How to write a hit rock song

I found this post on a new service which is set to be like a Digg for music (I would tell you what it is, but I'm not sure I'm supposed to, but I will when it's out of Beta)

This post is an old one that has turned up there as people like it - and it's full of tips on how to write a hit rock song.

Whether you think it's all great advice or not, it's a very useful piece as it follows the writer through the stages of crafting the song with videos of him playing the sections. If you're new to songwriting it's going to give you, at the very least, a reference to how someone else gets from idea to song.

I remember being a kid listening to my favorite bands of the day and wondering, “how do they do that?” It seemed totally amazing to me that someone could take an instrument and create this piece of music that made me have so many strong feelings be it happiness, anger, joy, and write these words that seemed to speak to me.

I still have that same feeling sometimes when I hear great new bands, except now I understand after my many years of studying music, writing music and performing it in front of people there is more to it then just writing for writing’s sake.

Read the piece here.

Songwriting tips - are you really good enough?

I post a lot more about songwriting than a lot of 'musician advice' bloggers.

And, I know that a lot of my readers don't bother to read it all or watch the videos.

BIG mistake!

The single common fatal flaw in 99% of the musicians that I have spent the last 20 years meeting is that they are, quite simply, shit.

They all also believe that their material is good enough for some level of success - usually global mega-fame is what they think they're ready for.

And, in almost every case, their songs are woefully below the necessary standard - but they can't see it or won't admit to themselves.

Please, don't let this be you.

Before you spend huge amounts of time listening to me and others about how to market and promote, invest a far greater amount of time in yourself and your craft.

I think the stuff I post about songwriting is the most important stuff I pass on.

This is the first of three videos from someone who has sold a lot of records as a songwriter. You can find the other two on the channel on YouTube that this is taken from.

If I needed to be sure that I was good enough songwriter, I'd spend some time watching these!

 

And here's the direct link if the embed fails.

Great song + YouTube = Hit

 

So, here's me sticking my neck out.....a bit.

This song was tipped by Record of the Day today - so maybe I'm just jumping on the bandwagon!

I'm not going to say a great deal other than this guy is obviously really talented and this song is truly great. It fulfills the things that we mentioned in this piece the other day about James Blunt - honesty and clarity in songwriting.

I'm well aware that this sort of song, style and genre really annoys a lot of 'artists' - as being too cliched, soft, lacking in edge (and a whole host of things). That's up to you, but don't delude yourself that you can't learn from it.

I'd go as far as to say that this song feels nearly as big as Blunt's 'Your'e Beautiful' did when it first came out. That's the bit where I stick my neck out. Maybe it is, maybe not. It's still great.

The YouTube element is clear too. It's a simple well shot one take performance and he's obviously built a small following up from previous songs on YouTube. But, this is where people are coming to discover him and send their friends - sure, radio is now spreading it.

But where do you send your mates to hear it? YouTube.

 

Inside the Hits - tips from major publisher

We are VERY big on trying to make aspiring artists understand that you can market and promote all you like, but you need to have some good songs before you start!

So, I'm subscribing to this series from Universal Music Publishing called 'Inside the Hit Songs' that promises to go inside the process of how some major hits were written.

Get songwriting tips wherever you can!

 

Hit songs - honesty and clarity

You can go and read this whole article if you want - but a lot of it is about guitars and tech gear that the interviewee uses and might not be your bag!

I read it all though and pulled these two nuggest from James Blunt's wisdom.

Hate him all you like (even he is bored by his massive hit's ubiquity!) but don't ignore what he thinks made his song such a hit.

We talk about the basics of what make a hit song in our free eBook for musicians (get it if you haven't yet) and this is along the same lines.

"Well, I don't have any kind of formula. Stay The Night is something like three minutes and 30 seconds or something like that, and You're Beautiful is probably bang-on three minutes and 30 seconds, as well. That seems to be kind of a marker, in a way - it's enough, but it doesn't drag on forever.

"More than anything, though, I think the role of a songwriter is to capture an emotion. If you can do that with absolute honesty and clarity, then you're well on your way. Don't get me wrong: I do like a lot of music where the meaning is open to interpretation. But if you're talking about the kinds of songs that hit people straight away and they can relate to directly, you've got to go for a very pure message."

and on whether he injects his own feelings into his work:

"My songs are my way of looking in the mirror and seeing my own flaws, so it's not difficult. In fact, it would be much harder to write very superfluous songs, things that didn't mean anything to me."

See those bits in bold? That's the bits to take away and use.

I just got the Adele album at the weekend. It's awesome. She's great. ALL the songs do this. It's the fastest selling record of the year so far in 15 countries. Wonder if that's got anything to do with the songs?

Read the whole interview here.

7 sets of resources for writing lyrics

This is a great post that everyone should take some time to check out.

AudioTuts has great info on technical production stuff but also loads on general career tips.

This one looks at places that you can turn for help on writing lyrics and I've rarely seen such a useful list of ideas.

Writing lyrics is a very personal thing, and it is that sense of individualism that can really help people relate to a song. There are no strict rules that must be followed, but having a helpful collection of songwriting resources can really help. Here are 7 sets of lyric writing resources with a bunch of helpful links.

Read it here.

Study old hits for new ideas

I like this post for its take on why many songs are hits today and why studying them is risky.

