Between our shrinking attention spans and increasing competition, the world’s biggest songs are among the shortest ever made.
In a report released by Samsung in December 2020, scientists found the average consumer attention span is now 8-seconds long. That discovery is 33% lower than a similar study from 2000 that claimed consumers had 12-second attention spans. Four seconds may not sound like a great deal to some, but in the age of streaming, every moment counts — now more than ever.
The team behind the study cites our shrinking attention spans as one of two main factors shaping the current state of music. The other factor is streaming, which grants consumers so much access to content that every artist must work harder to grab and hold listeners’ attention. These two forces are making songwriters rethink their approach to crafting hit songs. So much so that the same report claims that by 2030 the average length of a hit song will be two-minutes. That is about half the length of a hit song from the 1990s.
Proof of the study’s findings is everywhere. One look at streaming charts, and anyone can see that most popular songs are already under four-minutes in length, with many far shorter than that. 24KGoldn’s inescapable 2020 hit “Mood,” for example, runs just two-minutes and twenty-one seconds. Billie Eilish’s “Therefore I Am” is slightly longer, coming in at two-minutes and fifty-four seconds.
In the latest Music Biz News update, host James Shotwell reports on the study’s findings and what it means for the future of music. He also explains how introducing emerging trends in popular music can help artists from all corners of the industry increase their chances of writing a breakout hit. Check it out:
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In a time when culture is evolving faster than ever, Emmure vocalist Frankie Palmeri is sharing his regrets over past lyrical choices.
When Frankie Palmeri’s band Emmure burst onto the music scene in the late 2000s, nobody was ready for the band’s brutally honest lyricism and devastatingly heavy sound. Throughout multiple releases, many under the Victory Records banner, Palmeri wrote about heartache and the anger he felt toward the world around him without consideration for how his word choices might impact listeners. He spoke of murdering exes, hurting his enemies, and having sex with his listeners’ girlfriends with total disregard for how his art might make people feel.
But that was another time. The world has changed a lot since Emmure burst onto the scene, and the affinity for ultraviolent, highly-profane lyricism fans of heavy music once enjoyed has waned. Some may see that as a bad thing, but others believe that creating music with more awareness of how things impact listeners makes the heavier areas of music more accessible to more people.
This week, Palmeri took to Twitter to renounce his past lyricism. In a multi-tweet post, the Emmure frontman wrote:
“Hanging out with someone who only listens to metalcore made [me] realize why regular people with healthy neuroplasticity don’t fuck with that genre of music and gravitate towards pop/rap. Talk about a fucking unnecessary onslaught of bullshit emotions.
“Trust me when I say; I emotionally and spiritually reject almost every lyric I’ve ever written. It all stems from material pain, a fragile ego, an inability to cope. It’s unfortunate anyone has ever identified with any of what I’ve said in my music. A lot [of] people are/were hurting.”
Frankie Palmeri via Twitter
You can view Palmeri’s original tweets below.
It’s hard to know what the lead Palmeri to make this announcement, but rumors of a new Emmure record being on the way have circled the internet for months. If so, Palmeri’s comments could signal a departure from the group’s previous efforts, which fans may or may not embrace.
More importantly, it’s is refreshing to see an artist reconsider their past actions through the lens of cultural acceptance and emotional maturity. Palmeri once wrote, “ask your girl what my d-ck tastes like,” and now he’s apologizing for it. That’s character development, and we could use more of that in the metalcore world.
Three years after her Inside Music debut, songwriter Annie Schindel returns to the show with stories from her life in the industry.
Success is not measured in comparison to others but in your sense of satisfaction with the work you pursue. That lesson is one every music professional must learn, often more than once, and it rarely easy.
Annie Schindel is not your typical singer/songwriter. After finding viral success online while still in high school, Schindel took a step back from the spotlight to focus on school and personal development. That effort lead her to rediscover her passion for songwriting, which eventually lead to behind-the-scenes role helping artists from all walks of life craft better material. She cannot speak the names of those she works with, at least not yet, but it is safe to say she has rubbed shoulders with serious industry players.
Now, three years after her Inside Music debut, Annie Schindel returns to our podcast with a series of stories and lessons from her life in songwriting. Annie explains how her lack of public output does not equate to a lack of work, as well as the plans she has for 2020. Annie also shares the story behind “Reminiscing,” the brand new single she released at the end of November. Take a listen below:
Streaming has made a significant impact on songwriting. So much so, that the entire music industry is trying to catch up to ‘The Spotify Sound.’
