Melting the Archive: The Irreconcilable Cover Song and Rock's Recorded History.

This article examines a set of unconventional rock cover songs—termed "irreconcilable covers"—that diverge so radically from their canonical originals that their status as covers is philosophically and aesthetically ambiguous. While these versions often discard core musical elements like melody and chord progressions, they retain metatextual cues such as song titles and songwriting credits that invite listeners to appreciate them as covers. The author argues that these irreconcilable covers function as conceptual artworks analogous to Arthur Danto’s analysis of Andy Warhol’s Brillo Boxes, provoking reflection on the nature of cover songs, rock music’s relationship to its recorded past, and the artistic practices surrounding covering. Through historical and intentionalist interpretative approaches, these covers are seen as engaging with rock’s archival history in ways that challenge conventional notions of musical identity and artistic homage.