MikeRobinson

My late father-in-law, who actually managed to get writer's credit on a few songs he wrote with Johnny Cash – a few of them thankfully very important – once very candidly told me that, at the time, the game was "write a song, throw it against the wall, and [don't wait to ...] see if it stuck." 😀 Sometimes your name wound up on the copyright application like it was supposed to. Sometimes, it didn't. You simply couldn't afford to wait – record labels contracted for you to turn out "albums" as quickly as possible, so that's precisely what you did. At least ten songs apiece. Required. Two or more albums a year. Required. You didn't have time to wonder whether any particular song would be "a commercial success," and anyway it could take several years to find out if it was. So, you were basically just as surprised as everybody else was when your song "hit." (There's a reason why they call them, "hits!") The "catalog" of any established artist might contain hundreds or even thousands of songs, while perhaps only a dozen of them "pay for the mansion." Dolly Parton's catalog, for example, contains more than 5,000 entries. How many of them have you ever heard of?

To me, genres are basically "a marketing distinction." Nothing more or less. They are a set of shoeboxes into which you can fit whatever shoe comes along ... whether or not it actually fits ... so that you can maybe succeed in selling those shoes. On the one hand, commercial music is a "mass-marketing business," which depends on a steady supply of "product." (Think: "McDonald's and hamburgers.") But on the other hand, it is always starving for innovation. Which sometimes begins a brand new "genre." I'm reminded of early Peanuts cartoons, in which Lucy tells Schroeder: "Did you know that Beethoven now comes in spray cans?" Which she then proceeds to demonstrate ... spraying authentic (of course ... Schulz was a perfectionist ...) musical notes all over his piano.

The thing that I loved about David Bowie was that he was doing more-or-less the exact same thing that Vincent Furnier (who??) and Gene Simmons / Paul Stanley were doing at the same time. They realized that popular music could be musical theater. And so, each of them created fictional characters: "Ziggy Stardust®," "Alice Cooper®," "KISS®." Their concerts were theatrical performances. What they were serving up to you was pure fantasy which actually had nothing to do with the personal identities of the "actors" on the stage. You saw only the characters that they carefully portrayed. And you loved it, buying tons of albums and tickets. Theater at its best. Although several artists have since followed in their footsteps, they were the first. They set the "stage." They saw what no one else had yet seen, and turned it into "gold." And, most importantly, they were perfectionists. Masters of their craft.

I give this to you without further comment ... https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2022/11/music_and_life.html

Okay, let's start with the basics. Apple's dictionary defines the term trope both as: "A figurative or metaphorical use of a word or expression," and: "a significant or recurrent theme; a motif." "The Country Music Industry," on the other hand, would define it only as a woman known only as "Girl," who is inevitably dressed in "tight blue jeans" to ride with her paramour in his "[white] pickup truck" to a smoky rendezvous "down by a river" which may-or-may not specifically be named as "The Chattahoochee." So, how do we songwriters move beyond these "tropes," in order to write truly original songs? Songs that, if I may say, "actually and worthily stand the test of songwriting?" Songs that we'd really like to be able to put our "writer's credit" on?

In each case, simply a confrontation between "music" and "politics." In each case, music survives.

"Don't do tattoos, personally, and I never will," but ... this one looks great!

Best example I can think of comes from Charlie Daniels, who published two versions of the same iconic song about a Devil who made the mistake of trying to play a Fiddle in Georgia. One "with," and one "without." It worked because it worked within the story. "I told you once, you sonofa____(bleep(?))" ... In the fictional story that Charlie told, it was entirely expected, and entirely appropriate, that the fiddler would contemptuously respond to the Devil in exactly this way. The victorious hero-character was responding precisely as any victorious fiddler would ... "third finger held high!" With-or-without the network censors who substituted "sonofa-gun." --- Beyond that – "trash talk" is highly(!) overrated." The "usually gratuitous" inclusion of it generally strikes me as "laziness." In any case: Please keep it off my radio, and instead write better music, that, of course, doesn't require (sic ...) it. "If you think that you need to use 'trash talk' on my wavelength," please instead: "write harder!" 😃

@Steve Klatt, I agree with your assessment of Barry Green's material. It is very rare to find someone who can, simultaneously, "know whereof he speaks," and "speak well." That is to say, someone who can "educate," most-especially using the venue of "a book."

@john: You have given me a lot to think about here. (I had not before considered selling anything. We can discuss privately. I can probably manage video.) Nonetheless, as an initial step please feel free to post the material as a "sticky" article, or otherwise in the site as you see fit, with my blessings.

P.S.: I just updated this old post. Fairly substantially ...

Why is that? Or am I missing something? Is the liquor water cooler empty or something? 😀

@GregB: "This inevitably happens." Sometimes a forum post simply gets "missed." Then, it wakes up again.

Congratulations! This is an excellent poem that is waiting for a musical setting ... one that will perhaps not be easy to write. Thanks for sharing.

