Fear Of Music

David Wiegand has started an interesting conversation, about cover tunes, by stating "there are some songs that I just don’t want to hear again." I'm fascinated because - while he insists covers are everywhere - I never hear them anywhere anymore. I think what we have here is a semantics issue, and David Wiegand is incorrectly labeling the bad art he hears:

   See, I hear tons of bad "copies," in this shitty American Idol/The Voice/etc. travesty of a culture we inhabit, but absolutely no actual "covers" to speak of. Let me show you what I mean:

 

 This is The Rolling Stones doing their original hit song, "Satisfaction".

 

 And here's some TV fag, with a haircut, copying it.

 

 Now, here's Devo doing their "cover" of the same song. 

Notice it's vastly different, but - most importantly - it's ALSO original in it's own right.

 

 Here's another loser - too dumb not to play it straight - and also playing to what sounds like some god-awful drum machine programming.

 

 And here's some Country pickers covering Pink Floyd pretty well. Not brilliantly, but alright. 

My point is - if you want to claim a vibrant culture - there's no way anybody should be copying anything (except for parodies, which is all copies are) and also be expecting praise as an artist. 

These people are not artists. I know artists, and haven't seen one of us in a long, long time: 

I see lots of brain-dead parrots, but that's about all,...