Most of us probably
started out without giving the choice of material much conscious thought, and
you can get a long way just “playing it by ear”, but as soon as you start
working on a set list for a full-length concert or for a CD, you might want to
think about the genre and the overall mood, but first, let’s have a
quick look at the end goal of music, which is to express some kind of emotion
(and/or thought, if you have lyrics), and elicit some kind of emotional response. I find it useful to think of
this in terms of arousing vs. soothing, and positive vs. negative (see table
II.2).
Table II.1 – Emotions
Arousing
|
Soothing
|
|
Positive
|
Joy
|
Love
|
Surprise,
curiosity/interest
|
Recognition,
understanding
|
|
Anticipation, hope,
desire
|
Contentment, satisfaction,
fulfilment, gratitude
|
|
Amusement,
Thoughtfulness
Inspiration
Awe
|
||
either
|
Disbelief
Fear
Distrust
|
Belief
Confidence
Trust
|
Negative
|
Anger
Hate
|
Sadness
Complacency, indifference
Boredom
|
Arousal is achieved
by creating tension, and resolution of that tension soothes or relaxes. This
ebb and flow of tension and relaxation occurs at several levels. Within songs,
fast beats, dissonance,
unexpected key changes, unusual arrangements or unexpected instruments,
loudness or large differences in volume etc. all cause tension, while slower
beats, harmony, and musical clichés relax. Within the set list, you can vary
the types of songs, the instrumentation, etc. And these tides of tension and
relaxation also exist between you and your audience, in the form of
expectations and fulfillment. If they expect you to play your most popular
song, you can create tension by making them wait for it, or if they expect you
to play a song a certain way and you don’t …
The positive-negative
axis is influenced mostly by the lyrics (more on this later), but the music can
also be important: sadness is associated with soft, minor chords; anger with
loud major chords, thoughtfulness with major seventh chords and varying beats
per minute, etc.
Most people learn to express their emotions musically without
giving the process much conscious thought. One thing you might want to think
about, however, is the tension between
your current musical identity (= the sum of all the choices you make as regards
genre, mood, lyrics etc.) and who you want to be in future.
Most musicians start
out by emulating other musicians that make music they like, then slowly
progressing away from their heroes, to create their own brand of music. If you have
done this for a while and still find it hard to decide what kind of music you
would like to make, you might want to think in terms of where the music comes
from, and who listens to it.
Genre
All popular music starts out with a close connection to some culture, subculture,
ethnic or demographic group. Gospel, blues, soul and funk started out being made
for and by African Americans; country music, bluegrass and folk used to be for
and by white people from rural areas in the U.S., disco originated from the
urban gay scene. For the musician, the thing to think about is whether you fit
your audience’s expectations. If you are white, western European, middle class,
but like funk and soul, you will have to work harder to gain acceptance from an
audience than it you do folk or rock. For some subgenres, age is critical:
teenagers want songs about budding romance or issues in school to be sung by
musicians that are only slightly older than themselves, not some balding
60-year old that could be their father or teacher.
On the other hand, audiences and musicians alike are always looking for
something new, both within and beyond the boundaries of the narrow confines of
“their” genre. When musicians adopt music from a subculture other than their
own, this creates a kind of tension that is usually resolved by changing it a
bit: just think of what British musicians in the sixties (the Beatles, the
Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton) did with American black music. And the end result
is an endlessly changing panorama of subgenres. At the moment, there are
literally hundreds of different styles and subgenres in popular music, many
with its own audience. You either need to find the niche that fits you, or
create it yourself. (This is more true of acts that make original music than
cover bands, but even cover bands have a niche, but more on this later).
Lyrics
Music is more about
feeling than thinking, but as soon as you include lyrics, you are asking people
to turn on at least a small part of their brain, and not just their limbic
system. With the exception of dance or party music, most lyrics are either stories
or “pictures” (descriptions of impressions and feelings).
