What's Your Opinion?

The business of songwriting is based on opinions. The life of a song can end as soon as one of these people deems the music not good enough to listen to:


Songwriter
Publisher
Song plugger
Artist's manager
Artist
Artist's label head
Label promotional team
Radio DJ
Distributor
Retailer
Listener

The most significant decisions happen in the creative stage. As a songwriter, if I want to get my music all the way through the process to the listener, I should probably take into account the opinions of everyone along the way. Sounds logical, right? But the more people you try to appease, the less focused and pure the song becomes. You can write a song that plays by all the rules, but lacks uniqueness. When you create art, it is impossible to please everyone.

In the end, we are all better off staying true to our own understanding of what a great song is. If we do that, in the end we can at least believe in the art we create.

Keep writing,

Ben

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Would you or someone you know like to go on a songwriting retreat with industry professionals? Visit SongbirdCamp.com for more details!

Washed Up Art

A couple days ago Peter Cooper posted his thoughts about the current state of country music radio programming. Read it here.

There's one key thing that I take from Cooper's blog post, along with the ensuing 228 comments: Temporary art does not satisfy.

While there's room for mindless, fun songs, I believe most people, most of the time, desire to hear music with some substantive depth. And I believe most songwriters, most of the time, desire to write songs with substantive depth. As listeners and creators, all we can do is point to the art that is worth pointing to.

The gatekeepers in the middle will rarely be a good, honest compass leading to fine art; there are too many ulterior motives at play. With song services like Rdio and Spotify (both are like Netflix for music, providing unlimited, on demand streaming of any song) becoming readily available, the role of the traditional gatekeeper is diminished. We don't have to let someone else tell us what songs to like, but have the entire musical world at our fingertips.

Today I am going on a musical exploration of sorts, exposing my ears to music they've never heard. I feel like I'm back on Sanibel Island with a bucket in hand, searching the ground for shells of any color, shape or size that happens to grab my attention. There's plenty of room on the beach...

Keep writing,

Ben

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Would you or someone you know like to go on a songwriting retreat with industry professionals? Visit SongbirdCamp.com for more details!

Identify

Songs either connect with the listener or they don't. When two people hear the same song, what makes one skip to the next track, and another drop what they're doing? And what could the songwriter do to affect this situation? Identify.

When I think of the songs that I truly enjoy listening to, I realize that the reason I love them so much is because they identify with me. They speak into my life, my situation, my relationships. They are the lens through which life makes more sense. We all want to go through every day with a soundtrack playing in the background. And we as songwriters have the honor of writing these songs for those around us.

So how do I identify while writing a song? Keep the listener in mind. It's as if the initial time a listener hears the song, they are going on a "first date" with the melody and lyric. If the song only talks about itself without asking the listener any questions, do you think they'd look forward to a second date?

Keep writing,

Ben