The first few lessons have been quite fundamental and some of you may have been wondering when the heck I’m planning to get to some MUSIC specific mentoring here in the Online Classroom. Breathe easy friends, because that time has already come. Before I get into the first of these practical lessons I want to remind you all of the importance of starting this course at the beginning if you want to get the most out of it. Each lesson from here on will be completely stand-alone, but the first four lessons set you up with tools (and a few terms) that will help you fit everything else taught here, and indeed everything you learn elsewhere, into your BIG PICTURE, thus enabling you to take some really valuable actions towards achieving your dreams.
Many if not most of you will consider yourselves to be songwriters. To those of you who don’t fit that label, I suggest you read this lesson anyway for the simple reason that knowledge is power, and even if you do not intend to ever enter the world of writing original songs, understanding the process and perhaps the motivation of those who do live in that world will empower you and probably help you build a better network!
The reason I start with the subject of songwriting is the same reason I started this whole course with goal-setting. You have to start with the fundamentals! I created J.Fox Soul to be a community of all kinds of modern musicians, but the truth is that my experience, expertise and interest lies in modern music and no other kind. Sure, I studied the classics through High School and University and I even teach a fair bit of western classical music theory in my day-to-day mentoring work, but at my core I am a songwriter, and to whittle me down even more I write POP SONGS.
Many of you would have heard my songs already through my solo act The Quick Brown and my band Soul Continuum (formerly Nude Continuum). I’ve collaborated with a lot of artists in different genres too, so you might have heard my work and not even know that I was involved! Perhaps at first listen you might not think that my songs could or should be described as pop, but allow me to explain why I label my work so:
Pop simply means POPULAR, which means that it fits the conventions and “norms” set out by no one rulebook, but the consensus of popularity (best measured by sales – what the people choose to spend their hard-earned pay on for entertainment). This concept of popular music is so measurable and traceable back to its origins that the informed few who live at the cutting edge of the industry possess a formula to produce to hit after hit after hit. There’s a reason why people are able to mash-up every top 40 hit of a calendar year into one eerily natural sounding YouTube meme – they all share the same structural form, they are all based on the same type of scale, and many of them (and I mean MANY of them) follow the same basic chord progression.
So if we were to break down and map out the formula of Lady Gaga’s latest five hits, along with the last five produced by RedOne and Timberland, we still would not have a hit in our hands. This is because hit-making is about 30% songwriting, and 70% marketing. Behind every major label artist is a marketing machine, and the star power alone of someone like Gaga is a self-propelling force of sheer selling power.
Whether your goal as a songwriter is to make the next number one Billboard hit and make a squillion dollars, or simply to express yourself, it is important to realise that the reason songwriting is fundamental to the music industry is that, to put it simply, without songs there would be no music industry at all. Singers come and go, we know this. Bands are big today, then tomorrow’s breakfast. There are very few artists who know serious longevity in their careers, however a truly classic song carries timeless appeal and will move, inspire and delight people for decades if not centuries after it is written (case in point Mozart, Beethoven, Bach). With today’s highly structured and monetized music industry, this means songwriters can enjoy passive income for the rest of their lives if they write a hit.
The B-52s weren’t on the scene for that long, but I’m sure from the undying popularity of their song “Loveshack” they would all still be quite financially comfortable in their retirement (probably somewhere near a lovely surf beach).
There are also plenty of songwriters who only ever wrote one song, but it managed to get in the hands of the right artist, publishing company or film producer that put it in a huge spotlight such that, again, the songwriter was able to retire. Songs have a wonderful way of being the most exploitable commodity in the music industry. A recording can only ever be used as permitted by the owner of the masters, but a song can be covered by countless other artists, used in movie soundtracks, jukeboxes, DJ remixes and mashups, gym class routine music, and all of these mediums are quite likely to generate ongoing income for the composer of the song.
So regardless of whether or not you have the great Gaga-style marketing machine behind you, it is a truly worthy goal to become the best songwriter you can be and create a body of work that is impressive and has potential for “timeless appeal”. Songs like “Brown Eyed Girl” by Van Morrison, “Living on a Prayer” by Bon Jovi and “Celebration” by Kool and the Gang are prime examples of songs that people never get tired of hearing. Each of them is about ordinary every day life. The first is about growing up and reminiscing about childhood love, the second is about the daily struggle of life as a hard-working young couple, the third is about, for want of a more detailed analysis, celebrating. Everyone can relate to all of these things. Thematically they are already winners. That is then supported by strong hooks, audience-friendly structures, and radio-friendly production.
We’re going to look at these four aspects of a song to get a sense of how to create a winner. Keep in mind that what I am teaching here is not how to express yourself, that is something only you know how to do. If you are looking to create great art that is free of all boundaries and commercial consideration, then good for you! I hope you still find some wisdom in this lesson, but I want you to understand that in the spirit of J.Fox Soul being a community of musicians who support and appreciate each other, I am committed to teaching others to create music as a source of connection, so “pop” music is the perfect form in which to express yourself AND connect with the maximum possible audience. With that in mind, let’s again break down the elements of a successful pop song:
Universal Themes
Strong Hooks
Audience-Friendly Structures
Radio-Friendly Production
We’ll leave it there for now, as I want you to take some time to consider the following:
What are your five favourite pop songs of all time? What is it about them that appeals to you? If you were to briefly analyse them, what could you describe about their themes, hooks, structures and production that make them important and enjoyable for you?
In our next lesson we will start to explore the concepts of Themes and Hooks in greater depth, and provide you with some tools and concepts to shape your song ideas into catchy and appealing potential hits.
Until next time, love and much respect to you!
James Higgins
Director and founder of J.Fox Soul
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