Make recordings for others to hear, and to do so as excellently as I can learn how to do. If someone in Nashville hears my song and takes an interest in it, then so much the better. I'll cross that bridge when and if I get there. (I'm an hour-and-a-half's drive away ... hint hint ...)

Terribly sorry that this thread has so far received no replies. I think that this is an excellent piece of music, and very "happy." The chord progressions are refreshing and interesting, leading the ear through various musical spaces before returning to the main stream. You are an excellent guitarist. Thank you very much for sharing. (Nice video, also!)

When you post your song, you should nevertheless assert your copyright and include the "©" symbol and the proper accompanying text. If you intend to try to peddle your song commercially, or to publish it on a site where "take downs" are more likely, you should pony up your $35.00 at copyright.gov and register the copyright to your song (or "collection"). Your registration takes legal effect immediately, and it acts just like the "certificate of title" for your car. It is an independently-verifiable record of your claim, made under penalty of perjury, that you do own the song and therefore have the legal right to market it. Copyright registration also unlocks most of the penalties that you can use against any infringer. (This comment reflects the copyright laws of the United States. Most countries are party to international copyright treaties, but the laws and procedures vary from country to country. Copyright registration may or may not be available in yours.)

You could also host literal jam-sessions on things such as Zoom ... just make sure someone's capturing the audio and video. This would create an environment where different players can "feed off one another" like they do in real jams ... because it would be a "real jam."

Lots of times, I just think that "Music Row" perceives that it has a certain amount of commercial air-time that it has to fill up with something. They select artists who can sing passably well, and conjure up things for them to sing which will "sound familiar." Perhaps the most extreme example of this is a Brittney Spears® song: her "sound" consists of a filter, and the musical arrangement is also almost exactly the same. But let the record show that the McDonald brothers made a fortune from this, once Ray Kroc taught them how to sell identical hamburgers by the billions. "Teach 'em what to want, then sell 'em what they want." Meanwhile, music is infinitely broader and more-diverse than that. There's always room for another fantastic piece of music. It's just a harder sell ... because now you have to work at it.

"Me? Aged twenty?" Uhh, no. At that time, I did not yet know everything. Turns out that achieving this took a little more time ...

So now I see how and why Internet Chat Facebook® re-titled themselves "Meta." I wish these kids the very best of success. "I guess I was a kid once ..." But ... I guess that I never expected, nor certainly required, the commercial marketplace that I wished to conquer, to conform itself to me. And I still don't. Likewise, as a consumer: "I bought it because I really liked it." (And I still have it, on a vinyl or plastic disc, and by the way I still like it.) "Advertiser?" Yes! Thank you for causing our paths to intersect! But you are a marketer; nothing more. You simply aren't going to impress me by telling me all the many ways why my customer should be eager to buy my product, especially when I can observe very plainly that they don't. 😟 I guess that I am "just too damned old" by now not to realize that "you have something else to sell me." And that this really has nothing to do with my potential musical success. "You aren't the gatekeeper." You're merely a proprietor.

To me, "the pop song" is a format – and a very tired one. There are plenty of "song formats" that are much longer and more interesting, such as any classical-music format such as the "sonata." Some very-interesting music by artists in the 70's and early 80's directly used those things. The Moody Blues even hired the London Symphony Orchestra.

I don't want to see the marble chips or the emery cloth. I don't necessarily even want to personally "connect with you as an artist." I want to listen to a terrific new song and then add it to my collection – on a plastic disk, please.

One thing also worth considering is that the "cost of goods sold" is now zero. You can create anything and put it up for sale on an international marketplace and it costs you nothing to do so. However, the "signal-to-noise ratio" is therefore also "off the scale." There is no "barrier to entry." But also consider this: "there is no point in your daily life where you do not encounter music." Maybe you do not notice the music, but it is still there. In any store that you enter. In any video that you watch. The marketplace for "music" is insatiable.

John, I would never "jump up and down on you," or "put words in your mouth," and if you saw my comment in that way, I publicly apologize. (For any further concerns, please private-message.) Please bear in mind the dynamics of any on-line forum ... we can't watch one another "speak." Copyright registration is simply a readily-verifiable registrar of your claim. Of course it does not prove that you did not commit perjury, but if you knowingly made a false statement you did commit perjury. Your formal registration gives any buyer or agency that you might want to do business with, with a very easy way and verifiable way to show any court that they have done "due diligence." For that reason alone, it's well worth the money. The legal situation moves from uncertainty to internationally-recognized certainty. If you think that you can make money or tap a market by using "NFT," I say go for it. It's just a slightly-novel way to market your property. As the owner of that property, you can do anything you wish, and you can change your mind at any time. And your heirs can keep doing that for at least 75 years after you are dead. All for $35. And if anyone out there in "NFT land" infringes upon your property rights, you can send the Hounds of Hell after them without lifting a finger.