Today in class we discussed songs being covered by artists that typically would not perform that particular genre due to race, gender, etc. As the discussion went on I couldn’t help but think that at what point to we draw the line and say does it really matter who performs what works as long as they do so with the best intentions, meaning they do what is cultural , morally, and socially appropriate . To say a singer like Adele should not sing Water under the bridge because she is a female and white, in itself seems to be somewhat discriminatory. I would like to believe that she did a cover of this song with the best intentions in mind. I would also like to think that she did this cover just because she liked the song and brought it back not to make some kind of statement, however you just never know. We live in a world were I think it is becoming more and more important that we do things with the best intentions. Though this you can learn and grow and hopefully not offend anyone. Even in choirs today, we sing pieces of music from African Cultures. We do our best to with gospel but an all white choir from the North doesn’t exactly have the background of these genre. However we approach them with the best intentions, and respect to create an appropriate rendition of the repertoire at hand. I think that if someone goes into creating or covering a piece of music with the wrong intentions then that justifies further investigation, however, there should be no reason all people  should not be able to perform a type of music because of gender, race, sexuality, whatever. Here’s the thing,  we are all people and music brings a new level of understanding so why not allow all genres to be shared and performed?

Just my two cents, happy Tuesday

– Gabs

Link to Adele— for the record I think its a great song and she sounds great.