Here’s some disturbing etymology for ya …

Stop using the term “cover artist” or “cover song” for musicians or works that reinterpret older songs. If you don’t, you’re a racist:

Don McLean on the incorrect use of the term “cover”:

Back in the days of black radio stations and white radio stations (i.e. segregation), if a black act had a hot record the white kids would find out and want to hear it on “their” radio station. This would prompt the record company to bring a white act into the recording studio and cut an exact, but white, version of the song to give to the white radio stations to play and thus keep the black act where it belonged, on black radio. A “cover” version of a song is a racist tool. Many examples can be found from “Sha Boom” to “Good Lovin’” It is NOT a term intended to be used to describe a valid interpretation of an old song. In that case every pop singer is nothing more than a cover artist (a derogatory description if ever there was one). I am not a “cover” artist and I do not do “covers”. The Crewcuts were cover artists.

Great, so we’re all musical bigots, then. Dang. (Though, I do wonder: what do we say instead of “cover”, then? “NRRP”s (Non-Racist Repeat Performances)?)

(via The Agitator)
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