Today's Taxi TV, & Dangerous Gender Topics

[ottlukk]

I assume (maybe I shouldn't) that a lot of people picked up on a couple of major themes on today's broadcast. I got two: 1)you had better be writing for a female audience, or you are toast. 2) listeners respond differently to songs, depending on the time of day they hear them. There were a few other themes, but those two stuck out for me. Though I'm not currently pitching songs to TAXI (a situation that will change), why not have the TAXI screeners identify their gender, and the time of day they listened to a member's song? Is it possible that your forward depends on the gender of the listener, and the time of day he/she listened to your tune? It's an interesting question. I'll add that I got returns, no matter what the time of day it was. Usually darkest midnight. Ott

[cardell]

I enjoyed this episode very much...lots of great info.

1)you had better be writing for a female audience, or you are toast.

Yes, this seems to be Bruno Mars' main lyrical strategy!

Stuart

[DesireInspires]

Interesting...

[Hookjaw Brown]

Ott,

Mr. Murphy said the He personally has success writing for women and seems pretty knowledgeable about gender and pronouns and POV. Few men can understand women and how they think. Notice that he uses his wife to tell him when his songs suck Nice having a friendly critic.

The "second verse" syndrome is very hard to break. I have had to move verses around and do some rewrites to make the song more "grab ya" and give some meaning to the story.

Writing "Hit Songs" is different than writing for Movies and TV...duh! But I think the biggest thing he pushes is to write songs that will soar to the moon and provide royalties for your grandchildren. Don't sit down to write small songs, sit down to write fabulous songs that will be remarkable and remembered. Your overall level of writing will improve and so will your income.

Get back in that saddle...

[Len911]

How I interpreted the "writing for women" theme was that women seemed to be more attentive and discerning of the characters and plausibility in a song. I'll vouch for that, because I have seen lyrics in the peer-to-peer written by a man from the perspective of a woman, and they can be quite humorous, though probably not from a woman's perspective,lol!

I interpreted the 10 o'clock crowd as being drunk,lol! I wonder though, if the "happy hour" crowd wouldn't be just as pleased, ya know, cheap beer and peanuts.

The single most thing that stood out for me, was the lack of "Exposition", or the "second verse" syndrome. Maybe it isn't called exposition in songwriting circles?

[cardell]

Writing Lyrics that Appeal to Women 101

or

Writing Lyrics that Appeal to Women for Dummies (ie. Men.. )

Just remember (then write) all the stuff you used to say to her...at the start of the relationship.

Stuart

[Hookjaw Brown]

I have been married for years. One morning, while putting on my socks, I told my wife that I had woken up early and "Laying with you in my arms, watching the dawn. Made me remember, why I love you..."

She looked at me misty eyed and immediately wrote an e-mail to me with what I said so that I could write a song. The following year I gave it to her on our anniversary - "Take You With Me".

I tested this song on Jango and found that the demographics of "likes" were female in the 35 to 55 year old range.

Now if I could just sell it.....

[Mark Kaufman]

I have been married for years. One morning, while putting on my socks, I told my wife that I had woken up early and "Laying with you in my arms, watching the dawn. Made me remember, why I love you..."

She looked at me misty eyed and immediately wrote an e-mail to me with what I said so that I could write a song. The following year I gave it to her on our anniversary - "Take You With Me".

I tested this song on Jango and found that the demographics of "likes" were female in the 35 to 55 year old range.

Now if I could just sell it.....

Can I borrow those socks?

[Casey H]

First, I love listening to Ralph Murphy and he's one of the best! I really enjoyed the show. His "What's in it for the woman?" question runs through my mind all the time when I write.

It IS important to remember that his persepctive is very much about writing radio #1 hits for artists such as in Nashville. Writing for film/TV is often different in that your music is not the main event, it is there to support (and not interfere with) the main event. So the rules are not completely the same.

For example, "story songs" rarely do well in film/TV.

That is not to say that being the best songwriter you can doesn't make you better whether it is for artists or film/TV. There certainly are common elements-- structure, vibe, having a memorable hook, etc.

Best,
Casey

[jessejpeck]

Very Good Points . What If you have a full-moon on the day you have a female-screen'er ?! And what if it's 6.30 or 5.pm ?! Huuuum I wonder .