Adorno (1941) said “The popular music industry is an all consuming production line that churns out mass produced, inferior commodities”. He also talked about part inter-changeability and a pseudo individualization of popular music.
We can definitely see this in cover versions however this does not always detract from the art and it completely depends on the artist. An example is the song hallelujah – by Leonard Cohen. "Cohen murmured the original like a dirge” and in 1993 it was covered by Jeff Buckley who used John Cale’s arrangement. Buckley’s version has been described as "as near to perfect as music can get".
In 2008 it was covered by x factor winner Alexandra Burke who broke sales records with her cover which in my opinion was rubbish and had all emotion removed. This is an example of one popular song being art and being a money making commodity.
So to conclude, Pop music can be art, but it can also be mass produced rubbish!
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ReplyDeleteUsing three versions of one song to make the point was quite astute and I agree that the Burke version was 'rubbish', for yet another take on the song check this out (much better)
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