BAD MUSIC AND SONGWRITING

“I want more than anything to get one of my songs recorded by a major artist on the radio.”
“Today’s music sucks. The stuff artist is putting out is crap and it all sounds the same!!"

​These are two sentences spoken by an aspiring songwriting during a coffee conversation.
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​The other day in a coffee house an aspiring songwriter behind me in line recognised me and offered to buy my cup of black coffee and wondered if he could talk to me about songwriting for a few minutes. I was early for a writing appointment, so I said, “Sure.” He was a great guy. I asked him what he wanted more than anything. He said with no hesitation, “I want to get one of my songs recorded by a major artist and make a living writing.” “Great goal,” I thought. I told him that I had been in the same place 12 years ago! The next thing out his mouth was a small rant about how music today “sucks.” “Nothing is good out there” and “the artists look good but can’t sing.” He went on to say he spends most of his time listening to classic music. “Hmmm…” I thought, “this is something I hear a lot in writing forums on the internet.” Later that day I pondered the morning conversation about “today’s music” and this writer’s attitude towards it. 

Funny part for me was that almost half the music are written and release under my own name (you should check them out!) are classical and I still do not believe pop or rap music (even mumble rap) sucks or whatsoever! Each genre of music has its own audience and no matter what you write, there is one person somewhere in the world who would enjoy that music at a point of time. But of course with that one person’s joy, you as a writer can’t make a living and you need to write something which the majority of people would enjoy.

Let me suggest this: if you find yourself hating the music that’s being played today, then getting one of these artists to record your song will most likely NEVER happen. In fact, almost all the successful writers that I work with waste little time complaining about music they don’t like. They are too busy creating new music, working on their own sound, and talking about the cool new music they’re currently into. If they don’t like the latest Luke Bryan record, they simply don’t listen to it longer than it takes to understand why other people DO like it. It’s really about FOCUS and INTENTION. If you can’t stand radio, you’re not going to create music for the radio. And that’s okay. But, know your goal. If it’s to create music better than the radio, then find the artists that do those kinds of songs and spend your time pursuing that goal. Every second we spend complaining about “Radio,” steals our energy away from doing what we love. If your goal is to get a song on the radio, then I challenge you to immerse yourself in the songs by radio artists that you like. Even if it’s only 10 songs this year. What makes those songs special to you? Can you soak up what’s good about those songs? Strive to write songs of that quality or better.

The bottom line: be clear about what you want for your life and your songwriting. And chase that positively!

Author

Hangi Tavakoli is our in-house established and professional music producer with more than 18 years of experience in songwriting, music production, mix and mastering. He has produced more than 3,000 and written more than 4,800 published songs to-date, including some major hits in international scale.