|
User
Reviews 10
Approval 76%
Soundoffs 71
Album Ratings 1636
Objectivity 82%
Last Active 01-09-23 6:25 pm
Joined 02-17-20
Review Comments 16,276
| What is songwriting?
This is a question I've pondered for a while. It seems like such a fundamental term in the world of music yet there's really no clear definition and everybody seems to use it from their own arbitrary perspective. So I'm curious, what does "songwriting" mean to you? | | 1 |  | The Mountain Goats
All Hail West Texas
I have seen many people who seem to view songwriting as the core fundamentals of a song, as in, what would be left if you stripped away essentially everything but the main chord progressions and melodies. To me, this does not make complete sense, as the impact of a song can be enhanced (or diminished) by so many intangible factors in ways that are often not consistent at all and have no clear pattern. One single element of a composition can vastly affect the way a song connects with people or expresses its core message/ideas | | 2 |  | Bruno Pernadas
Those Who Throw Objects at the Crocodiles...
To me it's like eating a sandwich and saying "yeah it's good, but if you removed the lettuce, sauce and bread it really wouldn't be anything special." You don't have to remove those things and they are as much a part of it as any other ingredient that is viewed as being more fundamental | | 3 |  | The Tallest Man on Earth
The Wild Hunt
There is also a clear distinction I see a lot of people make between songwriting and production. People often say that the production carries an album but the songwriting itself is weak. Or perhaps the other way around, though that seems less common | | 4 |  | Riley!
Keep Your Cool
Unless you're talking specifically about mixing, "production" in the sense that people usually refer to it is essentially synonymous with composition. I think most people would agree that instrumental music is no less valid from a composition standpoint than music with vocals, yet in music with vocals, the aspects of the arrangement that come from the "production" are often viewed as accessories rather than a core part of the song itself. I think there's also an interesting distinction people tend to make between "real" instruments and digital sounds that plays a role there too | | 5 |  | Snarky Puppy
We Like It Here
For me, when I think of songwriting I tend to think of structure in a song. The way one segment flows into another and what a song ultimately builds to. The ebbs and flows. But this is admittedly pretty arbitrary and there's many other terms that describe the process of creating music that are probably equally applicable | | 6 |  | Dead Can Dance
Within the Realm of a Dying Sun
Someone I work with was recently talking about how songwriters are some of the least talented people in the world of art. I thought he was saying that the process of creating music altogether does not require talent but it turns out he was specifically talking about writing lyrics (still a shit take obviously but he did at least partially substantiate it with a slew of suspiciously well memorized Cardi B lyrics). To him songwriting just means lyrics. He's not the only person I know who defines it this way either | | 7 |  | Bruce Springsteen
Born to Run
So I'm curious, what does songwriting actually mean to you? | |
Colton
07.17.24 | everyone should check #2 btw | Emim
07.17.24 | Writing a song | Butkuiss
07.17.24 | Traditionally “songwriting” is kind of synonymous with “composition”, but in a pop/folk context. It is the point of confluence of melodic, harmonic, rhythmic, dynamic, lyrical and structural (ABAB etc) concerns, and how these are arranged to achieve the end goal. The old idea was that “good songwriting” meant you could arrange an piece for anything from solo piano and voice to a rock ensemble to a full orchestra, and the strength of these factors working together would make the song a) still recognisable and b) equally as moving/catchy/successful etc.
Production is not traditionally used to refer to factors synonymous with composition. Production (referring to methods and treatment of recording and playback) is usually left out of the discussion because production is honestly a fairly new aspect of music making, and only relatively recently has stylised production as an aesthetic choice become an intrinsic part of the artistic process. Production also varies in overall importance on a genre by genre basis (e.g. bebop has fairly simple production concerns vs like, bubblegum bass or wonky) and technological developments mean modern music, especially newer genres less reliant on analogue performance and reproduction blur the line between composition and production a lot. By contrast, more traditional music “production” is more focused on accurately (or otherwise) *reproducing* or stylising the sound of a band/performer in a room for playback.
So yeah, the distinction between songwriting and production is somewhat archaic and arbitrary, but both terms are still useful in different genre paradigms. I’m not going to hear a bass bomb under a breakdown on a metalcore record and say “oooh, good songwriting!” because that’s not what others understand songwriting to mean in that context. The song was written with a breakdown ; but putting that effect underneath it is a production choice. I honestly think “good songwriting” is best appreciated by contrasting performances or interpretations of a piece by different artists. Carole King, Laura Nyro, DHD and all the Brill Building writers had impeccable songwriting skills, and listening to different artist’s takes often reveals the underlying strength in a melody, lyric or chord progression that can be obscured by the idiosyncrasies of any one performance or production job. This is also something that’s changing with the times though, as we’ve moved away from interpolation reinterpretation as an integral aspect of the artistic process and more towards infinite playback of one “definitive” version of a track (this is not a value judgement, just an observation).
Anyway nice bait Colton /thread
| jrlikestodance
07.17.24 | Turning breakdowns into songs | robertsona
07.17.24 | i like to cover songs on piano, and when I cover The Clash’s “remote control” on the piano it still sounds like “remote control,” and I imagine that what’s retained across the two renditions is something close to what we call songwriting. | LilLioness
07.18.24 | Songwriting is compiling a series of disparate elements into a cohesive whole, much like story in writing. You can have plot, or a track, without story/songwriting, but it won't be particularly compelling. Story/songwriting is what you are trying to say with the myriad choices you decided in a given work of art. It is your 'voice,' hence why AI can't write a story/song, because machine learning can't experience the emotional realities that inform the choices made. As a listener, you can tell a well written song from one that isn't, because one that isn't will leave you wondering what the hell the point was. A song, you will know regardless of whether you like it. | anode
07.18.24 | theme/cohesion/creative direction. both the macroscopic concepts of song structure (intros, hooks, refrains, etc) and microscopic elements of individual notes and melodies that are played and lyrical content | YoYoMancuso
07.18.24 | usually bad | chemicalmarriage
07.18.24 | Whys boobs good? | efp123
07.18.24 | This list got me high | TheSonomaDude
07.18.24 | the best songs are nothing but djent breakdowns and angry rich white bois screaming | widowslaugh123
07.18.24 | I basically agree with what you are saying in 5. It’s essentially the construction of a song in my opinion. There’s probably some music theory shit involved somewhere | budgie
07.18.24 | why is boobs good ? [2] | Colton
07.18.24 | lotta good answers here | facupm
07.18.24 | "To him songwriting just means lyrics. He's not the only person I know who defines it this way either"
sorry bro they are all retarded | CugnoBrasso
07.19.24 | Yahhp I agree with the music theory shit part, you use that and shit up a song and that's basically the textbook definition of songwriting. |
|
