Our Hit Song

[horacejesse]

The big hit is what some of us are after, thousands of us, methinks. We all cannot have one. Some of us will get some hits though, maybe even the big one.I think those hits do not always come from the best writer on the block. A lot of them do, but then I think there are a fair number where an average writer got either very lucky or very inspired.That is why any of us could write the next hit, or may already have.You know what you have to do (especially all those returning stoned from the rally) to produce a hit. Right? You went to the rally and got stoned out of your minds on brilliant speakers and teachers, so you could find out what to do. And you did find out. You found out so much that it is all you can do to handle it. You even found out how to be a marketeer in case you do mine a hit out of your own brain and heart.That is where it will come from. It is already in there too. Are you a tireless miner? Can you tell fool's gold from gold? One of these days you will say it just right, and out of your lips will fall a great nugget. Maybe it will be just a loose nugget worth a lot of dough, or maybe you will locate the motherlode from which you can extract yellow ore for the rest of your career. Guys like Bob Dylan and Neil Young located their motherlodes decades ago and have never stopped mining them.I want you to write a hit song. Okay? I don't care if yours comes before or after my own.The good part is, we know what to do and we belong to an organization that can only help itself by helping us. We got'em trapped. They only get bragging rights if we get them too. I'd love to have my auto insurer, my doctor, my banker et al, trapped. But out of all the people I give money too, Taxi is the only one I have trapped.When the irresistible song comes, we have a partner who wants it as badly as we do.Go get'em, tigers. And hurry!

[gitarrero]

hmmm.... I wouldn't speculate so much on "having a hit" - I rather produce a large amount of pieces which don't bring large sums each piece, but a good amount if you count it all together. e.g. instead of one big hit that brings $ 300'000 I rather have 500 tracks that bring $200 each.btw this is also much more realistic to achive than hunting for that one big hit - chances are that you burn out on such a hunt.just a thought.cheers,martin

[horacejesse]

Hey, old buddy, I did not mean to leave out all of you folks who want your gold in dust rather than nuggets. I know there are thousands of you too, and dust spends just as well.I have a foot in both worlds though. I submit to song pitches as well as libraries. I create music because I have to, and it lets me do it.I do not recommend a strategy of chasing only the big hit for anyone with the option to submit to a wider assortment of listings. But hundreds upon hundreds (probably that many) of Taxi members do not have that option, because they do not play an instrument well enough to give a broadcast quality performance, and it seems pretty rare for a non-musician to hire musicians to perform an instrumental he/she has written.There are some who are just as content searching only for nuggets as you are for panning dust. Myself, I just gotta try to have it both ways. I should have made that clear.

[jchitty]

Quote:The big hit is what some of us are after, thousands of us, methinks. We all cannot have one. Some of us will get some hits though, maybe even the big one.I think those hits do not always come from the best writer on the block. A lot of them do, but then I think there are a fair number where an average writer got either very lucky or very inspired.That is why any of us could write the next hit, or may already have.You know what you have to do (especially all those returning stoned from the rally) to produce a hit. Right? You went to the rally and got stoned out of your minds on brilliant speakers and teachers, so you could find out what to do. And you did find out. You found out so much that it is all you can do to handle it. You even found out how to be a marketeer in case you do mine a hit out of your own brain and heart.That is where it will come from. It is already in there too. Are you a tireless miner? Can you tell fool's gold from gold? One of these days you will say it just right, and out of your lips will fall a great nugget. Maybe it will be just a loose nugget worth a lot of dough, or maybe you will locate the motherlode from which you can extract yellow ore for the rest of your career. Guys like Bob Dylan and Neil Young located their motherlodes decades ago and have never stopped mining them.I want you to write a hit song. Okay? I don't care if yours comes before or after my own.The good part is, we know what to do and we belong to an organization that can only help itself by helping us. We got'em trapped. They only get bragging rights if we get them too. I'd love to have my auto insurer, my doctor, my banker et al, trapped. But out of all the people I give money too, Taxi is the only one I have trapped.When the irresistible song comes, we have a partner who wants it as badly as we do.Go get'em, tigers. And hurry! I'm a miner....I wanna write that big hit.

[squidlips]

I'm a panhandler (the real kind, not the street kind).......I go for the nuggets and dust in the streams, myself. All the "less-than-a-hit but good for film" songs pay off more consistently then writing for the big one, for me. Of course, you're gonna have both if you can keep writing good stuff consistently and its well produced. But someone's gonna write a hit......the statistics probably lean that way, given 12,000 members and opps every month. Why not you, right?

[twilsbach]

Then there are those greedy lot of us who are trying to be artists as well as writing a hit song and other music.

[squidlips]

Honey, everyone here is an artist.

[twilsbach]

Quote:Honey, everyone here is an artist. Yikes! Of course we're all artists, didn't mean any disrespect to anyone. I meant like chasing some type of label deal based on performance, writing, buzz, and the whole package. I get the feeling there are a lot of folks here who are writing and not worried about booking shows, growing fan base etc.But I could be wrong. Its happened once or twice.

[rcase]

Squid, you're too kind! I'm a hack! And I'm not ashamed to type it! Now where's my royalty check?? Just kidding. Er, at least I hope.. I'd be proud and I think- fulfilled -to make a career out of writing music for libraries, projects, etc. If I could earn a living from this, I guess I don't care how it's achieved.But getting back to the spirit of horacejesse's op, yes, I'd LOVE to write a hit, and then of course, have it actually turn into one, generating the related royalties, etc.! I figured out some time back that I'm not John Prine, or Dylan, or even a close runner-up to anybody in their league. I'm just a guy who wants to write something that a significantly large number of people will be unable to get out of their heads, no matter how much they'd like to! Rob

[squidlips]

Quote:Quote:Honey, everyone here is an artist. Yikes! Of course we're all artists, didn't mean any disrespect to anyone. I meant like chasing some type of label deal based on performance, writing, buzz, and the whole package. I get the feeling there are a lot of folks here who are writing and not worried about booking shows, growing fan base etc.But I could be wrong. Its happened once or twice. Strictly speaking, here's what I meant:artist –noun 1. a person who produces works in any of the arts that are primarily subject to aesthetic criteria. 2. a person who practices one of the fine arts, esp. a painter or sculptor. 3. a person whose trade or profession requires a knowledge of design, drawing, painting, etc.: a commercial artist. 4. a person who works in one of the performing arts, as an actor, musician, or singer; a public performer: a mime artist; an artist of the dance. 5. a person whose work exhibits exceptional skill. 6. a person who is expert at trickery or deceit: He's an artist with cards. 7. Obsolete. an artisan. If you're someone who writes commercial music with no fan base or you're a die-hard road worker who's cranking out originals four nights a week, whether you're writing for the shot at the big hit or writing for your own satisfaction or writing for the smaller successes, you're an artist. At least, using the commonly accepted term.If you raise the level of your work to a degree that shines in its own way, you're the other definition of the word.And of course, there're the hacks too. But even they are practicing their craft and improving it, thus making them also artists.