The history of rock's pasts through rock covers
Malden, (1998)Abstract
Despite its privileging of the "here and now", rock music has always been made with an acute awareness of its history. However, the ways in which rock has referenced this past, and the reasons for doing so, have changed significantly over time. These shifts in historical consciousness are examined through the tradition of rock covers. The concept of the cover song was invented by rock and enabled by sound recording technology that allowed a particular performance, rather than a particular song, to be the reference for iteration. As rock culture has developed from the 1950s to the present, so too have rock covers, marking a modern, a modernist, and finally a postmodern orientation to rock's history. Musical approaches and ideological justifications for performing covers are discussed for subgenres including early rock and roll, British Invasion rock, heavy metal, punk, post-punk, and hip-hop.