L’interpretazione estrema in musica: la cover tra reinterpretazione e lettura critica

Reinterpretation in the field of music questions both interpretation in general and the extreme paths that specific forms of cultural reinterpretation can take. The relationship between a musical composition and its performance historically constitutes a confrontation ground on the idea of interpretation. A further and different meaning of the term 'interpretation' is centred on its use in a musical, productive and performative sense, while at the same time realising a surplus of knowledge. In popular music, the reinterpretation of a song constitutes a test both for the text itself and for the artist performing it, and poses a question of comparison, i.e. of less or more distance, or fidelity, to the original version. It represents a re-creation, i.e. a (sometimes 'extreme') manipulation of the text, in order to bring out its unprecedented aspects. Covers are reinterpretations of a song by another artist, and 'extreme interpretations' possess both the function of testing their power of renewal and the possibility of bringing out a 'hidden' canon. Patti Smith in 1974 realised a cover of the song Hey Joe according to a gender key, with a kind of subjective-enunciative superimposition that inserted a new narrative point of view, through the figure of Patricia Hearst. This represents a key step in the historical hiatus that was taking place between classic rock and a new questioning of gender issues.