Kanye West on Songwriting

[DavRom]

a Kanye tweet:

"When I right songs like Heartless I always say 'is this melody good enough to be a country song or a broadway song?'"

[cardell]

That's a good way of looking at it.

Stuart

[Casey H]

a Kanye tweet:

"When I right songs like Heartless I always say 'is this melody good enough to be a country song or a broadway song?'"

That's my problem! I've been writing songs when I should be righting them!

Casey

[shanegrla]

Actually, I think he has a good point. Sometimes I think maybe the true test of a really good song is if you can imagine it being covered by other artists. And also not just other artists in your same style, but if you can imagine translating the song to a completely different style.

A good example of this is the Simpsons theme song. You have the regular version...and then you have the scary version for the Halloween episodes. And then if you watch some of the episodes, you might hear the song being adapted further into different styles for quick cues, etc. relating to the particular episode (like maybe a jazz, country or space-age ver.).

Unfortunately, most of my songs fail this test, so I hope I'm wrong about this. But it is a working theory of mine.

[mojobone]

I think being able to imagine a song being done in a different style has more to do with familiarity with the song than much else, given that you can already imagine-hear music 'in your head'. Any good producer should be able to do this with any viable song. The theory breaks down a bit for some hiphop stuff that's nothing more than a bassline and a beat, though. Given, y'know, there's a lyrical flow, yo-but that's just a rhythm and a rhyme-if you ain't got a melody, you ain't got much, and Kanye's stuff does tend to have good and memorable melodic hooks; I think it's why he's been more successful than some other rap artists-same goes for Black-Eyed Peas.

[drew]

When Garner/Burke wrote "Misty" they must have had Ray Stevens in mind

[nick.moxsom]

For me (and, like, who am I?) the sign that you've written (or do I mean righten?) a good song is when you think somehow it's always been around, like you mut have plagiarised it because it sounds so right. It's a worrying thing, to think I might have stolen it, but then, it's all out there waiting to be captured, right? What is ownership? It's like, did only one person invent the wheel and the news went round the world, or was the idea made available everywhere simultaneously? Whoooaaaa, I've gotta sit down, I'm getting dizzy.

[cardell]

For me (and, like, who am I?) the sign that you've written (or do I mean righten?) a good song is when you think somehow it's always been around, like you mut have plagiarised it because it sounds so right. It's a worrying thing, to think I might have stolen it, but then, it's all out there waiting to be captured, right? What is ownership? It's like, did only one person invent the wheel and the news went round the world, or was the idea made available everywhere simultaneously? Whoooaaaa, I've gotta sit down, I'm getting dizzy.

Yes, I know what you mean Nick. This reminds me of how Paul McCartney wrote/dreamed Yesterday.

Also, have you ever been humming a song while wondering..."what/whose song is that?"...only to realize that it is something you have already written?

Stuart

[nick.moxsom]

Yeah, Stuart. Now imagine everone else was humming that tune...! How cool would that be?

[cardell]

Yeah, Stuart. Now imagine everone else was humming that tune...! How cool would that be?

Now you're talking...

Stuart