116
AdAptAtion in the Age of MediA ConvergenCe
Mosser notes that the term cover song “is used without the recognition
that there are many different kinds of ‘covers’.” 16 In order to avoid a narrow
definition of what an original song may be, Mosser proposes the term “base
song” instead, which may be read as a term that is analogous to the “source
text” or “hypotext,” or a term that at first glance wishes to deprioritize values
associated with the use of the word “original.” He explains that he uses the
term “base” to refer to a song “that, due to its status, popularity, or possibly
other reasons, is taken to be paradigmatic, and thus the version to which
all other recordings or performances are compared.” 17 The base song is to a
certain extent an inclusive term, since a cover song may become itself a base
song as in the paradigmatic case of WOTE’s “Somebody That I Used to Know”
YouTube cover song video. In other words, Mosser’s working definition of
the base song entails the possibility that at a certain moment in the history
of a song, which holds the status of the base song, a paradigmatic cover may
take the original song’s position as a base song or base song performance
due to its popularity or charismatic performance of the covering artist.
Ingham uses the term “adaptation displacement” to describe such covers. 18
Burns et al. introduce the category “versions by fans performing the song” 19
together with other categories that may fall under a broader understanding
of cover videos, but they do not offer an elaborate understanding of what
this may entail or how it may function as a form of adaptation. The key aim
here is to discuss covering processes outside industry-controlled contexts
of remaking music and making music videos. Terms such as adaptation
displacement or base song as a case of adaptation displacement have been
used by the above authors to refer to commercially successful covers, clearly
positioning the phenomenon within an adaptation framework. Aligning
my own work with this trend of studying covers as adaptations, I propose
to revisit the term para-adaptation 20 as a first step in understanding how
small-scale YouTube cover videos such as WOTE’s video can also be read as
adaptations and not solely as fan versions of popular songs. The success of
WOTE’s video has led to a new relationship between the source and the cover
song that is not strictly determined by the order of release, or where and how
the source song or cover song were released. Para-adaptations are therefore
16 Kurt Mosser, “Cover songs.”
17 Ibid.
18 Mike Ingham, “Popular Song and Adaptation.” In The Oxford Handbook of Adaptation Studies,
ed. Thomas Leitch (New York: Oxford University Press, 2017), 324–339.
19 Burns, Dubuc and Lafrance. “Cotextuality in Music Video,” 233.
20 Costas Constandinides, “Para-adaptation: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love
Convergence Culture,” Adaptation 6.2 (2013): 143–157.
AdAptAtion in the Age of MediA ConvergenCe
Mosser notes that the term cover song “is used without the recognition
that there are many different kinds of ‘covers’.” 16 In order to avoid a narrow
definition of what an original song may be, Mosser proposes the term “base
song” instead, which may be read as a term that is analogous to the “source
text” or “hypotext,” or a term that at first glance wishes to deprioritize values
associated with the use of the word “original.” He explains that he uses the
term “base” to refer to a song “that, due to its status, popularity, or possibly
other reasons, is taken to be paradigmatic, and thus the version to which
all other recordings or performances are compared.” 17 The base song is to a
certain extent an inclusive term, since a cover song may become itself a base
song as in the paradigmatic case of WOTE’s “Somebody That I Used to Know”
YouTube cover song video. In other words, Mosser’s working definition of
the base song entails the possibility that at a certain moment in the history
of a song, which holds the status of the base song, a paradigmatic cover may
take the original song’s position as a base song or base song performance
due to its popularity or charismatic performance of the covering artist.
Ingham uses the term “adaptation displacement” to describe such covers. 18
Burns et al. introduce the category “versions by fans performing the song” 19
together with other categories that may fall under a broader understanding
of cover videos, but they do not offer an elaborate understanding of what
this may entail or how it may function as a form of adaptation. The key aim
here is to discuss covering processes outside industry-controlled contexts
of remaking music and making music videos. Terms such as adaptation
displacement or base song as a case of adaptation displacement have been
used by the above authors to refer to commercially successful covers, clearly
positioning the phenomenon within an adaptation framework. Aligning
my own work with this trend of studying covers as adaptations, I propose
to revisit the term para-adaptation 20 as a first step in understanding how
small-scale YouTube cover videos such as WOTE’s video can also be read as
adaptations and not solely as fan versions of popular songs. The success of
WOTE’s video has led to a new relationship between the source and the cover
song that is not strictly determined by the order of release, or where and how
the source song or cover song were released. Para-adaptations are therefore
16 Kurt Mosser, “Cover songs.”
17 Ibid.
18 Mike Ingham, “Popular Song and Adaptation.” In The Oxford Handbook of Adaptation Studies,
ed. Thomas Leitch (New York: Oxford University Press, 2017), 324–339.
19 Burns, Dubuc and Lafrance. “Cotextuality in Music Video,” 233.
20 Costas Constandinides, “Para-adaptation: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love
Convergence Culture,” Adaptation 6.2 (2013): 143–157.