No one knew what Spotify would do to the music business. People were quick to assume the easy of access to the majority of all recorded music would lure people away from physical media, but no one thought to consider the ripple effect that seismic shift in consumer behavior would create.
Physical sales of music were on the decline before Spotify launched, but the now ten-year-old company and its competitors in the streaming market have also created a drop in download sales. A few niche formats found success in the early 2010s, specifically vinyl and cassette tapes, but those trends have also fizzled as streaming continues to gain momentum.
The latest evolution resulting from the age of streaming concerns songwriting. With most streaming platforms counting a play after consumers have listened to the track for thirty-seconds, more emphasis than ever is being placed on the way songs begin. There is also added emphasis on the runtime of tracks, as well as the volume of material being released.
On this episode of Music Biz 101, host James Shotwell explains the phenomenon know as ‘The Spotify Sound’ and offers a two-step solution to writing songs that generate a high volume of streams.
If there is one thing that unites musicians and the people who write about them it is the constant struggle to maintain their creativity. It does not matter if you are a blogger or fronting the world’s biggest band, there will be times in this life when you are not able to create at a level you feel is good enough. Call it writer’s block or some kind of mental hurdle, the name doesn’t matter nearly as much as the recognition this resistance is both real and universal. Everyone who attempt to create anything faces these struggles, but that understanding doesn’t make your ability to complete your work any easier.
On a recent episode of his podcast, comedian Joey ‘Coco’ Diaz was speaking with fellow comic Tom Segura about longevity in stand up. Both Joey and Segura are headliners in comedy today, but it took years of hard work and thousands of jokes in order to reach that level. Still, both men constantly find themselves at a creative impasse. While talking about this on air Diaz mentioned advice he once received from legendary comedian Paul Mooney when discussing his creative hurdles. Mooney’s advice was summaries in three simple words: Go get entertained.
I know what some of you are thinking: Get entertained? But I have deadlines! There are people counting on me to finish this thing and it needs to be something great and it needs to be done now!
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but if you’re so stuck that you’re reading articles like this about overcoming mental blocks then the chance of your work being completed to the best of your abilities in the next hour or so is highly unlikely. You have thought about the thoughts you are trying to think too much, which is to say you’ve begun to work yourself in circles. You’re chasing ghosts of ideas you thought you might have at a time other than right now and no amount of searching is going to make them miraculously appear.
Your brain, like your biceps or any other muscle, can only work so much before it needs to rest. In order to work more efficiently your brain needs exercise, which in the case of creative people includes inspiration in the form of experiences. You are the sum total of everything you have experienced up to this point, and those experiences have now become both your source of inspiration and – hopefully – income. In order to continue feeling inspired to create you need to continue taking in new experiences. I say this not just for your work, but for your sanity. You can drive yourself crazy starring at an empty canvas or you can go out, see or hear or touch or taste or smell something that moves you, then immediately feel the need to purposefully create once more.
This may read like common sense to some readers, but the up and comers still trying to get their foot in the door will think it’s crazy because they’ve been taught this industry does not allow for breaks. Who has time to watch a television show, let alone a two-hour feature film, when emails are flowing like water at all hours of the day. Add to this the need to maintain social channels, which can require posting up to (if not more than) ten separate feeds on any given day, and we haven’t even addressed the actual work any creative is trying to accomplish. Writing songs or stories takes time, but so does finding inspiration, and far too often we forget that fact.
You are only human, and your brain is only a muscle. In order to perform at your best you have to rest and exercise, but physically and mentally, on a daily basis. It’s both that simple and that hard, but like any other meaningful routine in life it is worth the effort.
So the next time you find yourself banging your head against a wall while trying to create your next masterpiece try taking a step back for an hour, night, or even a couple days. See a movie, go on a hike, or just put on your favorite records. Spend time remembering why you love the thing you do so you can then share that love with the world at large. We’ll be here, ready and waiting to experience what you decide to share.
This post is the latest in our ongoing collaboration series with Sonicbids. Enjoy.
Be honest: have your lyrics ever found you down on your knees and begging please, or noting that when things change, they also rearrange? Has anything in one of your songs ever cut like a knife?
