JPF Home Page Forums General Messages New Member Introductions & Helping Hands Some things I've learned here

Marc, I completely understand your point about a song needing to be unique and different to make it viable in this competitive market, and of COURSE it's difficult, because to some degree, all ideas have been written in song somewhere before. However, sometimes a song doesn't have to be SUPER clever to still be viable. Here's a good example (I think Bill will like this too. ) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHfSuBglk8E&feature=av2e Not knocking these girls at all, love them, love the song, but Jessica Harp is pretty much emotionless in the vid, no deep plot, no complicated or overly unique lyric, the song just WORKS as is. It's no where near as passionate as Allanis's song, but then again, audiences like Bill who don't care for vulgarity are going to relate to this one better. They both pretty much contain the same subject matter. I would agree that Allanis got more radio play and a bigger audience, but that may be because she also had more hits than The Wreckers did, unfortunately.

I have always sided with those who write from reality. Writing from a "phony" standpoint just to try to make money is like Jim Baker and Tammy Faye doing their "religious" show to get money, when neither of them was any more dedicated to The Lord than my cat! I can see what Mike is saying about some people being talented enough to write somewhat out of their realm because they have the imagination and "feel" for it, but you can always tell someone who's faking from someone who really lived it, hence, Allanis's song up against some guy writing about "shaking booty" as if from a female, POV, there's no comparison. Allis wins hands down. She's admitted that "You Oughta Know" was a real situation, and she relives it every time she sings the song.

My friend Will Rankin once said about music, "You don't have to be GREAT, you just have to be great at what YOU DO."