JPF Home Page Forums General Messages Songwriter Message Forum The Votes are all in...

Michael

At the risk of pissing everyone off, there's a few reasons why lyrics are lower on the totem poll than musicians or folks who write both music and lyrics.

1. I've heard a LOT of songs I loved that had really weak lyrics and really great music and performances. I can't say the same for really strong lyrics and really bad music and performances.

2. Music is..SOUND.. not words. Lyrics and the performance of them is very similar to an additional instrument being added to the sound. It conveys the melody. I am not suggesting that lyrics don't kick in to take a great listening experience and turning it into a great and meaningful life experience
(which generally takes meaningful lyrics to do, though not always.. classical music can make people cry and has for centuries), but if people are honest, most of us (unless we are screening a song, or doing it for business reasons) listen to music and ONLY catch the hook or chorus and a general gist of what it is all about the first several times we hear it, especially if it's on the radio, in a bar, and not something we are 100% focused on. If the music and melody isn't "doing it" for you, you'll rarely ever listen close enough (or often enough) to get to the great lyric that lies within. I think you'll have to admit that.. though you probably don't want to based on your post above.

3. There are simply a lot of lyricists out there who aren't musicians. Music performance is very tied into ego. Most musicians want to perform and convey THEIR message (even if they suck at lyric writing.) My advice if you are only a lyricist is to get an inexpensive electronic keyboard and start putting chord progressions to your lyrics and come up with melodies.. otherwise.. you're always going to be at the bottom of the heap in the eyes of musicians who are your peers and unless you can break through and team up with a hit music writer and get some cuts as a lyricist, you're always going to have trouble finding success on a commercial level. At least if you can provide basic melodies and progressions, you can CO-Write with a musician who might be a weak lyricist, but who can relate to you more because you bring a musical progression and they can use their musicianship to take it to another level.

Lets open this up for discussion. (This has been the most intelligent ongoing thread I think we've ever had since we started this.. hopefully this will continue).

How would you rank these 7 components in importance to a finished song?

1. Melody
2. Music (Production, Groove, Progression)
3. Hook Line/Chorus
4. Vocal Performance
5. Song Structure (i.e. verse/bridge/chorus)
6. Story Line (overall song idea/point)
7. Lyrical Detail (i.e. quality of verses)

Think about it before you quickly answer.

If you want to reach the average music fan the most effectively... what's the order?

And finally, on the other topic, I think Gospel Music is based primarily on specific religious text.. but CC music can often be about non specific religious topics, but generally touches on spiritual, positive, hopeful, forgiving topics. I know the music we have in this year's CC nominations don't always deal directly with God or Jesus because they are often contemporary (i.e. modern) ways to get the message that old time scripture might make, across in a contemporary and more digestable way. I think of Gospel music as something I would expect to hear in a church and structure setting whereas I expect CC music to be a music focused (i.e. style, sound, performance) presentation of the same ideas packaged in fresh new ways.

Great discussion gang...

Brian


[This message has been edited by Brian Austin Whitney (edited 11-01-2002).]