Bring Back Real Song Writing

I love technology – it’s made many aspects of a musician’s life easier. It’s now possible (and affordable) to have a recording studio at home with little more than a laptop, some software, an audio interface, a microphone and some cables. Modelling technology gives us a reasonable attempt at getting a small, relatively inexpensive amp combo to sound like a vintage Fender, Marshall or Vox.

Audio software is so good these days that it takes very little musical knowledge or talent to make music. Can’t play? No problem – there are plenty of samples of people playing instruments very well that you can use. Can’t sing in tune? Also no problem – pitch correction software can fix your dodgy notes. You can even use it to give your voice that fashionable “robotic” sound!

My problem with this is that too many artists are using the technology in a lazy, unimaginative way, and as an excuse so that they don’t have to learn how to play instruments or write songs.

To me, one of the most enjoyable aspects of music is harmony – chord progressions that have the power to skilfully manipulate your emotions. A well-structured song should have several different sections, each with a different chord progression. A classic pop song structure might go something like this: intro, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, solo, chorus, chorus, end. Plenty of repetition, but also enough scope for interesting melodic and harmonic development.

Many modern pop songs start by a “producer” sampling a few bars from an existing recording. This may be as few as four bars long. This then becomes a loop, which is played throughout the entire song. Other instruments and vocal parts are added, but obviously they all have to follow the chord progression laid down by the loop. Structural variations no longer have to rely on chord changes, but can be created artificially by adding and deleting elements from the mix. Instead of creating a chorus by writing a new melody and chords to go with it, just add some different instruments, and perhaps extra backing vocals.

This is boring! A whole generation of pop fans are being palmed off with songs created by laptop operators rather than musicians. No wonder no-one buys recorded music any more.

Thankfully, there are new artists out there who still write fully harmonic songs. They are often labelled as “new folk” or “acoustic”. They take every advantage of modern recording technology, but don’t skip the essential craft of song writing.