Digital Commons@RISD Home > Division of Liberal Arts > Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive) > Vol. 23 (2025)
Abstract
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.