Songrut Songwriting

Here's a line from a quite famous song by Oasis.

'You're my wonderwall'

What on earth...hang on, wonderwall isn't even in the dictionary!

Here's the chorus to Duran Duran's eighties hit 'The Reflex'

'So why don't you use it?
Try not to bruise it
Buy time don't lose it
The reflex is an only child he's waiting in the park
The reflex is in charge of finding treasure in the dark
And watching over lucky clover isn't that bizarre
Every little thing the reflex does
Leaves you answered with a question mark'

Duran Duran's intent was to be entirely meaningless. What the words do is paint a picture - nothing else. Does this make a good song? Well, let's not talk about what kind of songs we like. Let's talk about the fact that this song was number one for weeks and people didn't sit around in cafes questioning why children should walk aimlessly in parks trying to find treasure or four leaf clovers. In the dark.

They were too busy buying the records and being 'into' Duran Duran.

NOT making sense does something psychological. It becomes memorable for NOT making sense. Things put together which don't fit become a NEW thing. Phrases that KIND of make sense can sometimes create a whole new sense. What's a Wonderwall? I have no idea, but I remembered it.

I have written songs written entirely to capture an abstract feeling, and its an interesting idea. Why not sit down and decide to write a song that ONLY conjures up images, has nice vowel sounds, pretty words, strange descriptions of a twilight world? What's wrong with that? Some songs exist only to transport the listener to...somewhere else. You don't need a reason for that.

A song can be catchy, or not catchy. Whether it means anything or not is sometimes irrelevant.

U2 and Chili Peppers mix up the meaningful with the strange. Works for them.

Pink Floyd didn't do too bad either.

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2. 'Popular sayings' cliches. Words and phrases that have become part of modern language.

i.e. 'Getting by' or 'Picking up the pieces'

3. 'Cliches in waiting'. Phrases which haven't made it into the mainstream yet, but you are able to use in a song because a/ You are so hip and know about this stuff or b/ You made it up and it will become mainstream once the song is a global number one smash. Or something.

Of course it goes without saying that I can't stand number one cliches. This doesn't bode well for my radio listening pleasure as around ninety percent of songs have lines such as 'I want your love' or 'Break these chains' scattered around inside their feeble constructs. Grim.

Number twos I like a lot. I've written lots of songs based around a common phrase such as 'Getting by'. These little expressions of everyday life can hide a lifetime of pain in so few words. If someone said to you they were 'Getting by', that's also their way of saying that 'Life's really tough I can't pay the rent what's it all about I'm thinking of ending it all'. Or something. Ok, it may not be the beginnings of a death-metal song. But it could be an RnB tune about a single mum.

Number threes. The reason I include this is because it is people like us who actually create these cliches in the first place. If you write something that becomes well know, it becomes a cliche instantly. If it becomes very well know, anyone else who was to write that would immediately look like they had no imagination. Or be sued, depending on your geographical persuasion.

Creating your own cliches-to-be is great fun. Coming up with little phrases that are partly your own can really move your song idea along. They are so small and vague they can mean a variety of different things and are a great springboard for new ideas for songs.

When I'm out and about in the big wide world I am constantly listening to people talk, when the radio is on peoples turn of phrase can immediately plant a song idea in my head and the tv also is a great place to brush up on your own personal definition of 'wazzuuup'.

It's almost impossible to avoid cliches, and that's where 'taste' comes in. I won't even bother on these pages to ever try and describe what that means. However, there are only so many words in the human language that rhyme with 'maybe' and 'baby' is one of them. If cliches sound nice I always use them without worrying about it too much.

I guess the simple test is this. Be as harsh on your own material as you are with everyone else's you hear around you. And if you find yourself groaning at your own lyrics so much that you can't hear the original idea of the song, you've got bad cliches.

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Some post will be long and rambling as I lay my ideas out, some will be short and sweet should I have a 3am moment of inspiration. Whenever I have an idea it will be put up on these pages, so sometimes they will be sporadic, and I am sure that sometimes I may go back to posts written in the past and have no idea where my head was at.

This Blogg will not have ANY songs of my own posted up, only my ideas and mental excercises for 'lateral thinking' my way out of songwriters block. My first posts will obviously be my current thoughts on songwriting and how I go about tackling the different 'states' one has to enter to get the job done, but hopefully as I go things will develop and I will teach myself as I go along and change the way I work for the better.

Over time I hope this Blog will contain advice and tips on songwriting by myself and others, a discussion of the various problems associated with songwriting, publishing and the business side of being a songwriter and more links on how to get your songs published and performed by others. There are a lot of songwriting rescources on the internet but they tend to be more about 'How to make money by becoming a songwriter' and 'You too can become a songwriter' instead of focusing on the art and craft of songwriting for it's own sake.

Songwriting can be extremely rewarding and I hope that other songwriters will find these pages useful.

As I'm sure you are aware, this entire introduction post is to ensure I get some hits on this website! There's a lot of sites out there and it's hard to be heard! So please forgive me that I have said the words song, composing, lyrics and songwriting so much. It's so any songwriters out there get to find out about my web page on Google.

Enjoy!

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