MUS 284 - Songs, (Un)Covered: Imitation, Interpretation, and Innovation

This course investigates the creative and philosophical dimensions of covering, remixing, and (re)interpreting existing musical works. Beginning with the cover song as a musical phenomenon, we will explore how musicians transform original works through (re)arrangement, performance practice, and stylistic (re)contextualization. Students will engage deeply with influential artists such as Jeff Buckley, Nina Simone, Bob Dylan, Robert Johnson, Pete Seeger, Led Zeppelin, and many others, while also greatly expanding outward to examine how similar acts of imitation and (re)interpretation shape literature, theatre, law, visual art, politics, and the sciences. Through the lens of mimesis and (re)presentation, topics include authorship and the ontology of a musical work, performance, phenomenology, intertextuality, and the anxiety of influence. The course culminates in student-driven projects where students creatively or critically “cover” a work, applying theoretical frameworks to produce their own interpretation, whether through performance, writing, or interdisciplinary media.

Unit(s): 1
Group Distribution Requirement(s): Distribution Group I
Prerequisite(s): MUS 150 or ANTH 211
Instructional Method: Conference
Grading Mode: Letter grading (A-F)
Group Distribution Learning Outcome(s):

Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).