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The modern songwriting process goes like this: gather multiple teams of 20-year-olds with laptops into a conference room. Give them 2 hours to write a song. Pic
by asdjy 3y ago
The modern songwriting process goes like this: gather multiple teams of 20-year-olds with laptops into a conference room. Give them 2 hours to write a song. Pick the best song. When I heard about this process on an NPR podcast I said yup that explains everything.
In contrast, a member of the Allman Brothers was holed up in a motel or cabin trying to write a song. In frustration with writer’s block he went out to the local store. Inside a woman was chasing her young daughter down the aisle calling her name. He liked the name and went back and wrote the song “Melissa.”
- conradfr 3y agoNot saying that the current Top 40 isn't terrible but even legendary artists and songs were produced in a variation of this way back in the days. https://medium.com/@shelrochaleal/motown-the-star-making-production-line-8526f445ff40 https://medium.com/@shelrochaleal/motown-the-star-making-pro...
- HDThoreaun 3y agoPop music was overproduced in the late 60s too. There are still plenty of bands writing songs about mundane experiences they've had after holing out in a motel or cabin for a while.
- Kye 3y agoWriting a song has always been the easy part. It's all the other stuff that takes time and money. At that level, everything is a whole production. Everything. I don't see how this is any different from a writer's room for a TV show or movie. Those scripts go pretty quick, too. Maybe not 2 hours, but they have to deliver scripts in time for production to get it ready for narrow release windows. You're always going to get a factory process when a lot of people are involved because there are deadlines and checkpoints written into contracts. That doesn't make the output bad.