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Hi, I am new to Taxi and would appreciate any thoughts on the subject of the " no specific names, places, or story lines " that I find often in the listings. I understand that songs should be Universal, but I find it hard to compose a song without some sort of story, persons, or outline. I thank you in advance for any insight you might have on the subject.

Bonney wrote:Hi, I am new to Taxi and would appreciate any thoughts on the subject of the " no specific names, places, or story lines " that I find often in the listings. I understand that songs should be Universal, but I find it hard to compose a song without some sort of story, persons, or outline. I thank you in advance for any insight you might have on the subject.

People really don't care about specifics in a song. Stories are not too important either. The important thing to have in a song is a great melody and a catchy chorus. The chorus and the melody get used the most in music licensing. Those two things define any hit song.

I understand that songs should be Universal, but I find it hard to compose a song without some sort of story, persons, or outline.

most songs involve people, story and plot. Its just about not making so specific as to eliminate a persons imagination and ability to make it personal. If you write a song about how you fell in love at starbucks to a girl called betty at lake tahoe, its difficult for people to relate that to themselves.

I think the "universal lyric" thing is more
directed toward songs for TV or movie placement.

Bonney wrote:Hi, I am new to Taxi and would appreciate any thoughts on the subject of the " no specific names, places, or story lines " that I find often in the listings. I understand that songs should be Universal, but I find it hard to compose a song without some sort of story, persons, or outline. I thank you in advance for any insight you might have on the subject.

This is mostly related to music written for placement into films and television. As you might imagine, the more "specific" your song is, the more limited it is in terms of background music to a scene. A song about Jenny who's phone# happens to be 867-5309 worked great for one group for album and radio play but for us looking for film/tv placements that could only really fit into a scene with a character named Jenny who happens to have a phone# of 867-5307. But universal themes like happiness, sadness, love, lost love... those can fit into any scene that fits those basic descriptions. Robin Frederick has a very good book dealing with this in more detail and if you're a Facebook person, you can friend her and pick up lots of info specific to writing songs for film/tv.

By the way, lyrics are VERY important and will be scrutinized not only by the Taxi screener but by the music library owner and by the music supervisor looking to place the music into a television show or film, the scrutiny getting tighter as the song moves up the line. Saying the same old thing in the same old way won't get prominent placements in desired television shows or films. You'll never hear Alexandra Patsavas from the Chop Shop say "Lyrics aren't great in this song but what the heck... I like the melody so place it in there anyway"

Thanks so much for all of the input on the subject, much appreciated ! I will keep your thoughts in mind when working on future projects.

+1 to what Dave said.

"Universal" isn't an easy thing to achieve, and may not always be what film/tv are looking for, but it's in your best interest to write "universal" songs, if you're looking for placements. They sometimes like music specifically composed to their pictures, however they don't need another story to compete with the script. So, "universal" often means emotions in common with the experience of being human.

The music that works for tv/film is often about emotional states, which is borderless in the sense that it doesn't need a specific postal code, a city, a scenery, a male/female name ect. in order to be understood. Regardless of geography, names and culture, we can all connect with human needs, and emotional states, so in that sense, it's "universal" (to the extent we currently know the universe ). In terms of your comment on hard to write without specifics, consider to differentiate between physical specifics like names, places ect. like "Joe worked at the factory in Youngstown, Ohio" and emotional specifics like "his arms felt heavier than a ton of lead", one describing some factuals about his "outer" world and the other describes his "inner" emotional state, however both being specific.

Robin Frederick's book "Shortcuts to songwriting for tv/film" http://www.robinfrederick.com/ is an excellent ressource to get insight in what works and what doesn't work when you're writing songs for audiovisual productions. It takes a day or two to read, it may take longer to understand fully, and even longer to implement the advice into your songwriting practice, so the book will really last for years, and be a resource you will consult often, once you have it. Just like the other volume.

Mileage may vary if the listings you refer to are the artist/label listings, though. For those "universal" may allow physical detail, however that doesn't mean a 007 licence to use trite clichés