Classic Rock or Country? No forward again...

[toncart]

I got my critique back last night for my country song "I Can't Stop". It was not forwarded, but I was somewhat pleased with some of the comments. They really liked the lyrics of the song. This totally surprises me because I thought that the lyrics were very hokey. They liked the verse and the chorus melodies. The production could be better, but hey, it was recorded on my buddies front porch with just the two of us in less than an hour. It sounds great for the amount of time I put into it, but poor by "broadcast quality" standards. They said that I missed the mark on the listing and that it sounds more "classic rock' than country. ? Big question mark for me there. Sounds kinda honky tonk to me. My weakest song in my arsenal got better feedback than what I consider my best. Again, no forward, but it sounds like I almost got one on this. Below is the link to my song. I personally think the guitars are over the top and a signature lick is needed, but a good song is in there somewhere. http://www.soundclick.com/tcartermusicI have 3 songs on there. Scroll down and listen to "I Can't Stop" and tell me if it sounds like country or classic rock. Listen to the others as well if you want. The production on "Put it in Drive" was the best of the 3 and it took about 3 hours to put together. I luckily have a very good country singer to help me out. He sounds a lot like Alan Jackson. Thanks guys.Tony

[davewalton]

As only the most casual kind of listener to this genre, I'm hearing maybe Country Rock or something like that but not what I think of as "Classic Rock". Maybe he meant to write "Country Rock", I don't know. It's hard for me to imagine putting a label on this song that doesn't include the word "Country" in there somewhere.

[toncart]

Here are the comments. " Title Good title So-so Title Can't determine title by listening Could appear in a more strategic place Doesn't repeat enough Repeats too often Good title! Overall Comments: Hi Anthony, Thanks for sending us your song!! The song has a very strong "classic rock" flavor - not quite the sound this listing is going for. The verse melody has strong attitude & phrasing!! The CH however, sounds a little linear to the V in vocal range - might be detracting from the impact of the Ch in my opinion. Lyrically the feelings are coming through loud & clear! I do like lines like "I think this song is starring me as the fool" - very hip! V1 & 2 however, seem similar in what they are conveying - sort of gives the story a repetitive quality. ""This song may be more "classic rock" in style than this listing is going for.The lyric is very strong in getting these feelings across!! Some of the lines are very expressive and creative (love is making me dizzy / going out of my mind / starring me as the fool - for example), but much of the lyric seems repetitive in thought (making me dizzy - got me spinning around - feet off the ground ..... very similar ideas/thoughts)."I'm not getting the classic rock thing either. I'm glad he understood the lyrics at least. I wanted a dizzying kinda feel for the verses and he got that. The listing was pretty broad country. Here is the listing:"A wide range of COUNTRY SONGS & INSTRUMENTALS - from Traditional [Hank Williams/George Jones] to Mainstream [Dixie Chicks/Dierks Bentley] - are wanted by a West Coast-based Music Library whose clients include Xbox, Microsoft, Visa, Clorox, Adidas, Esurance + many more. Male or female vocals are fine, but great performances are a must. They offer a standard non-exclusive, 50/50 deal - all royalties are split down the middle and they don’t acquire your song’s copyright. Songs must be broadcast quality (great sounding home recordings are OK). You must control the publishing and master rights to your songs - no samples that require clearance, please. Please submit one to three songs online or per CD, include lyrics. All submissions will be screened and critiqued by TAXI and must be received no later than Oct. 10, 2006. TAXI # S061010CO "I know I don't quite have broadcast quality, but it did say great home recordings were ok. Guess mine wasn't a great home recording.

[davewalton]

Quote:"A wide range of COUNTRY SONGS & INSTRUMENTALS - from Traditional [Hank Williams/George Jones] to Mainstream [Dixie Chicks/Dierks Bentley]Ah... there's your answer. The listing is asking for Traditional to Mainstream Country. The review said:Quote:This song may be more "classic rock" in style than this listing is going for"More 'classic rock' in style than this listing is looking for" isn't saying that he/she thinks this is classic rock, just too much rock stylewise for the traditional/mainstream songs that this listing is looking for. You'll never find a Hank Williams song with this style (Jr maybe but not Sr). "Your Cheatin' Heart" and this song are miles away from each other stylewise.This is a very good song in every respect. I'm convinced that if this were submitted to a library/tv/film listing looking for Country Rock (or whatever is similar) that you wouldn't have any problem with getting this forwarded. Dave

[toncart]

Thanks Dave. It also listed Dierks Bently and he's certainly not "traditional" by any means. Regardless, I somehow missed the mark. I saw the listing as being very broad given the artists they were "ala-ing". I'm glad I didn't submit my KISS remake for that listing. : )

[matto]

