Was the social significance of cover songs in early rock music?

Answer 1

Most of white America wasn't exposed to R&B music. So to increase record sales, companies copied the popular black songs and released them by popular white singers on nationally-distributed "white" labels.

Answer 2

All of the Above (apex)

Answer 3

The single largest social significance of covering early rock songs was the advent of garage music. Many bands proliferated across Western civilization by covering songs that were popular and this allowed a certain level of comfort for some bands to begin writing their own songs.

On the professional front, it is probably fair to say that Bob Dylan has been covered during every stage of his musical career, leading, for example, new interpretations by other famous performers such as Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton, to mention only a couple, to reinvent the music in such a way that, while honoring the original authors, they managed to create vastly different interpretations. As far as the social significance at this level, it might be fair to say that it created, at least for a time, a sense of sharing of a new musical (and sometimes political) movement, to which most listeners felt a strong sense of belonging and inspiration.

Their were also songs that crossed over into early rock going back to early recordings of magnificent, unheard black musicians. Nearly all the great Rolling Stones early songs were taken word for work from one man's work recorded on a wax cylinder in the early 1920s: Robert Johnson wrote and sang nearly the entire early Stones' playlists, for one. Eventually black music was allowed on the radio in its own right and a huge socio-political event occurred when Motown showed up on the Rock Music scene.

Later on, Stevie Ray Vaughan did a wonderful cover of Hendrix covering Dylan...so there was at times a strong feeling of synergy. Numerous other famous artists have found meaning in covering other writers' music. This began a series of both tribute recordings that brought disparate stylists together in a way previous unimagined in popular music, although covering songs began in other formats before rock, too. The social significance remains strongest on the semi-professional level, at least statistically, in that many more bands were created and had "battle of the bands" competitions for a few years.

Answer 4

Caucasians covered African American music and gained commercial success while African Americans got none of the credit.