When Lori Lieberman was 19 years old, she went to a concert of a singer she didn’t know, and ended up writing a poem that would become one of the greatest cover songs of all time. This week we are going to look at the art of covering in popular music, and how that art marked the conversion from a classical model of musical aesthetics to a contemporary one. Popular music in the modern era is metaphysically complex due to the fact that its listeners make very fine-grained judgments about artistic merit and quality. We are going to talk about the stories behind some of the most iconic cover songs in the rock era, analyze an iconic song with Switched on Pop podcast host Nate Sloan, and transform all of it into the philosophy of music. Guests include Ray Padgett, Nate Sloan, Cristyn Magnus, and P.D. Magnus.

(Transcript: Episode 5-Cover Me Softly)

Reading List and Resources for this episode

Ray Padgett’s Cover Me: The Stories Behind the Greatest Covers Songs of All Time.

Cover Me: The Blog

Switched on Pop Podcast, hosted by Nate Sloan and Charlie Harding.

“Judging Covers,” By Cristyn Magnus, P.D. Magnus, and Christy Mag Uidhir in Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism.