/\/the1a.org\/shows\/2018-01-18\/take-me-on-the-art-of-the-cover-song<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Accessed 26 Sept. 2018.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Whoopi Goldberg, Monica Lewinsky and Kate Hudson Read Kanye West\u2019s Tweets | Daily Mail Online<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/femail\/article-3475395\/I-love-right-Brilliant-video-sees-stars-like-Whoopi-Goldberg-Monica-Lewinsky-Kate-Hudson-doing-dramatic-readings-Kanye-s-bizarre-tweets.html\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/femail\/article-3475395\/I-love-right-Brilliant-video-sees-stars-like-Whoopi-Goldberg-Monica-Lewinsky-Kate-Hudson-doing-dramatic-readings-Kanye-s-bizarre-tweets.html<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Accessed 11 Oct. 2018.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Make it sound like you, not the original artist. Find something new by mashing different styles together, but make sure your version feels contemporary and says something about the times we currently live in as well. Perhaps most importantly, make sure this new version you have created is out of everyone else\u2019s reach so as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-writing-project-2-voice-in-its-cultural-contexts-and-consequences","entry","has-post-thumbnail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wri-101c-f18.andrewrippeon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wri-101c-f18.andrewrippeon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wri-101c-f18.andrewrippeon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wri-101c-f18.andrewrippeon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wri-101c-f18.andrewrippeon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=735"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.wri-101c-f18.andrewrippeon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":752,"href":"https:\/\/www.wri-101c-f18.andrewrippeon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735\/revisions\/752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wri-101c-f18.andrewrippeon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wri-101c-f18.andrewrippeon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wri-101c-f18.andrewrippeon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}