If you’re 16 and in your first band, you can be forgiven for coming up with the same metaphors and phrases that have occurred to thousands before you, but if you want to be a real lyricist, you should be aware of these overused lyrical concepts. It’s the only way to avoid them!
1. “Cold as ice”
This tired simile, usually applied to a woman who’s not interested (or no longer interested) in the male songwriter, might be the number-one most trite phrase in music.
Try this instead: You can change the subject and the substance of this silly simile. Roger Waters flipped this one on its head all the way back in 1977 on “One of My Turns” when he sang that he felt “cold as a razor blade.” Better still, he was talking about depression and self-harm, not lost love.
2. “It cuts like a knife”
This is not only a common metaphor for love, it’s a stupid one. Love makes one feel lots of things, but it’s never once made me feel as though I was cut by a knife. Stabbed, perhaps, but not sliced.
Try this instead: If one must use a painful metaphor for love, consider some other sources of pain and/or death (probably skipping drowning – that one’s overused, too): choking, electrocution, burning, gunshots, blunt-force trauma, road rash, or some sort of allergic reaction. All of these have been used, and some of them used a lot, but most songwriters go for the knife.
3. “I’m down on my knees”
Usually rhymed with “please,” this bluesy couplet retreads the same theme of lost love, and more specifically an undignified plea for affection that once was freely given.
Try this instead: Throw the whole phrase out, and find another way to express your feeling. Warren Zevon, an encyclopedia of interesting lyrics, dodged all cliché when addressing this concept on “Accidentally, Like a Martyr,” singing, “Never thought I’d have to pay so dearly / for what was already mine.”
Surely there are other, more colorful ways to address the demeaning act of begging a lover to stay… like mentioning whatever you did to piss him or her off in the first place.
4. When everything happens “tonight”
Is there a word or syllable missing in your lyric? Just add the word “tonight.” This word haunts the end of millions of phrases, more common than a comma or a period. It’s the inevitable word that replaces an actual idea the lyricist might have.
Try this instead: The worst thing about this one is the total lack of any sense of time in most lyrics that feature it. It’s always “tonight,” a night that is going on now and will never end… and it would be more effective in future tense.
For example, “You’re my baby tonight” (more on “baby” later) is a lot less interesting than whatever is going to happen later, creating a sense of tension. “I’m crawling out my window tonight,” or “Meet me at the railroad tracks tonight” are examples.
5. “Things aren’t always what they seem”
Well, no, they’re not, but this trite vaguery doesn’t actually mean anything, like when Polonius cried, “To thine own self be true” in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. What the Bard intended as the babble of a fool has become universally cited as profound advice. For some reason, this cliché has come home to roost in hard rock and heavy metal more than other genres. Maybe it’s the drugs, but even when the world is confusing and strange to sensitive artists, this one should be left out.
Try this instead: Maybe this concept of confusion and uncertainty can be expressed more easily through music than lyrics. That’s what psychedelic music is, right? Grab your wah-wah pedal and soak those tracks in delay.
6. “Walking,” “climbing,” and “swimming”: the triathlon of love
How many times have we heard about how far the songwriter will walk, climb, or swim to reach a lover? And isn’t this whole concept a little archaic? In a world in which one can drive through a tunnel from England in be in France minutes later, the idea of a loved one being thousands of miles away just doesn’t have the impact it did when all those miles had to be on horseback.
Try this instead: Being a week’s ride from your beloved meant a lot more in the 1800s than it does today. That power of distance returns when the song itself is a period piece, taking the listener back to early times, as Cordelia’s Dad does on this folk number about sailing across the sea in exile.
7. “Baby”
Who knows when or why we started calling everyone “baby”? Think about your friends and family. Who in your circle can get away with calling you that? Technically, calling an adult a baby is a metaphor… just a really, really lame one. But if you’re going metaphorical, the sky’s the limit.
Try this instead: You can use any pet name or any comparison you’d like. Nobody thinks of AC/DC as an especially poetic band, but when Brian Johnson sang “she was a fast machine” on “You Shook Me All Night Long,” that was actually a pretty nice metaphor. Think how much weaker the line would have been if he sang, “She was my baby.” Try anything, anything but the baby.
8. “Soar like an eagle” and “learning to fly”
Birds, with their beauty, their spectacular aerial skills, and their long migrations have always inspired artists of all kinds. Songwriters are constantly learning to fly or mending damaged wings, two metaphorical clichés that deserve to finally die. That doesn’t mean that all flight metaphors need to go, but if you’re going to call someone a bird, at least be specific.
