to formulaic or not to formulaic that is the question

[Kolstad]

It may be true that there is much of the same around, but you are not forced to exalt that to law. There is already a choir echoing what you claim, and obviously cookie cutter music pleases no one.

But if you read Robin Frederick's books on songwriting, where she does analyze a variety of popular songs on the charts and in tv/film, you'll realize it's not all abc formats.
Tv/film music is full of alternative formats, and you can have lots of fun with learning new ways to do them.
That's actually hell of a good reason to do it.

[Casey H]

It's simple.

If you are writing for your own personal satisfaction and pleasure, there are no rules. Do whatever you want.

If you are writing to be COMMERCIALLY successful, you virtually always need to follow the song structures that are selling in today's world.

It's not mutually exclusive. You can always do a combo of both. And no one forces anyone to write for commercial success. It's all up to us what we chose to do. I will say that TAXI is about commercial success (and thankfully so to most of us!), so joining Taxi and submitting songs that don't follow popular song structure is a waste of your time and money.

Best of luck
Casey

[Len911]

I suppose maybe it boils down to whether you want to be the ala, or the cheaper cloned version.

No doubt the ala is maybe a more difficult route to take.

The question though is not really about formula or no formula, because anything you write has a formula, it's about a formula that best works for the song.

The "formulas" you get in songwriting handbooks are the result of successful songs. If you write a song abcdefghijk, and it becomes highly successful, no doubt the songwriting handbook will be revised to include your innovative new formula,lol!

[NaeDae]

"Art is something thats different and unappealing to the masses. Since the masses are so much less intelligent than us intellectuals, art is something only WE understand. Basic song structure? That's not how true intellectuals write. No, we write with NO song structure; because we don't care what the stupid masses think of our art; it isn't FOR them."

-Pretentious Artist #3,458,923

Music is something that serves a lot of different purposes. MOST people like music for its surface; its first impression. They just don't have the passion to explore it much beyond listening to it in the background. These people aren't stupid, they just have other things they find important. They want a song that's easy to listen to and easy to wrap their heads around or they won't like it. Simple as that.

[cosmicdolphin]

" You can't argue with popularity... Well you could, but you'd be wrong " Robbie Williams

[Len911]

Progressive rock

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_rock

Progressive rock songs often avoid common popular music song structures of verse/chorus form,[26] and their extended lengths allow complex themes that cannot be fully developed within the span of a three-minute single.[