Colorado College Associate Professor of Music Ryan Raul Bañagale published an article in The Conversation on Monday, and by Wednesday it had more than 17,000 views. His article, "Weezer's Cover Album: Is the Rock Band Honoring or Exploiting the Originals?" has been picked up by 21 outlets so far, including Salon, the San Francisco Chronicle, Houston Chronicle, and Seattle Post-Intelligencer. It also has been read by more than 2,000 people overseas.

Bañagale, a musicologist, writes, "If you've noticed the 1980s hit 'Africa' playing on the radio more than usual, you likely weren't listening to the original version by Toto. Instead, it was probably the recently released cover by Weezer, which has already been heard over 25 million times on Spotify." Bañagale goes on to discuss the question of "who gets to cover whom" and some of the problematic aspects of the genre.

Bañagale, who graduated from CC in 2000 with a degree in music and drama, wrote another piece, "'Oklahoma!' at 75: Has the Musical Withstood the Test of Time," for The Conversation in March 2018.