Try this instead: The names of specific species or types of things often have more poetic and evocative value than vague terms like “bird,” as Sun Kil Moon explore on their whole album Admiral Fell Promises. Songwriter Mark Kozelek mentions hummingbirds, pigeons, and gulls to give his listeners a sense of place, evoking oceans, deserts, or pastoral scenes.
Think whip-poor-wills, mockingbirds, redstarts, harriers, and nighthawks. The sounds and appearance of different birds can conjure thoughts of specific places and times, like geese flocking in the fall in New England or the calls of thrushes in the spring. But let’s give the eagle and the dove a rest; they’ve definitely done their bit.
Jesse Sterling Harrison is an author, recording artist, and part-time farmer. He lives in Massachusetts with his wife, three daughters, and a herd of ducks.
The only thing more annoying than bandwagon fans may be bandwagon haters. People who feel it is their duty as fans of a particular sound or genre to tear down whoever is currently dominating the charts because they believe it makes them unique or edgy in some way. We who embrace the hitmakers know better, as we understand there is a reason certain artists see their star shoot into the stratosphere while others must work incredibly hard for every tiny bit of success they achieve. The reasons for this are as numerous as grains of sand on the beach, but one thing that is almost always true about real music stars, and by that I mean those who are able to hold the public’s attention across multiple albums, is that they always find a way to connect with people in a way that feels personal.
To be clear, what I just said is far easier to grasp than it is to recreate. We all follow our own paths in this life, experiencing practically every aspect of existence in a way that is wholly unique to ourselves, yet for some reason there are certain songs and/or artists who have the power to make us feel as though we are part of something bigger than ourselves. Call it a community, or a culture, or a way of life, but there is something to the biggest material in history that connects with people in a deeply personal way. You may have never experienced the situation being described in the song, and you may never know the story that inspired the lyrics, but something about the way emotion is being expressed cuts through the noise and strikes you right in your soul. It moves you, as it does others, and as soon as it’s over we long to feel that connection again. That is the sign you’ve found something truly great in music, and it’s something that is completely achievable by pretty much every artist working today. That is, if they work hard enough.
The big star of the moment is Adele, and by now you’ve no doubt heard her single “Hello” between one and one-hundred times in your daily life. Her music is everywhere right now, and her new single “When We Were Young” seems poised to push her exposure even further. The production on these tracks is undeniably gorgeous, and Adele’s powerful voice is something that will be praised for decades to come, but what makes these songs work at Top 40 radio and beyond has little do with those factors and far more to do with the feeling you get when the music plays. Adele, like Drake on tracks like “Hotline Bling” or “Hold On, We’re Going Home,” has the power to make you miss people and situations you have never actually known. Something in the way the music compliments the lyrics, which are typically pulled from a deeply personal place, creates an atmosphere of turmoil and heartache that listeners take upon themselves to connect with events in their own lives. It doesn’t matter whether or not the events that inspired the song are the same as the events the lyrics are being applied to by the listeners, and it never will. All that matters is that the performer is able to capture a feeling, or perhaps a better description would be a sense of being, that translates on a massive scale.
What I’m trying to say is that the reason these artists skyrocket into the music stratosphere while others fight over lower chart positions is because people feel like the know them. When you hear the music of Adele and Drake, or even smaller acts like The Hotelier or Modern Baseball, you feel as if you are hearing an update from a close friend about what has been going on in their life since you last spoke. It’s entertaining, yes, but it’s so much more than that as well. You long for those updates, and when they arrive you click play with all the hope in the world that you and this person or group, whom you’ve never met, have been experiencing similar situations in life. You hope there is something in there story that relates to your own, and that kind of connection is incredibly hard to break. Even if the quality of the music begins to suffer, and the radio songs can’t crack the top 10, people who have connected to an artist on an emotional level will continue to follow them for as long as they are able.
