Cultural remixology and the art of the cover song

While I was sick with a nasty cold last week, I spent a lot of time engaged in one of my favourite activities: exploring and listening to music! The geek in me always tries to uncover the cultural relevance behind each track, behind each genre... and my attention, lately, has been focused on the art of cover songs. Particularly, rock covers of hip hop and pop songs.

Many people have criticized the rock remake of hip hop songs by labelling it as a fad, a soulless commercial trend, draining the original piece of all its meaning. Though, in some cases, that may be true (such as the Punk Goes Pop albums), I feel that artists generally succeed in creating culturally relevant and authentic pieces by borrowing from what other artists have expressed in the past and making it their own.

After all, this is nothing new. Artists, for decades now (and centuries, I dare say) have been inspiring themselves and drawing on the works of others in order to create their own unique pieces. The Cultural Remixology of music is nothing new. I found many interesting blog posts and articles covering the subject ( Here's one by MicControl for your reference).

The key in creating a successful cover song seems to be authenticity. Music is a form of communication, a medium of expression, like any other art form. Musicians dig deep into their well of feelings, thoughts, emotions and beliefs and borrow from the cultural codes they've been exposed to, to formulate a song and share their thoughts and feelings with the world... their songs, like any art work, are always open to interpretation. A cover song is successful when an artist interprets the original song with transparency and authenticity, bringing his or her own unique expression to the piece.

In an interview, Chris Cornell of Audioslave gives us a glimpse into the art of recording and performing a cover song:

"I have to take a song and somehow reinvent it and make it my own... and make it exciting... and bring some emotional angle to it that's not already there."

When an artists draws on an existing song in order to bring a new emotional (as well as cultural!) angle to it, that artist changes the semiotics of the song, attaching a whole new set of signs and symbols to the piece. Thus, the remade song appeals to a whole new audience.

Of all the rock cover songs out there (and there are many!), here are my Top 5 favourite songs:

Here is The Fray covering Kanye West's "Heartless" :



This is Chris Cornell's cover of Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" :



Here is 30 seconds to Mars covering Kanye West's "Stronger" (which is also a cover song of Daft Punk's "Harder Better Faster Stronger"):



Ok. Maybe this one's not so deep and thought-provoking. It does, however, reflect certain prominent aspects of our pop culture psyche. And, I must admit, Framing Hanley's version is a rather catchy remake of Lil Wayne's "Lollipop" . Needless to say, it got tons of radio play:



Last but not least is Rage Against the Machine's cover of Afrika Bambaata's "Renegades of Funk" .This one always gets me going on the heavy bags at the gym: