Recording - January 2015 - 52
Continued from page 51
A lot of people are confused by Taylor Swift
and the fact that she sells almost as much physical product as she does digital downloads.
Look at "We are Never Ever Getting Back
Together." I love Taylor Swift. I've watched her;
I know the people who trained her; I knew her
when she was just a kid, and I've watched her
evolve. I saw her about four or five days ago at
an awards show. We were in the same room
hangin' out, and we talked briefly. But the first
line of "We Are Never Ever Getting Back
Together" says "The first time we broke up,"
which to every woman is a direct signal saying,
"The guy is a serial offender. He is an asshole."
"Yeah, anyone can write a song, anyone can play golf, anyone can play
tennis. But if you want to be the best
at it, you need to learn!"
- Ralph Murphy
The first time? You mean there've been multiple
times? The next line says, "Ah, but you said we
needed space." What? When a man says to a
woman, "Oh, we just need a little time apart for
me to consider my options," she hears, "OK,
who is she? Who are you doing? Come on!"
Then, the last line of that verse, which is beautiful, says, "And so you say you love me, then
trust me." When a man says to a woman,
"Trust me," you run like a bandit. So obviously,
all those physical records are being bought by
women 25 to 40 who are giving them to their
children and their grandchildren.
I mean, it's called normal. Think like the fish,
rhyme scheme. All the great writers do it, and
they've done it all my lifetime in music. No
matter which of the six commercial song structures you work in... And you will notice that
although there are seven shapes or forms of
structure, only six of them make money. The
seventh, which is the "Kumbaya," or "Michael
Row the Boat Ashore" is lovely, but it doesn't
make any money. But it's lovely by a campfire;
it makes you feel good, it's all fuzzy and lovely.
Anyway, it's the seventh one. It's nice, but nah.
In all the songs, making changing rhyme
schemes section-to-section in all structures is
vital. In every structure that makes money by
changing rhyme schemes section-to-section,
you alert the listener that something different
is coming their way. By the way, changing
rhyme schemes verse-to-verse is a no-no. I
heard a lot of that today. Like they'll write a
verse and it's A-A-B-B rhyme, and the next one
will be A-A-A, and then a C rhyme or B rhyme
52
scheme. You can't change rhyme schemes
verse-to-verse. You change it from section-tosection, but not from verse-to-verse. That's one
of the most fascinating rhyme schemes you'll
ever come up with: "So I love you, but if you do
then we'll be true, because that's the way I love
you." Then suddenly you've got to duplicate it
again. It's called painting yourself in a corner.
Don't do that. As a matter of fact, the easiest
way is to go back and make it an easier first
verse, so you can accommodate on the second
one. Because what you're doing is creating an
expectation in the listener that that is the way
that the next verse is going to be. You've
planted the seeds. It was your fault; you did it
and then you didn't honor it. No, no, no.
Unfortunately-and in L.A. especially, as well
as New York-there's been a big rise in ensemble writing. If you look at the Black Eyed Peas,
people like that, where each member of the
band writes their own verse and they change
rhyme scheme and they also change pronouns.
So they are changing rhyme scheme and pronouns from section to section. A lot of younger
writers think that's the way to write and they
can get away with it, especially if they're dealing with it in a single thing. You can't do that.
Yes, it works well in ensemble writing, but
those songs are never going to be covered down
the road. They are never going to exist beyond
that particular record. And they'll be big in
that record. But you're not a part of the band,
so therefore you can't write like that.
Structure: Craft is everything. Take an automobile, it doesn't matter if it's gas or electric, you
are always going to need a rearview mirror,
seats, spare tire, and a sound system. All cars
are different, but they are all basically the
same. Well, it's the same with hit songs-and
you notice I said hit songs. Hit songs are pretty
much the same-they fulfill that expectation. If
you go to a movie, say you go to see a film, all
movies are written exactly the same-introduction of characters, subplot-all the
information you ever have seen in a movie is all
given to you exactly the same way. So if you
have ever been to a movie where all your
favorite actors are involved, the cinematography is wonderful, the music's great, but you
don't like it, it's kinda creepy, it's because the
writer failed to engage you. They didn't give
you the information the way you expected to
receive it. Well, the same way when you like
songs, if the production is brilliant, they are
singing their brains out, but it's kinda creepy,
you just don't kind of like it. It's because the
writer failed to give it to you the way you
expected to receive it.
As I mentioned, there are seven basic
structures or shapes or forms of the popular
song. Only six of them make money, so those
are the ones I deal with. I'm a hit hound, I
really am. I don't go to the Olympics for bronze
or silver. That's why I only ever study #1's. People say there are loads of other songs at #5. I
don't care about #5. I am so monumentally
dysfunctional; if I'm not #1, I'm annoyed. The
last hit I had was four years ago, with Cliff
Richards, the #2 record in England. I hated it, I
hated being #2! I want to be #1. I'm sorry, but
that's rock 'n' roll.
But anyway, 80% of all Pop #1's are written in
exactly the same structure: Verse-verse-pre-chorus- chorus-small middle eight-chorus and out,
or pre-chorus and out. Those 80% of #1 songs
were written in the exactly same structure. So
that's the Pop sensitivity. Country #1's and #1's
in different territories use different structures,
but the structure of choice for Pop remains
forth form. As a matter of fact, I was at
MIDEM last year, and this guy who was having
loads of hits in Japan said, "Oh, it's so radically
different in Japan." I said, "OK, play me the #1
song in Japan." So he played me the #1 song
and it was perfect fourth form: Verse-pre-chorus-chorus-verse-pre-chorus. He said it was so
different, and I said, "No it's not. It's exactly
the same. The way you're laying it out-and
you're speaking a different language-the
structure is exactly the same!"
Accessibility: How easy is the song to sing? Onesyllable words are your friends. Many years ago
I was asked to write lyrics for a Eurovision song
contest, and I had to write lyrics for someone
who actually didn't even speak English. I was
doing the Spanish, the French and the German.
This one song I had was [he does sound
effects], and I was like, "Oh man." And the
story was about a tree growing somewhere, and
I had to write a love song. I found that one-syllable words were my friends. [He sings], "This
is the way it will go now. This is the way it will
be. This is the way that the dream will come
true..." It's a silly lyric, and it's not the one I
wrote, but it was one-syllable words. My friend
Paul Williams uses them all the time-one-syllable words. They invite the listener in, they're
easy to sing, and the rule of accessibility.
Remember, every song you fell in love with
when you were growing up was easy to sing. It's
really, really important that you keep it easy to
sing.
Also, call-and-response has been a major staple.
[He sings] "Yay-oh," "Nah-nah-nah-nah, heyhey-ya-goodbye." So it's really, really
important, because most people don't sing very
well, okay? So the nah-nah's and the hey-hey's
and the whoa-whoa's invite them in very
quickly. A lot of the start right from the very
beginning with that. They also start with the
chorus as well, which predisposes the human
animal to think they're gonna dance and
invites them in very, very quickly.
Continued on page 55
Recording - January 2015
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - January 2015
Contents
Recording - January 2015 - Cover1
Recording - January 2015 - Cover2
Recording - January 2015 - 1
Recording - January 2015 - 2
Recording - January 2015 - 3
Recording - January 2015 - 4
Recording - January 2015 - 5
Recording - January 2015 - Contents
Recording - January 2015 - 7
Recording - January 2015 - 8
Recording - January 2015 - 9
Recording - January 2015 - 10
Recording - January 2015 - 11
Recording - January 2015 - 12
Recording - January 2015 - 13
Recording - January 2015 - 14
Recording - January 2015 - 15
Recording - January 2015 - 16
Recording - January 2015 - 17
Recording - January 2015 - 18
Recording - January 2015 - 19
Recording - January 2015 - 20
Recording - January 2015 - 21
Recording - January 2015 - 22
Recording - January 2015 - 23
Recording - January 2015 - 24
Recording - January 2015 - 25
Recording - January 2015 - 26
Recording - January 2015 - 27
Recording - January 2015 - 28
Recording - January 2015 - 29
Recording - January 2015 - 30
Recording - January 2015 - 31
Recording - January 2015 - 32
Recording - January 2015 - 33
Recording - January 2015 - 34
Recording - January 2015 - 35
Recording - January 2015 - 36
Recording - January 2015 - 37
Recording - January 2015 - 38
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Recording - January 2015 - 40
Recording - January 2015 - 41
Recording - January 2015 - 42
Recording - January 2015 - 43
Recording - January 2015 - 44
Recording - January 2015 - 45
Recording - January 2015 - 46
Recording - January 2015 - 47
Recording - January 2015 - 48
Recording - January 2015 - 49
Recording - January 2015 - 50
Recording - January 2015 - 51
Recording - January 2015 - 52
Recording - January 2015 - 53
Recording - January 2015 - 54
Recording - January 2015 - 55
Recording - January 2015 - 56
Recording - January 2015 - 57
Recording - January 2015 - 58
Recording - January 2015 - 59
Recording - January 2015 - 60
Recording - January 2015 - 61
Recording - January 2015 - 62
Recording - January 2015 - 63
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Recording - January 2015 - 65
Recording - January 2015 - 66
Recording - January 2015 - 67
Recording - January 2015 - 68
Recording - January 2015 - 69
Recording - January 2015 - 70
Recording - January 2015 - 71
Recording - January 2015 - 72
Recording - January 2015 - