Thursday, June 14, 2007

Death of the Ironic Cover

Bringing sexy back???

Pretty much since the inception of MP3 blogs, the "ironic cover" has been a subgenre of indie rock. Through bootleg MP3s and YouTube videos, ironic takes on modern pop songs that are often featured in indie rock sets have taken on a life far greater than just that live performance. Surf around Hype Machine or any number of blogs and chances are you will come across at least a few. Yet, it has come to my attention that this subgenre has gone too far and needs to stop - at least for the time being. With ironic covers taking on an almost single-like magnitude, others have followed suit and the originality that made them so interesting to begin with has been lost.

This time last summer, everyone was covering "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley. I enjoyed hearing Greg Dulli sing it when I saw the Twilight Singers around that time, yet even Dulli seemed a tad disappointed when I interviewed him that the internet had cut out the performance's surprise potential. Apparently, Justin Timberlake is still working the song into sets, changing the chorus to, "I think she's crazy" - a possible knock towards Britney Spears. And, now, even the mainstream is catching on. In the supermarket yesterday, I heard a version of "Crazy" performed by Shawn Colvin. Now, her take wasn't so bad and a fairly hip decision given her fan base. However, it also smelled of desperation.

The real nail in the coffin is Poison's recent take on "SexyBack." I would never expect Bret Michaels and co. to be beacons of originality (though I do like some "Talk Dirty to Me" from time-to-time) but their "SexyBack" is everything you expect from a bad cover. Michaels doesn't sound so much as though he's re-claiming sexy, more like he's trying to re-claim the pop audience he lost back when Nevermind first dropped. It's as if he feels Justin Timberlake should never have had the spotlight to begin with. Michaels is like an old man trying to show the ungrateful kids his still got it, only to hurt his back in the process. Sorry, Bret, JT owes you nothing.

Originality and the ability to push boundaries is the cornerstone of independent music. With the profile of indie rock and indie labels on the rise, this is not the time to fall back on old tricks, while just copying the next band. And let this be a lesson - if Poison thinks it's cool, it's probably not that cool.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'd be with you, but if the ironic cover subgenre can produce one Ted-Leo-doing-Since-U-Been-Gone every two years or so, I'm fine with it existing and ignoring most of it.

I think I'd disagree with you about all those covers of "Crazy" being ironic. Some of the are, sure, but a lot of them seem completely sincere. Like the Timberlake one I would venture a guess as being sincere.

I saw Ben Gibbard do Avril ("Complicated") a couple years ago. I was not so impressed.

There's a comp coming out called "Guilty Pleasures" I think. It has things like Will Oldham covering Mariah Carey. You can perhaps focus all your hatred on that.

Anonymous said...

It's not hatred, but the title of that comp does annoy me. I've grown rather tired of the terms "guilty pleasures" and Chuck Klosterman wrote a great article on the subject.

There will always be great covers (the very sincere Bonnie Prince Billy and Tortoise cover of "Thunder Road" is an absolute favorite), it would just seem that covers are getting a tad out of control.

Even Ted got annoyed with fans requesting "Since You've Been Gone" at shows.