Contemporary Aesthetics published an exchange between Brandon Polite and me about my book, Philosophy of Cover Songs.
The papers are based on a session at the 2024 Rocky Mountain ASA. Before our exchange at the conference, I opened the session with a precis of the book.
In this paper, I explore some flaws in P.D. Magnus’s book, A Philosophy of Cover Songs. First, I contest Magnus’s claim that in order to count as a cover, a version of a song must target a recording rather than a performance of that song. Second, I reveal a problem with his taxonomy of covers and defend “mimic covers” from his view that they aren’t worthy of aesthetic interest. Finally, I question the adequacy of his ontology of songs by considering a class of songs that his view cannot accommodate.
Brandon Polite poses a number of interesting criticisms of my account of cover versions. Some I am happy to acknowledge and take on board, but with others I feel he goes too far. I take this chance to clarify and extend my account.
@ARTICLE{Magnus2025.Replies,
AUTHOR = {P.D. Magnus},
TITLE = {Reflections on Cover Songs: Replies to Polite},
JOURNAL = {Contemporary Aesthetics},
YEAR = {2025},
VOLUME = {23}
}