Alli's Articles
INTERVIEWS, REVIEWS, CULTURE PIECES, MUSICAL RAMBLINGS.
I shouldn’t even have to start off this article with an introduction to the current state of the world. It’s impossible to not be aware of what’s happening in the United States right now, since we are now on the third week of Black Lives Matter protests that were sparked by the murder of George Floyd by a police officer in Minnesota. The continuation of police brutality in this country is absolutely unjust and despicable, but the glimmer of hope through it all is the small steps towards reform and change that is beginning to happen through donations, petitions, and the spreading of information through the sometimes-lovely powers of social media. Along with sharing ways to help, a lot of people I follow have been sharing media resources, such as movies to watch, things to read, and music to listen to that highlights both black struggles and excellence. This is something I knew I had to do myself, especially music-wise. I constantly feel like I’m not showing enough support to artists of color, and that my Spotify library is wildly disproportionate. I began at the roots of it all, a continuation of my education that was inspired by a History of Rock class last semester that highlighted some of the black legends that started the genre. My boyfriend made me a playlist of some of his picks, and during my first listen I noticed a song called “Dancing in the Street,” by a group called Martha and the Vandellas. I realized that I have heard this song before...David Bowie and Mick Jagger made a cover of it, but of course, since their version is the more commonly-heard one nowadays, I didn’t even think of it to be a cover. Many legendary white artists have been exposed for ripping off of black artists and taking a majority of the credit that the originals deserved. An infamous example of this is Elvis. Many of his hit songs were not written by him, but by a variety of lesser-known rhythm-and-blues musicians that weren’t getting a dime for the movement that he seemed to create globally. This trend of white artists somewhat stealing the fame of black artists was very common during the popularization of rock-n-roll, from the 50s all the way to the 80s. Another example I was shocked by was Bob Marley’s “I Shot the Sheriff” being covered and propelled into the mainstream by Eric Clapton. Listening to the two versions back to back, the cover just seems stripped of most of its original Jamaican identity and became mostly guitar-driven, fitting in with many of the rock artists dominating the charts during the early 70s. (I also should probably mention that Clapton has a pretty extensive past of being blatantly racist, so this adds up to me). If you’re familiar with the term “whitewashing,” this appears to be a perfect example of it; Taking a piece of work and altering it to seem more familiar or appealing to white people. Whitewashing seems to be the most probable diagnosis for all of the examples I’ve mentioned so far. Whether it’s a scheme by the record companies supporting famous white artists to try to squeeze another hit without going through the hassle of recording a new original song, or the famous artists trying to pay tribute to the black artists in question, most of the time it results in the white musicians getting more attention than the black musicians, the ones who came up with the song in the first place. Once I made the “Dancing in the Street” connection, I decided to go through an old playlist I made filled with my favorite cover songs, mostly in the indie genre, and saw how many of them I could trace back to having a black creator. Almost immediately I was able to find one, in the song “List of Demands (Reparations),” by indie punk duo The Kills. They released the song as a single in 2018, and I remember hearing it a lot on Sirius XM’s AltNation station. As I looked back into the roots of the song, I found out that the original was released in 2004 by a black punk/hip-hop artist named Saul Williams. The original version was a lot more fast-paced and angry, and as I looked through the Genius annotations, I clearly saw that Williams meant for the song and lyrics to have a “F**k you” attitude. The Kills’ version is significantly slowed down, and drastically more chill and mysterious. I see no problem in covering a song in a way that fits the artists’ sound, but the Kills version of “List of Demands” has 5 million Spotify plays while Williams’ version only has 2 million. On top of that, The Kills has over 600,000 monthly listeners, while Williams only has around 50,000. The YouTube video of the song (below) also has less views than the cover. The majority of listeners probably haven’t looked into the song and are only hearing the lyrics portrayed in the aesthetic of The Kills. It’s easy to see that the cover had more of a reception than the original, and even though the band most likely covered the songs to pay homage to this anthem, it just goes to show how unfortunate it is that there is a whole world of black artists aren’t getting the attention they rightfully deserve under the surface of white covers. It’s only fair to acknowledge that this isn’t the case for all white covers of black songs. Some songs are already legends, staples in the soundtrack of society that makes them impossible to become overshadowed. Examples of this from my covers playlist include “Africa” by Weezer, “I Will Survive” by Cake, and even Red Hot Chili Peppers’ version of “Higher Ground.” Those songs were already well-known before, so I would say that mostly everyone is aware that those aren’t the originals (even though I do recall some people that really thought Rivers Cuomo wrote “Africa” when their version was getting some airtime). Those are truly just paying tribute to legends, who are already acknowledged as legends, without stepping over them or stealing their rightfully-earned credit.
Cover songs are meant to be fun, because it is entertaining to listen to the work of one artist in another artist’s style. I don’t want this article to read off as “Covering songs by a black artist while you’re white is racist and cultural appropriation!” because, obviously, that isn’t true. Artists should feel free to pay their respects to their inspirations any way they feel, including performing their songs, but when unoriginals are getting more attention and recognition than the song itself, it’s kind of unfair. When you reflect upon all of the black ideas, artists, and sounds that are sewed into rock-n-roll, and how many of their genres we have “borrowed” over the course of time, this is just another example of their hard work and effort not being honored in the spotlight it deserves. You might be asking yourself now, like I did once I made this entire discovery, “What can I, as a nonblack person, do to fix this?” The easiest answer won’t stop this issue right away, but it sure can help. Just support your favorite POC artists, especially if they’re small or just starting out. Shout them out. Promote their albums and songs. Put them on playlists. If you’re able to, you can even buy their music on sites such as Bandcamp. I love sharing music on my social media. I love promoting my favorite small artists, and I know that they appreciate it. My friend Birgitta even put together a playlist for our Music Collective club at school of POC indie/punk bands and singers that I recommend listening to. Doing what I did and retracing the black history of rock has been a great way to start educating myself during these times, because I definitely feel like that is one of the most important things for me to do as a young white individual. I hope that it’s clear to see that the point of this article isn’t “Cover songs = bad,” it’s “Black singers and songwriters deserve more credit for all that they have done to the modern world of music.” In this age of easily accessible streaming platforms and even more widely impactable social media platforms, we have the power to change that, and it truly starts at the bottom. Black Lives Matter. This movement is much bigger than this. Here are some resources to check out: https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/ https://moreblminfo.carrd.co/ https://linktr.ee/blacklivesmatter
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