I can’t think of a song chorus or a phrase that has endured in the last decade. If it was a gameshow question to complete the lines from these contemporary songs how many would struggle?
Why do modern pop songs have so many credited writers?
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Re: Why do modern pop songs have so many credited writers?
#92I can’t think of a song chorus or a phrase that has endured in the last decade. If it was a gameshow question to complete the lines from these contemporary songs how many would struggle?
Do you think that maybe you are biased by being older than you were in previous decades, and thus spending less time and less emotional investment on pop music? Or do you honestly believe that the quality of a whole art form has dropped significantly during this period?
Re: Why do modern pop songs have so many credited writers?
#93I can’t think of a song chorus or a phrase that has endured in the last decade. If it was a gameshow question to complete the lines from these contemporary songs how many would struggle?
That pretty much means your old. :-) How about: "I came in as a wrecking ball"? Or "I'm in love with your body." from the absolutly horrible song "Shape of you"?
Re: Why do modern pop songs have so many credited writers?
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Art that doesn't sell is just a storage problem." Had an artist tell me this once and it stuck with me ever since. He was referring to paintings, but has generally held for every other artistic endeavor. Looking through history art has always been commercial - it's just the audience that changes. For music, musicians who got paid used to be focused on the tastes of just the wealthiest folks who liked to go and be se…
Far be it from me to try to define art, but at some point I imagine an artist must stop and ask him/herself "Is my work an original thought? Am I telling a story here, sending a message, engaging with an idea, being provocative, being honest, making my audience feel something, or is my work... mass-produced background mall muzak? A soulless sculpture for some corporate headquarters?" Pop music has always been right i…
> "Is my work an original thought? Am I telling a story here, sending a message, engaging with an idea, being provocative, being honest, making my audience feel something, or is my work... mass-produced background mall muzak?"
One of your questions aligns with my personal definition of art. Art is 100% subjective i.e. personal. For me music needs to touch me emotionally, and since i love to dance it is a huge plus if it makes me move too. Visual art needs to astonish me, in one word: Wow!
Re: Why do modern pop songs have so many credited writers?
#95Modern pop music is a more refined commercial industry than it was in the past. It's been sliding further and further away from art and toward the commercial. It is what it is.
"Art that doesn't sell is just a storage problem." Had an artist tell me this once and it stuck with me ever since. He was referring to paintings, but has generally held for every other artistic endeavor. Looking through history art has always been commercial - it's just the audience that changes. For music, musicians who got paid used to be focused on the tastes of just the wealthiest folks who liked to go and be se…
Music is entertainment, if we leave music for spiritual rituals. Some of the highly revered classical music of Bach or Händel was background or dance music for parties hosted the nobles who employed them.
Re: Why do modern pop songs have so many credited writers?
#96It's a simple answer: remuneration. Songwriters get paid mechanical royalties, performance royalties, and synch fees anytime the song is used. Bands, for example, only get paid when their specific recording gets played. Therefore, if something gets remixed, covered, etc. you want to be the songwriter , not the band .
Simon Cowell is known to have played (and written the part for) instruments like the triangle on many of his associated bands' tracks so that he got an undeserved cut of the songwriting royalties.
A bit surprising, but it fits the part
Re: Why do modern pop songs have so many credited writers?
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'll take your word for it that that's true (not on Tin Tok). I'm glad to see it.
It's definitely happened. The biggest example that comes to mind has to be Lil Nas X's "Old Town Road". I guess he was 20 when it blew up, so not a teenager, but close enough. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Town_Road
Justin Bieber? Pre TikTok but still.
Re: Why do modern pop songs have so many credited writers?
#98Modern pop music is a more refined commercial industry than it was in the past. It's been sliding further and further away from art and toward the commercial. It is what it is.
“Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art.” — Andy Warhol
Sorry for the snark in advance. Sounds like a justification/rationalization to me. Being able to persuade people to buy mass produced things they don't need makes you what exactly? Art needs to make me feel something, 100% subjective. A print of a can of of soup leaves me very unimpressed. Where is the Wow Factor?
Re: Why do modern pop songs have so many credited writers?
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, but can you automate being a record company executive's nephew?
Based on various published conversations with Sydney, it seems AI may have already achieved this level of thought.
That's not fair. Those AIs are stealing the credit by stealing TikTok posts and ancestry.com listings of the real nephews of record company executives. Those nephews deserve recognition for their IP and ID.
Re: Why do modern pop songs have so many credited writers?
#100There's a cynical saying among traditional songwriters: Change a word, get a third. In other words, they give a song to some established star, who makes trivial changes and then claims partial songwriting credit. Is that fair? I don't know. Publishing royalties are so massive that you have to expect people to try to get in on them. Robbie Robertson is notorious for claiming all the songwriting credits for The Band's…
The problem is how to to decide whether the change was trivial, or the change was the thing that made a 100x difference in success.