smoe.org mailing lists
ivan@stellysee.de
| From | "Michael Bennett" <mrhonorama@hotmail.com> |
| Subject | Re: 4/4 or Fight (was Re: What makes a great song? Poll!?!!) |
| Date | Wed, 17 Sep 2003 12:59:38 -0500 |
[Part 1 text/plain (2.4 kilobytes)]
(View Text in a separate window)
NEWSFLASH -- many of the greatest writers of pop songs did with the hope of
selling as many copies as possible. Money was a big time motivator. It's
why we have copyright law -- to give an artist incentive to create original
works.
Anyway, there's no doubt that it would be cool to hear pop songs using
different rhythmic approaches. But the reason 4/4 is so ubiquitous is
because it works.
Beyond that, the discussion of what make A song great really seems wrong
headed. It's not like songwriting is congruent to engineering -- you dash
off blueprints and schematics and voila! We've built a better mousetrap.
There's no empircal formula to explain why songs as simple as Trio's "Anna
-- Letmein, Letmeout" and The Fall's "How I Wrote 'Elastic Man'" are great
and songs as complex as The Beatles' "A Day In The Life" and The Beach Boys'
"Good Vibrations". Figuring out what makes an individual song work is an
interesting exercise (or what would improve it), but there's no general
template...
Mike Bennett
Record reviews and more at http://fufkin.com
>From: Lord Granger <glowfriend2003@yahoo.com>
(Frank's comment)
> > Like some patron prince, commissioning
> > art to suit your whims? Well, where is
> > the money? I'll write you all the 6/8
> > masterpieces you want.
("Lord"'s response):
>
>Sigh. Yet another songwriter with financial
>motivations; Frank, your "where is the money" comment
>reveals more about your artistry than all of your
>songs combined. I had planned on checking out your
>band (the typewriter thing sounds cool, although not
>without being somewhat cliche in that "Brian Wilson
>played a bicycle bell" way), but this statement leads
>me to believe that, perhaps, it might not be worth the
>effort. Sounds like you'll do anything for a buck,
>Frank; the phrases 'hack' and 'Billy Joel' immediately
>come to mind.
>
>There are plenty of imaginative writers out there
>utilizing weird time signatures in a natural, musical
>fashion, and -- newsflash -- they're writing 'em for
>the sake of art, not for the money.
>
>LG
>
>NP: Shack - Waterpistol
>
>__________________________________
>Do you Yahoo!?
>Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software
>http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com
_________________________________________________________________
Send and receive larger attachments with Hotmail Extra Storage.
http://join.msn.com/?PAGE=features/es
For assistance, please contact
the smoe.org administrators.