I cannot tell you how to create songs that connect with people the way the latest singles from Drake and Adele do, but that is okay because writing material like that should not be your goal after reading this post. Writing music that would work for Drake or Adele is not guaranteed to work for you, at all. Your goal, or better yet your mission, should be to find a way to create the music you want to make in such a way that it connects with people like the material released by your musical peers. It’s not about copying someone else’s formula, but rather finding a way to tap into the same set of relatable emotions that has established countless artists as household names over the last hundred or so years of pop music. Even if you’re writing metal, the goal remains the same. You want to create something that is both personal and universal, which shares a part of you in a meaningful way while still allowing others to add their own meaning to the material. There is no recipe for that kind of creation, nor are the any guides I would suggest you spend time reading. The best way to make material like this is too simply keep creating, and in time you will learn to refine your skills. As your songwriting improves, so will the reach of your music, but you cannot allow yourself to get lost in thoughts of what a song could potentially be or do for you. As soon as you take your focus away from creating great songs that actually mean something to you, the artist, your chances of connecting with listeners begins to drop. Stay true to yourself and people will notice. It might take time, but that’s perfectly okay.
James Shotwell is the Marketing Coordinator for Haulix. He is also a professional entertainment critic, covering both film and music, as well as the co-founder of Antique Records. Feel free to tell him you love or hate the article above by connecting with him on Twitter. Bonus points if you introduce yourself by sharing your favorite Simpsons character.
For most songwriters in the early stages of their careers, the idea of being hired as a staff songwriter for a publishing company is close to the Holy Grail, but it’s essential that you understand what you’re giving up as well as what you stand to gain by signing over partial (or complete) ownership of your copyrights to a music publisher. This post highlights the pros and cons of these deals, and we thank the team at BMI for making it possible.
For most songwriters in the early stages of their careers, the idea of being hired as a staff songwriter for a publishing company is close to the Holy Grail. It represents that coveted prize of industry recognition and validation of your talent along with a gateway to cuts, movie placements and number of other exciting possibilities. However, keep in mind that wanting or entering into a relationship with a publisher in order to simply validate your talent is probably not the best approach. As with any business relationship, it’s essential that you, as the songwriter, understand what you’re giving up as well as what you stand to gain by signing over partial (or complete) ownership of your copyrights to a music publisher.
What is a Publishing Deal?
In general terms, a typical publishing deal involves the assignment of some part of the ownership of your songs to a publishing company in exchange for a share of the royalties received by the publisher for exploitation of the songs. The publisher can also provide co-writing opportunities based on industry relationships and pitching opportunities by members of the publishing company’s staff, known as song pluggers. I’m aware that there are many variations on this arrangement but, for the sake of this article, I’m going to paint in broad strokes.
The Pros
Listing the advantages of a publishing deal is easy, as most songwriters have heard (or dreamed) of these.
A Draw – For a songwriter getting started in the business, it’s extremely difficult to write full time without having money to live on. The monthly draw provided by a publisher can help ease that burden. The typical draw is considered an advance against the writer’s share of royalties payable under the agreement with the publisher. While some draws are enough to allow the writer to write full time, most are enough, at least, to make it so the writer only has to have a part-time job, leaving more time for songwriting.
Demo Budget – Making high quality recordings of your songs is not cheap and having a publisher to put up the money for these recordings can help quite a bit.
Song Pluggers – These are employees of the publishing company who are specifically charged with finding opportunities for your songs. They pitch your songs, relying on their relationships with record labels, producers and artists as well as a variety of other music business decision-makers.
Networking/Connections – The credibility that comes from signing with an established music publisher is a powerful thing. It can open doors to meetings, co-writes and countless other relationships in the industry. Also, publishers have industry-wide relationships that can provide great opportunities for songwriters who haven’t had the opportunity to network much on their own.
Validation – The validation that comes from a publishing deal is what most beginning songwriters long for. In the early stages of most songwriters’ careers, they’ve most likely written songs in obscurity and, with the exception of friends and family, they’ve never received praise and recognition from anyone. It can even act as a motivator to improve a writer’s work ethic and inspiration.
The Cons
This is where I’d recommend paying close attention. I know the idea of being able to write songs and have your publisher take care of all the details is an appealing thought, but the reality is a bit less simple. Don’t kill the messenger here, but as a friend of mine once said, “They don’t call it the music ‘friend’ or the music ‘nice’. ” This is a business and it helps to remember that a publisher is giving you something in order to get something.
Your draw & demo budget are essentially loans – The money that makes up your draw and your demo budget is money that the publisher will take back from your share as soon as your songs start generating income. More importantly, unlike a loan paid back to a bank, even after you’ve made back the money to pay the publisher for the money they’ve invested in you, they will continue to own the publishing on your song and make income from it. In most cases, this is an arrangement that lasts for the rest of your life and then some (a copyright lasts for 70 years beyond your death). Also, in most cases, that recording that the publisher split with you or loaned you money to make is entirely their property. This translates into no master fee payment for you, the songwriter, if that recording ends up in a film or on TV (other than royalty income that you are entitled to by your contract).
