Flattery? Perhaps a reinterpretation and shift of meaning.

In light of the myriad of song covers, either by a person recreating a song by filming themselves singing with a guitar in front of webcam, or in the less artistically inventive form of lip-synching, an analysis of this form of video found on the internet seems appropriate. In Andrew Goodwin’s book Dancing In the Distraction Factory, the topic of song meaning being reinterpreted by visual images is vividly analyzed. In the case of innumerable music videos, this has been truly shown to be manifested. Such has been the case of Marilyn Manson where the visual imagery shown in videos and live shows that fix a meaning that can be at times not in the same context as his lyrics or even the sound of the song. A historical example that occurs to this day is where classic and opera singers can be so focused on the dramatic image they are creating, whether it be by costumes, acting or just looking pretty, that they are often distracting to the original meaning of the song.

In that light, the idea of people doing covers of songs holds to this idea of reinterpretation of meaning; from an aesthetically artistic point of view, to having such a drastic reiteration of the song that gives the text an entirely different perception of meaning. In light of the platform of the internet, specifically with the ease that Youtube provides to amateurs to upload their videos. In many ways, this holds to the saying that “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”, however, in many other ways, in respect to covers such as the one I have shown here the content is presented in a humorous manner. This example does fall into the camp of lip-synching, but does show quite a bit of the concept of reinterpretation and meaning shifting due to visual representation. Here is shown a video of two guys from Brazil who have here done a lip-synching cover of the Spice Girls song WanneBe. The basic original meaning of the song was by no means an organic expression of vivid meaning, but simply a song done in the first person term, of a girl’s clarification and description to her prospective boyfriend, of what she really wants in a relationship. Here the song is enacted in a way that borders on absurdity, since the conveyers, the two topless adolescents certainly would sound very different than the Spice Girls, if perceivably we could hear how they would sing the song if not lip-synching. 

 

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