Songwriters, Society and Social Responsibility

[M57]

1 hour ago, RobAsh15 said:

Don't apologize for your opinion, M. Just be aware that if you state it here, it will likely be challenged unless it is pat, and few arguments are, after all.

 

More to the point, I think, is the fact that such discussion and debate is what we musicians, as a group, need to do. It's our future in the end. Better that we decide which way the ship travels than the fickle waves and winds of fortune.

 

SO long as we don't spend TOO long debating. Time marches on.

 

Thanks Rob, I'm perfectly capable of putting my foot in my mouth with the best of them.  But I knew the job was dangerous when I took it, and I can take the heat.  Like I said, I'm still forming my opinion on this, but there's a part of me that just can't resist playing devil's advocate, even when I don't realize it.  Stop it!  -- No!  You stop it! 

 

So on the social agenda thing (that's what this thread is about, right?).  I get that people use music to raise awareness about issues they feel are important, and I have found myself doing it, but I would qualify that by saying that for me personally the three most important motivators of my music have been the music, the music and the music.  People here that know me through my posts know that I hate writing lyrics.  I would probably sing about anything if I could find my Bernie Taupin.  I wouldn't care if (s)he's the Anti-Christ with an agenda to get governments to shoot babies and puppies into outer space.  I'm sure I would write about 20X the music I'm writing now.  Now as it happens, I have to write my own lyrics and so I write about what comes into my mind, and my political and ontological views can't help but creep in there - and It just so happens that I like puppies.

Edited July 20, 2016 by M57

[Prometheus]

On 6/25/2016 at 2:43 PM, john said:

what do you think? Has our wholesale abandonment of cause based songs contributed to this? Do you believe we have any responsibility in this regard? Should song writing now be about purely acting as entertainment? Should it act as a mirror? Should it be going beyond that, and be active on shaping society?

 

I don't think the problem is the songwriters.  The problem is that the industry has stopped being product driven and become sales and marketing driven instead.

 

 

What I mean by that is that the product in music hasn't changed since the 1960's.  Back then the product was a two track stereo mixdown of a song.  In 2016 it is still a two track stereo mixdown of a song.  Since the product hasn't fundamentally changed in decades and is the same from one distribution company to another, the drivers behind a company's success become sales and marketing orientated.

This means that the people who are promoted and rise to the top of the company are the sales and marketing people and not the craftsmen who create the product.  What happens is that you have people running the industry who frankly are not of an artistic bent and know nothing about songwriting or music and who often don't feel particularly passionate about music.

 

The product (the songs and music) then becomes something that is not considered of great importance.  The only thing that matters is marketing it.  That is why mainstream music is now banal shit and the only stuff being created that's any good is underground music that is being created by people who have no sales and marketing teams behind them and therefore never will become widely heard.

It took Pink Floyd eight years to go from releasing their first records to creating Dark Side of The Moon, a complex album that deals with complex questions of the politics and ethics of "us and them".  The Sales and Marketing guys who run the industry now are not going to wait years for a band to mature.

The end result of a monopoly run mainstream industry that has lost sight of product development is music that is sold by people with no taste to people with no taste.

Edited July 26, 2016 by Prometheus