9/10/2011

Is the Process Of Song Writing A Thing Of The Past

By Margareth Samson


I was just sitting in my office knocking up a SEO report for some clients when Justin Bieber came blasting out of the radio from an office adjacent to mine. I quickly shut the door and contemplated has the craft of song writing been relocated to history.

Give it some thought in any decade from years gone by. In the 50's you had Elvis, Buddy Holly, Johnny Cash, Diana Ross & The Supremes, Billie Holiday, Jody Reynolds, Bill Haley and His Comets, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Small Richard, and Tom Jones, not forgetting Sinatra and all of the swing Jazz and blues legends (Ray Charles, Shirley Bassey, Dean Martin, BB King...), sometimes all releasing records at the same time.

In the 60's you had many of these artist's again - longevity was not an issue as is now - and The Stones, The Beatles, Pink Floyd and getting away from the British rock bands, The Doors, Bob Dylan, Janice Joplin, The Beach Boys. The seventies saw The Bee Gee's, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, James Brown, Joni Mitchell, David Bowie, Aretha Franklin, Ac/Dc, Kool & The Gang.

The 80's saw the stuff of legends from Duran Duran, The Smiths, The Stone Roses, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Madonna, Gary Numan, Michael Jackson, Guns N ' Roses, Kiss, Def Leppard, Eurythmics. Then with the 90's we had Nirvana, Radiohead, U2, Prince, The Prodigy, Bon Jovi, Primal Scream, Tu Pac, Soundgarden Pearl Jam.

With the noughties we were given Eminem, Coldplay, Foo Wrestlers, Red Hot Chiil Peppers, 50 Cent, Snow Patrol, Chemical Bros, Jay Z, Gorrillaz, Queens Of The Stone Age. But sadly the modern pop lore at the end of the 2000's has favored throw away rubbish pop. I'm not talking about bubblegum pop like the Beach Boys, as their songs have stood the test of time.

But rubbish vocodered thrashing pop songs all about being in "the club" getting it on with somebody you have just met. "What's my name" a chanting. Who cares. Good music should talk for itself and not brand the singers name. ABsolutely appalling. Today's music is about fame for fame's sake and nothing else. It's a corporate commodity.




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