Unfortunately, a lot
of people don’t care about lyrics, and only understand and remember a small
part of the lyrics (often only the main part or hook of the refrain) of the
songs they like. The same is true of musicians: some care about lyrics, and
some don’t. This is fine: a lot of great music doesn’t even have lyrics. If
there are lyrics, however, you need to make sure they don’t stick out like a
sore thumb (by avoiding boring, uninspired similes, poor grammar, etc.), and it
is best if they don’t give rise to embarrasing misunderstandings (funny
misunderstandings are fine – see the text box).
But even if your
audience may not understand each word, the overall content is important. It may
help to think of songs with lyrics in terms of how “serious” they are. Songs about
the environment, politics, religion, or other social or humanitarian issues are
generally considered more serious than confessional songs, or songs about
relationships, human emotions (love, hate, jealousy, etc.), and dance songs
tend to have lyrics that can be summarized in one simple command (Dance!)[1].
Many popular musicians including Roberta Flack, Elton John
and Stevie Wonder started with more serious lyrics, and later segued into
lighter stuff later in their career; others (like the Beatles) took the
opposite route, starting out with lighter material, and later progressing into
more serious stuff. There is no right or wrong choice here, but whatever you
choose will help determine who wants to listen to you.
Mood
The mood of a song is
defined by a combination of the music, which can be upbeat or downbeat, fast or
slow, and overall content of the lyrics (serious or light). With the exception
of parodies, where the mood of the lyrics often clashes with that of the music
on purpose, the musical mood tends to mirror the lyrical content: serious songs
tend to be darker musically (slower beat, more minor and diminished chords),
while lighter material tends to be more upbeat, and uses lots of major and 7th
chords.
Genre + mood + lyrics/music
In figure 1, I have
“mapped” various common genres that normally have lyrics against their mood
and the relative importance of the lyrics as opposed to the music.
Figure II.1
Lyrics
|
Country
|
Rap
Folk
|
Pop
Easy listening
R&B
Jazz standards
Funk
|
Blues
Progressive rock
Punk
Rock
Hip-hop
Heavy metal
|
|
Music
|
Psychedelic rock (acid
rock)
|
|
Light
|
Serious
|
|
Covers or original songs?
Are you mostly
interested in developing your craftsmanship on the beaten track, or do you want
to push the artistic envelope, strike off into unexplored territory? And if you
want to be original, at what level or scope? Maybe you only want to do cover
songs in a slightly different way, or maybe you are looking to create a new
sound or – god forbid – a whole new subgenre of music. I have nothing useful to
say about the last (mainly because I do not believe you can create a new genre
on purpose, it just happens from time to time, as a result of mixing genres and
tweaking the sound and the beat), but I do have some ideas on the other issues,
and especially on the choice between covers and original songs.
With the exception of
tribute bands, acts that only or mostly play cover songs tend to play at events
where the music is important, but not the center of attention (weddings,
parties), in venues not specifically dedicated to music (hotels, restaurants
and bars), and to a transient, constantly changing audience that do not
necessarily have a bond with the band, while acts that are mostly about
original music aim for concerts in venues and events dedicated specifically to music,
and try to build a longer-term connection with their audience. Correctly chosen
cover material can make it easier to evoke a positive response from the
audience than is the case with original material, but the effect is relatively
superficial/ephemeral; getting people to like original material requires more
work, but if done well, the effect lasts longer.
Of course, many
original bands also include covers in their set list in the beginning of their
careers, as a way to get an “in” with their audience, but to them, their own
material is the important part: they need to prove, to themselves and to
agents, managers, venue owners and organizers, that they have something new and
worthwhile to offer (once they have done that, they can safely do covers again).
The business model is
also different: cover bands get paid according to the amount of time played;
original bands get some of their income from the copyright revenues, which in
turn means spending more time in the studio.
Irrespective of
whether you play covers or original material, you might want to think about the
Tweedledee and Tweedledum of music: tension and relaxation. Musically, tension
is created by fast beats, dissonance, unexpected key changes, unusual
arrangements or unexpected instruments, loudness (or large differences in
volume) etc. Relaxation is created by slower beats, harmony, musical clichés.
