Geez,

I thought we had extenguished this topic. Okay, we'll try it one more time. In response to a few of the newer comments:

First of all Qubam.

For every act you see out there, there are between 15-30 of the same act in some form of development. Out of those about 5 will get the huge budget that the mainstream acts do. Around $2.5 million dollars.

In this day and age, that money is most often spent on people with the biggest possible existing fan base. Reality shows like American Idol being the biggest propellant, those artists, Carrie Underwood will be first for that money. Jessica Simpson being an actress would be another one. Then there are people who you never hear of.

Those have the same budgets, the same marketing. The "In your face approach." they might not be in your market in Ga. because they are kicking off their marketing in LA or New York. They are on billboards, they are on the radio, video channels, etc. Why don't you hear of them?

Because they don't catch on with the public.
How many movies are released with major actors, directors and budgets that are direct to DVD?

What this means is that there are limits to what the public buys and the alleged "manipulation."

Many people who are far outside the marketing of artists (songwriters) rarely understand this. They see or hear something that doessn't fit their taste patterns, and deem it unworthy for their standards, and talk negatively about it. That is fine. Everyone has their own taste, and it is pretty inconsequencial what songwriters think of it since they don't generally buy music. They make their own.

But you can't manipulate audiences to buy CD's over and over, go to concerts and win awards. Every one tries. They really do. there are billions of dollars spent on product that go now where. The public has to create a groundswell. That is what they have done on Taylor Swift.

Taylor hit a nerve with women 16-45 years old, which is 70% of the music purchasing public. She writes songs about situations that happen to women at that age and does it in a way that is interesting and different.

In Nashville we have a saying: "say the same thing in a way we haven't heard a million times before." We are all writing about the same situations and emotions. One song, "Our Song" that was an early big hit for Taylor does this. It utilizes the "sounds of life" going on around her, a door slamming, "talking low on the phone so your mother won't know" into "Our Song." That is interesting songwriting. Very few writers that I know would have done that. She did.

So she connected with her material with the intended audience, girls like her, who are the biggest monetary "voting block."
Once something gets successful, they pour marketing money into it. That is why you have seen her everywhere. It feeds on itself like a forest fire.

But you can't manipulate that record after record and she has three that have all sold millions in a free downloading age. You can't manipulate that. You can't force people to buy products. You can make it look as attractive as you can, but can't force people to buy anything.
The awards follow because she has earned the respect of her peers through sales.
She also has succcessfully managed the internet, Twitter, My Space, Face Book.

That is why she is where she is, like it or not. But I have said before, it really doesn't matter what any of us think. The public likes her and supports her.

Janyoung, Writing songs in 30 minutes.
Actually this is very common on hit songs. When you are a professional writer you can bring talents to bear very quickly. There are hundreds of songs throughout history that were written very quickly. The Christmas Song, Mel Torme wrote that in about 20 minutes. "Chesnuts Roasting on an open fire." and he wrote it in July in Palm Springs Ca. So it wasn't that he was "inspired by sitting around the fire with the tree in the background."

One of my favorite stories was on "Yesterday." The most recorded song on time was written by Paul Mcartney in about 20 minutes. He had the melody for about three years thinking it was from something else he had heard. He used a working title "Scrambled eggs" and kind of kept it on the back burner. When he finally figured out it wasn't from another song, he wrote the nine most recorded lines in history in about 25 minutes.

In Nashville we write every day. Yesterday I wrote my 1803'd song in 6 years. It took about an hour. Is it a "hit"? Have no idea. I don't determine hits. The public does. We just write them up and put them out there. But it does happen. And some songs take years.
But you will hear story after story from hit writers about the songs they wrote in 20 minutes, thought it was a "throwaway song" until someone else heard it and it ended up getting cut and exploding.

Songwriters at the top of their game can be compared to great actors. When the camera is turned on, they inhabit that role. They might not be a murderer or thief but they understand the mentality. They might not be breaking up with their significant other but they have probably been through that before. They might not be a Father or Mother but are close to people who are. they can bring those emotions and visuals together and make magic. Usually there is some personal connection to the song so they bring those up just like a great actor in a part. So you can get some amazing songs that sound like they lived every second of it, when they actually never did.

Writing comes from a lot of places, some go fast, some go slow. But don't discount someone who says "I wrote it in 30 minutes" They probably did. It is about talent, experience and luck.

So love or hate Taylor it doesn't matter. She is what she is.

My comments and advice is to emulate the good things, ignore what you don't like and quit talking people down if they don't play up to your standards. That doesn't get one song written, one writers appointment made, one pitch done on a song.
And that is what writers should be focused on.

MAB


Last edited by Marc Barnette; 03/23/10 11:16 AM.