There’s an important reason why old hits can help even more than current hits. The success of today’s songs is strongly influenced by the rather temporary notion of the performers’ personal popularity. And so the popularity of a song doesn’t necessarily mean that the song is a good model for songwriters.

That's a massively important point! So many of today's hits in pop are driven by celebrity culture and mass market songwriting by a small clique of producers. You aren't necessarily hearing great songs as an odd combination of great hooks and sharply honed media savvy. Can you copy that on a global scale as an unsigned artist? Probably not.

Better then to look back and uncover the art of quality songwriting as your tutor.

Nothing wong with those beat driven radio hits, but are they building long term classic songs? - probably not.

Read the whole piece here.

Do hit songs need a hit title?

Image by iboy_daniel

In our free eBook for musicians (please DO get it, if you haven't already) we talk about how Jim Steinman and Meat Loaf wrote their biggest hits by coming up with arresting and fascinating titles first and then writing the song to fit.

This article looks at the issue of whether a hit song needs a hit title and has some interesting points to make.

Should you go for the Steinman / Loaf method every time? - no, probably not - But it's another little tool to put in your songwriting kit to be pulled out at the right time.

Read the whole piece here.

 

What do the big hit songs of 2010 have in common?

Jay Frank's 'Future Hit DNA' site and book provide analytical data on what characteristics made songs become hits.

His book is WELL worth a read - you can get it here.

But, without spending a massive $10 on access to Jay's hugely insightful ideas, you can look at his report on the top 100 songs of 2010 and what common features they had...for free. Persoanlly, I think it's pretty much the best $10 you can spend to improve your chances of writing hit songs, but that's up to you!

I'm not saying that you should try to seek out a perfect formula and, of course, you should remain innovative, but it would be plain stupid to ignore the data about intro length, song length and bpm.

You might choose to not always stick to that framework but when working on something that you know is strong and has radio potential, get the fine tuning down and go for the jugular.

That’s not compromise or selling out – it’s just intelligent!

As well as checking out Jay's post, if you don't have it already, you'll benefit from the way we cover this and the way songs need to be crafted in a free eBook on our site here – http://www.makeitinmusic.com/free-ebook.

So, Jay's post:

2010 has finally wrapped up, which means it’s time to analyze the common threads of the biggest hits of the year. At the mid-year point, I looked at the Top 50. This time, I extended the analysis to the Top 100. Collectively, these 100 songs accounted for 187 million downloads and well over $200 million in revenue. These 100 titles also account for approximately 36% of all new music track sales. This means over one in three new music downloads come from these songs. Many elements that have been brewing for the last few years that are detailed in Futurehit.DNA really started to show their ability to bring success this year. Here are some of the shared traits:

Read his post and data here.

 

The Four Faders of successful songwriting

I'm always looking for great songwriting tips.

This article takes a stretched analogy to give you a way to look at what makes a song successful. No point in me elaborating, but it's worth a read.

In our other articles, we’ve had an overview of Parameters and Roles, and we’re ready to look at one more paradigm — that which deals with the parameters of why songs achieve or fail to achieve commercial and/or artistic success.  This paradigm will be known as the Four Faders, using an analogy we’re all familiar with: the controls on a mixing board.

For any song you can name, someone will say “It’s a great song !” — For any song, there will always be at least one person, besides the writer and his/her circle of friends, who thinks so.  Others will say “It stinks”. 

The song may make the Top 10 in several countries, or in a regional market, or it may never be played on any station.  It may sell a million downloads, or none.  It may become a pop culture icon, or known only to a cult following.  It’s easy to say that a song is popular or not, or that it’s a hit or not, but that gives no insight as to WHY.  It does not tell you whether the song is well-written or not.  Being a “hit” song often has nothing to do with being a well-written song.

You can check it out here.

How to write songs you didn't know you had!

Photo by Hryck

Songwriting tips are the hardest thing to write and to find to post on our dailies sites. I am not a songwriter, although the main thrust of my management business these days is managing songwriters.

So I get to see people do it everyday and marvel at their varied approachs and talent - I've picked up a lot of tips!

Still, when I see a great set of ideas on new ways for you to tackle songwriting, I'll always stick them up.

This is one such post.

There are songs out there that have almost made me quit music.  Yes, they are that good.  They have brought me immense joy and great frustration all at once.  How could something so perfect have been writing in the first place?  How did the songwriter know to play that note next, or that scale over that chord?  Maybe they didn’t.  I’ll explain…

To most non-musicians, song writing seems like magic.  And it sort of is.  I mean, artists do seem to create beauty out of thin air.  Wonderful melodies are seemingly plucked out of nowhere or summoned from metal strings and ivory keys.  However, a majority of great songs come out of intense practice and dedication to the craft of songwriting.  I want to provide you with a list of techniques that I use when composing music.  Some may call these ideas radical, but they have proved to be very fruitful for me.  This list is just a handful of the many tricks I have come up with and employ on a routine basis.  I hope they can be of some help!

Read the whole piece at Head Above Music.

 

Using Mindmaps to write songs

Interesting video from a songwriter who has had recent success that suggests using the mindmap technique to come up with lyrical content for your songs.

But she also looks at some basic songwriting tips that you may well find helpful.