Cover songs and remixes

I think it would be useful to think about our cover song assignment in terms of "cover songs," "appropriations" and "remixes." No one brought in any remixes, but they are another way of forwarding a text, almost like quoting in print, because it is in a context which is your own, but may contain the actual original instrumentations and voices from the song being remixed. Tehn cover songs are a different level of using someone's song because you reperform it, sometimes quite differently than the original, essentially taking someone's idea and making it your own, but citing it as a cover, so still giving attribution to the originator. This is like using the interllectual ideas of someone in your own writing, but citing that you got the idea from them, and possibly quoting or paraphrasing them. Another issue that came up in class discussion is appropriation, where an artist steals a song, or even kind of music/singing/instrumentation and makes it their own as if they are the originator. Here you can think of the influence blues had on rock and roll and some songs that were redone by white artists and that subsequently became associated with that artist and not the African American artist who actually was the originator.

Covering and remixing are in a way signs of respect, right? We love this musuc and we want to try it on, or we want to adapt it to our ideas and situations. Appropriations may also begin out of a love for a music, but it essentially steals. This is more akin to plaigiarism.

So when I think of covers, the first song I usually think of is the Rolling Stones' "Satisfaction" and the cover by Devo. So I'm including them, as well as a Britney Spears cover of it and an Aretha Franklin cover of it and a remix by DJ Pageheaven. Also is a version of it by the Residents, which came out just after the Stones' version, and became popular int he punk movement.

I wanted to include the Ed Sullivan show version, but I can't embed it. You can look it up on Youtube. Here's a 1997 live version:



Here's Devo:



And The Residents:



Britney:



Aretha:



And DJ Pageheaven remix: