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You can write songs either way around. Maybe your AI assistant can't generate catchy melodies on top of a chord progression, but humans can. Sometimes when you

You can write songs either way around. Maybe your AI assistant can't generate catchy melodies on top of a chord progression, but humans can. Sometimes when you hear a melody in your head, there are parts of it which you can't really explain when you try to fix the melody on paper. Often what's going on is you're hearing inner voices in the harmony in your head--you're really writing harmony and melody in concert, rather than one or the other. There are plenty of catchy pop songs which get handed off to someone else to write a melody on top. It's common enough that there's a name for the job: "topline songwriter". Someone who writes the "topline"--the melody and lyrics sung by the vocalist, on top of a backing track that somebody else made. And of course, then there are people who take an existing song, keep the melody, and reharmonize it. Dirty Loops is probably the most famous for this.

zone411 4y ago
They might be helpful for humans, just as rhythm or a bassline might be, but it's not what makes this song great (to answer the title of the post). This would have been a great song if it was just sung without any accompaniment, even though of course it does make it much better. These 60 melodies I made are not even taking any chords into considerations: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoCzMRqh5SkFwkumE578YO4qa1NTkmMi4 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoCzMRqh5SkFwkumE578Y.... If you read what the best pop songwriters (Max Martin) say about it, they start with a hook: https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20191119-max-martin-the-secrets-of-the-worlds-best-pop-songwriter https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20191119-max-martin-the-... "He's always talking about melody and striving to find that thing that makes it magical."
- klodolph 4y ago
  I heard the isolated vocal track. I don't think it would stand up on its own. > If you read what the best pop songwriters (Max Martin) say about it, Max Martin isn't the only songwriter out there! People have been writing songs different ways for ages. Here's a song you probably heard, with a melody written over a hundred after the accompaniment was written: Ave Maria by Bach/Gounod: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyUhEjtlDLA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyUhEjtlDLA I like it, and that's enough for me. To be honest, I can't hear the melodies in the AI-generated pieces.
  - zone411 4y ago
    To each their own but I'll take Ave Maria a capella any time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=su0JxmJGPpU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=su0JxmJGPpU. I think there is a good reason that it's the melody that gets stuck in our heads for earworms.
    - klodolph 4y ago
      Yes, as you can see, the melody is still good even though it was created to fit the harmony, rather than the other way around. Pretty solid proof that you can write the harmony first. And yes, it's melodies (and rhythms) that get stuck in our head. That's not really the question here.

zone411 4y ago

They might be helpful for humans, just as rhythm or a bassline might be, but it's not what makes this song great (to answer the title of the post). This would have been a great song if it was just sung without any accompaniment, even though of course it does make it much better. These 60 melodies I made are not even taking any chords into considerations: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoCzMRqh5SkFwkumE578YO4qa1NTkmMi4 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoCzMRqh5SkFwkumE578Y.... If you read what the best pop songwriters (Max Martin) say about it, they start with a hook: https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20191119-max-martin-the-secrets-of-the-worlds-best-pop-songwriter https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20191119-max-martin-the-... "He's always talking about melody and striving to find that thing that makes it magical."

klodolph 4y ago
I heard the isolated vocal track. I don't think it would stand up on its own. > If you read what the best pop songwriters (Max Martin) say about it, Max Martin isn't the only songwriter out there! People have been writing songs different ways for ages. Here's a song you probably heard, with a melody written over a hundred after the accompaniment was written: Ave Maria by Bach/Gounod: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyUhEjtlDLA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyUhEjtlDLA I like it, and that's enough for me. To be honest, I can't hear the melodies in the AI-generated pieces.
- zone411 4y ago
  To each their own but I'll take Ave Maria a capella any time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=su0JxmJGPpU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=su0JxmJGPpU. I think there is a good reason that it's the melody that gets stuck in our heads for earworms.
  - klodolph 4y ago
    Yes, as you can see, the melody is still good even though it was created to fit the harmony, rather than the other way around. Pretty solid proof that you can write the harmony first. And yes, it's melodies (and rhythms) that get stuck in our head. That's not really the question here.