Lyrics can be viewed the same way: challenging lyrics (controversial subjects
or views, expletives, etc.) arouse, while clichés tend to be soothing. You need
to find the right balance in this. Too familiar, and you’re boring; too
original (or controversial), and very few people (including the members of your
own band, if you have one) will want to listen to you for very long.
Should you care what other
people think? It depends on what you are aiming for. If you are willing to
sacrifice everything for the sake of your musical vision, and don’t care what
anyone else thinks, that’s up to you. Who knows, you may really be a musical
genius. But this guide is for people who want to make popular music, which by
definition means you need an audience, in which case you will have to strike
some kind of balance between what you want, and what the audience wants. On
average, audiences tend to be more “conservative” than musicians, because
musicians spend more time on music, so that what is still new to the audience
might be boring or predictable to the musician. In the end, the best way to
strike that balance is by trial and error, with an/your audience.
Selecting and arranging covers
On the whole, cover
bands need to have a bigger repertoire and a wider range of genres and sounds
than acts that mainly play their own music. They also need to be quite
flexible, because they will usually play for a wider range of audiences, each
of which will require slightly different material. When adapting the set list,
recognizability is key: the audience needs to recognize (and like) at least 20
percent of the songs played, and preferably more.
Writing your own songs
When you are just
starting out, it can be difficult to separate originality from poor
craftsmanship, especially because skill limitations can be the very reason for
inventing something new. Still, just because the structure of the song (or the
riff, or the sounds used or whatever) is different from anything anyone has
done before, does not mean that it is a good idea. To paraphrase Picasso: you
have to learn the rules before learning how to break them. And by learning I
mean not just knowing what they are, but internalizing them, and applying them
many times before you decide to do things differently. The easiest way is to
start from known territory – listen to a song you like, and create something
similar – and keep at it until you have created something that you can truly
call your own, and is worth presenting to an audience.
But even before you let the audience judge, it is almost always a good idea to have the
structure, melody, harmony, hook, riffs, arrangement, lyrics etc. of your songs
evaluated by other musicians. This can be a painful process – you will hear
things you don’t want to hear, and often will find difficult to believe – but
it is essential. It can also help you decide whether you want to “go it alone”
(by which I mean retaining full creative control over your songs), or accept
input from other (sharing control and credits).
Getting good feedback is not always easy, because people in
the know are not always interested in giving feedback, and because the way it
is given can make the feedback difficult to accept. If you are in a band, you
should be able to rely on other band members for feedback (see the section on
bands), but not everyone is equally qualified or good at giving feedback. Best
is if you can find a musician (in a genre other than your own) who you look up
to and can trust to be honest.
Protecting your songs
Many budding
songwriters are worried that they will write a hit song that will then be
stolen by someone. This does not happen often, but it does happen: “Angels” as made
famous by Robbie Williams was written and composed by a guy called Ray
Hefferman, who only found out about the recording after the fact, and accepted
7,500 pounds for the song (probably thinking it was a good deal at the time). So
it is a good idea to protect your material before you show it to others (and
especially to other musicians or music producers). They are various ways to do
this, but possibly the easiest is to register your material with associations
like …
You sound
It is not absolutely necessary to have your own distinctive sound, but
if you write your own material, it will definitely help get more gigs, because
having your own sound means (1) you have matured as a band (2) people will
remember you better. You need to be a bit different, a bit special, a bit
separate. For this last issue, your band image (see the next section) is also
very important, but it is definitely nice to not be called “that band that
sounds like so-and-so, but isn’t” for years on end.
Range or variety
Acts that make
original music tend to stick to the same overall genre and overall sound, while
professional cover bands have to be able to handle several genres, but all acts
should be able to vary the mood enough to avoid getting boring. More on this
later, in the pieces on the set list and albums.
