Charles brings up many good points regarding our inability to write pop songs. I agree: a bad pop song is really bad, which makes the endeavor very freigthening because failure ensures a long hard fall. But I think our inability to write pure pop songs boils down to two points, one simple, one somewhat more complex, butboth related to originality.
1) All of the “groundbreaking” pop bands have come and gone, meaning you cannot be original at this point and still be a pop band. I value originality above all else, which makes writing pop songs these days very difficult. In order to write pop songs and be original in the current climate you have to be a once-in-a-generation band, a paradigm-shifting sort of band like the Beatles or The Clash. Them’s some mighty heights to which we aspire, and it’s a bit difficult to get there quickly. We are not there yet.
2) I write most songs by fiddling around on the guitar. When fiddling, I most frequently start with a C chord because, as a piano player and singer, it has a ‘centering’ effect on me. I see everything in terms of its relation to C. From that point I hit a “G” chord because it’s in ab out the same position on the neck. Then I stop and say,”No, this will never work. I can’t continue like this and hope to write anything new.” The problem is, pop writers do the same thing and say,” Yeah! That’s the stuff. A hit.” I just can’t bring myself to continue that way.
I, unlike Charles, refuse to concede that I am “bad” at anything, including writing pop songs. I’ve considered doing it many times, and I’m fairly certain I could pull it off easily if I could stomach it. But, as mentioned above, I hit that crossroads and go the other way, certainly the road less traveled. Charles, in his self-deprecating fashion, is actually lying through his teeth. He can do it as well, but he has the same problems that I do with the process.
As a final note, I’d like to point out something that’s always struck me about the concept of “melody”. When a 15 year old kid says “good melody”, they are talking about something completely different from what a 60 year old means. I know what a 60 year old is talking about, and I know what a 15 year old is saying. They are not the same thing. Yet we talk about melody as if it is incontrovertible. But when I clear my head, the first melody that pops up is not “I want it that way”, but the opening to ”x-polynation” by Q and Not U. So for me, melody lies somewhere else. And as something that is completely subjective yet exists in common language as something universal, I find it difficult to get a handle on it. And I don’t know how to circumvent melodies that I find to be good in order to arrive at melodies that I know others think are good. It just doesn’t work that way.
Having said all of that, I don’t think that we are great songwriters yet, but I don’t think sing-ability is the problem.