You and your songs aren’t always the priority – Even though the idea of a song plugger getting your songs heard is comforting, the reality is that in most publishing companies, there are many more signed writers than there are pluggers. In other words, your songs are among the hundreds (thousands, if you count the back-catalogs of most publishing companies) that the overworked song pluggers have to consider for every pitch opportunity.
Validation is NOT enough – As a songwriter, I understand how good it feels when someone in the industry tells you they love your songs. In and of itself, this is not enough of a reason to give away your publishing. As a writer, you should work every day until you’re confident your songs are good. Use resources like song critiques, songwriting organizations and your songwriting peers to get good, constructive feedback on your material. Don’t just sign with a publisher because they tell you you’re good.
Your Options
My intention is not to discourage but rather to empower you. By not looking at a publishing deal as the only answer to your songwriting prayers, you’ll put yourself in a position to do for yourself, which, ultimately, will be the most consistent and rewarding way of having a sustainable career as a songwriter. In other words, you don’t have to have a publishing deal in order to act like you have a publishing deal every single day. Here’s what I mean:
Be your own publisher – You don’t need an established publisher to publish your songs. It’s a relatively simple proposition to start your own publishing company through one of the performing rights organizations (BMI, ASCAP and SESAC). A simple phone call or visit to the website of one of these organizations can get you started.
Put yourself on a regular writing schedule – If you want to be a professional songwriter, act like one. Set aside regular times to write and treat it like a job. Folks in the working world don’t skip work because they “don’t feel like it” and neither should you.
Demo your songs – Develop a relationship with a professional recording studio and, when you’re absolutely certain you’ve got a song that’s ready for prime time, spend the money to make a broadcast-quality version suitable for a variety of uses, from pitching to artists to placement in film and TV. And speaking of pitching …
Pitch your songs – Actively look for opportunities for your songs. It’s one thing to write a good song and have a great demo, but if no one hears it, then it can’t possibly generate any income for you. This isn’t the glamorous, romantic part of the business, but I promise you, the overwhelming majority of successful songwriters — even those with publishing deals and song pluggers — spend a lot of time pitching their own material. It’s tough out there and you need to do everything in your power to get your songs heard. Also, as I mentioned above, no one will make your songs a priority more than you will.
Network – Another less-than-pleasant reality for the gifted, introverted songwriter is that there is no substitute for the relationships you make in the industry. Get out there and meet people. This doesn’t mean you have to be fake or stay up until 3 a.m. drinking every night (unless you like that kind of thing). It does mean, however, that you have to find opportunities to interact with the decision-makers in the music industry. A few suggestions of ways to do this might be attending music conferences, songwriter festivals and some of the events sponsored by organizations like the Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) or the Songwriter’s Guild of America (SGA).
Sign an admin deal – If you’re starting to get some cuts and placements for your songs and the subtleties of copyright law, royalty statements and licensing feel like too much to keep track of or negotiate, then consider signing with a publisher to administer your copyrights. In other words, instead of giving away ownership of 50%-100% of your copyright, give a copyright administrator 15%-25% to “mind the store” while you’re taking care of the other stuff. I promise you, if you’re making money from your songs, you’ll have no trouble at all finding an experienced publisher to administer your copyrights.
Conclusion
For the sake of simplicity, I’ve kept this article and the terms of a publishing deal very general. There are all manner of publishing deals, from copyright administration all the way to full ownership of your publishing, and there are reasons for and against all of these. Music publishers provide a valuable service in our industry but I think it’s important to realize that signing a publishing deal isn’t always your best option. Be absolutely certain you understand what you stand to gain (beyond the simple validation of your talent) and what you’re giving up to get it. In the world of professional songwriting, there is no one way to achieve success and, no matter what, the more you understand and can do on your own, the better off you’ll be.
We’ve all heard the expression that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to truly master any craft, and in this post we’re going to examine why writing 10,000 bad songs will have the same effect on your songwriting.
