as i sit here running my hands through my hair, two thoughts are circulating my head.
firstly, i should probably have made more effort to do my hair this morning. i look like something from the 70s and not in a cool retro way.
but mainly im thinking that i havnt posted a good blog in a little while. i havnt really had any big concepts that iv wanted to discuss.
however, the issue isnt that i havnt been thinking about things, but that i havnt been able to make any sense of the discussions iv been having with myself whilst sat quietly at my computer. at this moment in time, i am struggling to structure my thoughts into any form of writing.
(i am aware that by writing this blog now i am kinda contradicting what iv just said)
getting to the point - i have been wrestling this week with these two questions:
what makes good pop songwriting?
and when does pop become alternative and when does alternative become pop?
after watching a robbie williams DVD i have become fascinated with songwriting for the pop genre, and have been working hard, attempting to write my own 'pop' songs.
i consider myself lucky that i am able to write good songs. they only come around every few months or so but when they do they just seem to work so i figured that writing for the pop genre would be pretty easy. just a case of sitting down and working, picking up the guitar and putting pen to paper.
wrong.
in my opinion, what makes a subject 'pop' is that it appeals to, touches the hearts of if you like, a wide audience. perhaps the reason you see dance floors full of girls singing along to kylie songs is because each one of them feels they can relate to whats being said, even if they all live very different lives.
so many pop songs become timeless classics and why? because human emotions never go out of date. politics and fashion does.
in 20 years time people will still be singing angels and knowing what every single word means.
this is what im finding so hard. coming up with a topic, a concept, that a mass audience can relate to and structuring this into a 3 minute song complete with a catchy chorus and perhaps a key change here and there. oh and something that doesnt just sound cheesy as well.
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Yes, you got it right when you're talking about the subjet matter of pop, it needs to appeal to a wide audience.
I write songs in the post punk genre for myself to perform, and I also write pop songs for others to perform.
For my post punk songs, the details of the lyrics set it in a particular niche. Maybe one of the characters involved is a geek who writes code for Linux, or is vegan.
For my pop songs, I always think about the bigger picture. The details are details everyone can relate to, maybe one of the characters involved is shy (instead of being a Linux programmer), or questions parental authority (instead of being vegan).
You can keep the same stories, but you have to think about what is the emotion you are talking about, and not convey the emotion as if you were talking to your circle of friends with the same references as you, but rather as if you were talking to a group of strangers you randomly picked up from the street and whose lifestyle you cannot assume anything about.
If you stick to this principle, you can write good pop songs without being cheesy.
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