Quote:Thanks Dave. It also listed Dierks Bently and he's certainly not "traditional" by any means. Regardless, I somehow missed the mark. I saw the listing as being very broad given the artists they were "ala-ing". I'm glad I didn't submit my KISS remake for that listing. : )Tony,there's lots about this song that is fairly "country", including the instrumentation and above all the vocals (love the singer). However what's decidedly "uncountry" are the strange uneven breaks that occur in the verses, after the pre, and after the chorus. Those are weird stylistic anomalies (not a lot of meter changes in country music )...thus your song kinda falls between the cracks stylistically.That's always a problem for this type of listing and probably one reason it didn't get forwarded. The other is the lack of broadcast quality...actually this one's not too far off, the problem lies mostly in some sloppy playing and the big wash of reverb on the lead vocals (and in general with the mix). That means the song falls short on both the "great performance" and "broadcast quality" counts. Btw the reason they say "great sounding home demos okay" is not to say the submissions don't have to be broadcast quality...it's just meant as a clarification of "broadcast quality" (meaning it doesn't have to be recorded in a commercial studio facility). You'll see this disclaimer on virtually every listing asking for broadcast quality.Finally as far as "the weakest song getting better feedback than the best"...please keep in mind that every submission is critiqued in context of the listing. This really can't be emphasized enough.If this song had been submitted for a high bar Nashville pitch, the critique would probably be completely different and likely much tougher on the lyrics. Music libraries, on the other hand, are typically looking for background music tracks, thus the quality of the lyric is of much lesser importance than the quality of the music, production and performance. As long as the lyric works and makes sense, that's typically good enough for them. Hope this helps.matto

[toncart]

"Tony,there's lots about this song that is fairly "country", including the instrumentation and above all the vocals (love the singer). "Thanks matto. The guy singing is a friend of mine who used to be friends with Waylon Jennings before Waylon passed away. He almost hit it big in Nashville himself in the 90's but sorta burned a few bridges. Anyway, he's getting back into the scene. I agree about the reverb in the voice and I can go back and fix that. You should hear his vocals on my other track "Put it in Drive". Now that is good stuff. His voice on that one sounds as good as any country artist out there and he did it in one take! About that weird timing thing between the verses. Can you belive that I couldn't find a drummer around to play that right? Every one of them said that it's such and odd rhythm. I wish I were able to convey my intent to them on that part a little bit better, but I'm really not that good at explaining musically what I want sometimes. I still hear it in my head right and it sounds good, I wish it would have came out sounding like that.

[jchitty]

Hi Toncart...recently, I submitted to the Alan Jackson listing, and I didn't get fowarded either, but like you, I did receive favorable comments. Overall, I was grateful for the reviewer's comments. Yeah, I'd like a foward, but 'them's the breaks.' One thing that puzzles me about the high bar Nashville listings is this: I'm wondering how a song like Alan Jackson's "Red on A Rose" managed to make the cut. Each to his own, and I have to respect any songwriter's work who gets a cut by a major artist, but when I hear the lines "and I love you like all little children love pennies, and I love you like good times of which I've known many (or something like that, can't remember exact words) I think to myself, well, did the songwriter just use the rhyme 'pennies' because he/she couldn't come up with a rhyme for 'many?' Something about the song just doesn't seem focused to me. I'm sure lots of people love that song though, and as I say, I have to give kudos to anyone who gets a song cut. It's interesting to see what songs get through the Nashville pipeline. Meanwhile, like you, I try to continue to hone my craft, make the best demoes I can, and write as many songs as I can. I figure if I create enough 'darts' to throw at the dart board, I'll hit something.

[jchitty]

btw, one of these days, I'm going to purchase a new computer which allows me to hear all the stuff that people are playing. My old laptop is messed up, so for now, I can't hear anyone's music.

[horacejesse]

Dave,And what do they tell you when you submit a traditional sounding country song? "Too tradtional. Even though the listing says traditional, they are looking for for something with more of a modern bite. Your song is homage by the numbers I am afraid."Toncart, either they feel a song is right or they do not. If they had really liked your song a lot, I don't think it would have mattered that it sounded a bit like classic rock to them, which it doesn't very much anyway. Sure, you cannot send in bossa nova for a country listing. But if they like your song enough I don't think it will matter if it is slightly more rock-ified than the listing seems to be asking for. They have to say something on those critiques, right? They cannot just say, "returned," and leave it at that. They have to give you some kind of reason.But all the rationale boils down to only one sentence:"We don't think it is good enough."It is now my belief that this is the bottom line for every return, unless you happened to submit bossa nova for country.That is, I don't believe a Taxi client is just going to kick their ass all over Hollywood because they got sent an absolutely terriffic song that was a little too rock-ified for their country listing?You write very good country, Toncart. And it sounds like country too. This a country song, though not a tradtional one, unless you consider 15 years ago to be time enough for a traditional standing. They all had a similar sound 15 years ago. Country has copied rock from the start, beginning with the sounds of people like little Richard and Chuck Berry. Currently they are up to about U-2 in their shameless parroting.This bullseye business is for the birds and I do not buy it for a second. All you have to do IMO is hit the target not the bullseye, IF YOUR MATERIAL IS GOOD ENOUGH IN THEIR EYES. I will have to believe this until otherwise is proven to me. I am not saying, "I know this to be true." Just that presently, I believe it. I sent in tradtional-like country songs for listings that looked almost identical to this one and was told (you guessed it) Too Traditional, too by the numbers. I used chords that were not common in country music either today or yesterday. But still they said, "By the Numbers," which was nonsense. As you and I both know, chord canges that move a flat 5 are not exactly a staple of country music.What did they really mean but company policy forbids their saying?They meant: "Hey, pal, it isn't good enough?"Think about it. That is the only thing they can mean. I disagree with them on your material as well as mine. But hey, we have to play the game the way it is setup. In the meantime at least we can learn a few things.