Hey Gerald,
If you read back over the past few pages we were doing while you were gone, we have done just that. You listen to the top rated songs on the charts that fit your type of music. We essentially went over three popular country songs, "DIRT" By Florida/Georgia Line, "American Kids' by Kenny Chesney, and "Burning it Down" by Jason Aldeen.
These were suggested by Phil who has been doing song study lately.
You pull up the videos which are easily availble on YOU TUBE. You pull up the lyrics. You view the videos and pay attention to what the songs do.
I broke down aspects of the lyrics. Why they work, what they do differently than "most writers", "elbow moments" (those phrases or words that stand out and are different than average cliches,) The way they use cliches in a fresh or new way. How the story relates to the modern audience, subtext, details, etc.
I broke down the music patterns, where they built dynamically, how they lifted their choruses, where they changed and how they reinforced their vocal lines.
Then how it worked with the videos. What images they used that related to the "story you see in your mind."
Two of the songs were things Phil liked. One, The Jason Aldeen song, he didn't care that much for, and neither did I. It tends to be hip hop oriented, and less interesting melodically and lyrically. But yet it is a very top rated song. We talked about why that is. Popularity of an artist and so forth. Aspects of "behind the songs' where things really take place. Songs and artists are like an iceberg. You only see a very small part on the surface. There are many more things in relation to where they were on their last hit, where they are in their career arc, what their fan base is. Relationships to writers, etc. all of this plays into the success or failure of a song.
Phil didn't know it, but all three of the songs were written by essentially the same team of two writers. What that tells you is that record companies will first look at track record when dealing with writers, songs artists, etc. It is never just one thing. It is dozens and dozens of intangible things, many that no one can do anything about. All you can do is try to understand it and find how you can get those kinds of things in your own corner.
It is my contention that everyone has to work with other people in their career. There aren't any lone wolfs or single careers. They are made up of dozens of people. So in order to do that, you find what the successful people do it.
On these pages, the first and foremost things people have to do is get their writing up to speed. With yourself, you said that you are doing all these things but can't seem to get people to co-write with you. A lot of that is not your fault. In the overall songwriting world, writing is a very solitary thing. Most people are uninterested in co-writing.
But if you want to get OUTSIDE yourself, you have to learn to co-write and you have to do it a lot with a lot of people.
This is true whether you are going to shoot for major success or just find ways to write better songs for yourself and friends. You learn by doing it with others.
If writers are actually trying to shoot for a more tangible success, and they are over the age of 25, they are going to have to find people UNDER 25 to be artists for their songs. And that is how cuts come together.
All the other ways, the Internet, TAXI, and all other song plugger or pitch services are severely limited. So the truest way that has ever been or will ever be is face to face interaction with other writers and artists. People such as yourself ask "how do I get more people involved with me?" And the first answer is LEARN what is current in music, find things that work for you and try to adapt to what you need to.
So that is "SONG STUDY." but it is not just about the song itself, but the other things involved. Artists, producers, history, relationships.
This is a business. Peopleyou treat it as such. If you were going to operate a resturant, you would need to learn about location, buidling codes and costs, equipment, salaries, health regulations, service, labor costs, food costs, all the things that go into making a resturant run. You couldn't just do YOUR PRODUCT and that would be all you concentrate on.
So when I talk about this, those are the kinds of things I am talking about.
MAB