JPF Home Page Forums General Messages Songwriter Message Forum Why are there so many lyric-only folks?

We're dealing with two completely different meanings of the word "song" as well. Traditionally, a "song" was a melody set to words played on a piano. If it was good, someone arranged it for an orchestra or big band to play so someone could sing it. Those folks on Tin Pan Alley or up in the Brill Building weren't deeply involved in music production, recording, bands in boxes -- they sat at their piano and wrote songs, the composer and lyricist. Rodgers and Hart, Leiber and Stroller, etc.

But today, we use the word "song" to also refer to the whole package. "I downloaded a 'song' today" "Did you hear that new Britany Spears 'song'?" This evolved from the early 60s when artists like the Beatles wrote their own music, and did concept albums, and got into studios with producers who created walls of sound, to today, where people are starting to become one-stop-shops, composing writing lyrics doing their own production, etc.

So many composers in this discussion are saying "song" to mean the *recording* while many of the lyricists are saying "song" as in the music and lyrics that form the basis for the recording. And a lot of people are talking past each other.

It's important to separate -- even if you do it all -- the processs of writing from the process of producing. The question of the lyricist's contribution to the song is different from his/her contribution to the business of recording and selling music.

There are genres where the lyrics don't matter ("ooh-ooh, ahh-ahh,baby") and there are artists who can sing their cell phone bill and will sell downloads. There are genres (folk, country, cabaret, indie rock) where the lyrics really sell the song and make at least half the difference between a catchy melody you'll forget tomorrow and that song/concept/story that you keep coming back to throughout your life.

If you produce and record your own music, that's great. But if your music is wonderful and your lyrics are just OK, why not give the person who specializes in wordsmithing a little space to work?