Originally Posted by Martin Lide
Originally Posted by Neil Cotton
Originally Posted by Martin Lide
Goal #1 of a song should be appeal. Whatever makes a song appealing is a good thing. The primary consideration for a song is the music. If that doesnt work, it isnt a good song.

My suggestion...do whatever or employ whomever that makes your song as appealing as you can make it.
Still no guarantee that anyone else will notice or care, but you will.

Martin

I always thought, as a songwriter, the primary goal of a song was emotional appeal, not the perfect sound; trying to connect with listeners, created the aw haw moment, with an appropriate musical presentation. That's where I have screwed up . LOL



Neil

Foremost, please keep in mind that all that I have is an amateur's opinion. smile

I used to see songs in the same way that you described. The lyric tells a story that resonates with listeners and the music appropriately (enough) carries the message. (Dylan, Van Zandt)
But after hanging around these ammy song sites and playing in bands years ago and mostly... trying stuff out at open mics amongst other hackers such as myself...it became clear (to me) that if someone sang a song well to an audience and were merely reciting straight from a cook book....that would go over better than the most profound lyrics set to un-appealing music.

Unrelated sidenote: In that context, the people who went over the best, usually sounded like someone famous. And almost always mistaked that for their own prowess. wink

Back on point...I came to the conclusion that my songs were melodically deficient. Am still a work in progress.

Just my take.

Martin



That is because people at open mics people are listening for the performance, not the song. The vast majority of people do listen for the performance and production.

People dont go to the movies looking to see a great script, or a great story line, they want to see great acting performances, and special effects.

But the script is still the nucleus of the whole thing, without the idea or story line, script, you have nothing.

Songs are the same, nobody hears the writers version, they hear the full production and performance, and the writer gets little credit.

Alot of songs are production hits, you can polish a turd contrary to popular belief, and you can get a singer who can "sing the phonebook",

But thats not songwriting, that's something else.

Last edited by Fdemetrio; 02/25/19 10:16 AM.