If you read our previous post on writer’s block you’ll recall that one of the top tips for strengthening your mind is making a commitment to write each and every day regardless of your actual desire to create. Fighting through the resistance of not ‘feeling it’ or otherwise not being in the mood to make something out of nothing trains your brain over time to let the creative juices flow more freely, but anyone who actually creates for a living knows this is a task far easier said than done. Even if you can get to a point where you write every day, it can be incredibly hard for creative people to be okay with something they make being ‘ok,’ mediocre, or even flat-out terrible. Creative types believe they have great art waiting to get out of their mind, but bad songs can appear to speak to the opposite being the case.
Here’s a hard truth: You need to write a lot of bad songs, or at the very least you need to write a lot of songs and see them through to completion regardless of whether or not they are bad because it’s the only way you can begin to understand the recipe for proficient songwriting. There are a few lucky souls who simply have a knack for crafting catchy songs, but the vast majority of artists only have an idea of what good music is, and they spend their entire career trying to fully grasp that concept without taking the time to explore the pros and cons of their theory. Writing constantly will allow you to better understand your own tendencies as a songwriter, and through examining the bad songs you can begin to sort out the elements of your style that you do not like.
Bad songs are not actually bad, they’re simply stepping stones toward the next great song that must be overcome if you’re ever going to evolve as an artist. We’ve all known groups who found a sound that worked for them and stuck with it as long as there were people willing to support them. While there is certainly nothing wrong with this approach, it does not bode well for your career trajectory. Change keeps people interested in your music and it keeps you challenged as a musician, but if you want to change you’re going to encounter bad songs along the way. Realizing they exist to help strengthen your career and not harm it will only aide your development, so embrace the mediocrity and whatever you do – KEEP WRITING.
Why, hello there. We are beyond thrilled to learn you have chosen to spend a few minutes of your day with us. Today’s post is a guest blog from the one and only Emily Katter, an up and coming songwriters with talent needed to be the next big thing. The subject is songwriting, and we hope those of you currently learning how to write hooks join the conversation.
This blog exists to promote the future of the music industry, and to do that we need input from people like you and your music-loving friends. If you have any questions about the content in this article, or if you have an artist you would like to see featured on this blog, please contact james@haulix.com and share your thoughts. We can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.
Songwriting is so much more than just creating a song. It’s an outlet (for the writer, performer AND the listener), it’s therapy, a de-stressor, it’s a tool to help make sense of a situation or something going on emotionally or physically, it’s a release.
As a songwriter myself, I have had many different experiences with the art form. I find that sometimes thoughts pour out of me so easily that I can’t keep up. Sometimes melodies just come into my head out of nowhere, or I come up with a concept when I’m in the middle of a yoga class and can’t write it down. Other times it’s a complete struggle to think of ideas, as if my mind goes blank. I can’t seem to find the words that I want to express or I struggle for a melody that fits. It’s not always easy, but I can confidently say that every time I write a song it is a completely new adventure, which is what brings me back.
In my experience, songwriting is most helpful to my life when I’m going through something personal that I want to work out. This is also when the ideas flow the most. For instance, my recently released single stemmed from a personal situation. ‘Comfortable’ is about being in a long-term relationship and getting to a point where you don’t really know if you are still “in love,” or if it is just being comfortable that keeps you together. It’s about trying to keep that spark alive when it’s covered up by familiarity. This is a topic that I had struggled with in my own my relationship with my boyfriend, and the co-writer of the song had also been through the exact same situation. Needless to say, this song kind of wrote itself since we were both so connected to the topic and the emotion behind it. I think writing the song helped us to both realize that this is something that everyone deals with at some point in their relationship. I’m not sure if it’s a coincidence that we both got engaged to the person we had been writing this about within three months of writing this song, or if this song helped us to move forward and make changes that we needed to make in our relationship.
I find that like “Comfortable,” my best songs come from being personally connected to a concept. I’ve even used songwriting to deal with struggles in my music career, getting rejected or feeling insufficient or like an outsider. These songs have always turned into powerful, uplifting ballads that are about rising above whatever is trying to push me down. Songwriting helps me to get my feelings out in a positive way, and then share them with people so that it will help them to overcome negative situations in their life.
This is still the beginning of my songwriting journey and I hope that it continues to be a therapeutic and rewarding outlet for me. I hope that I will continue to relate to my fans through my songs and empower them.
Emily Katter is fast becoming one of the most talked about female songwriters in the country. We believe in her music, and something tell us you will too. If you would like to learn more about her efforts in total music domination, please follow Emily on Twitter.
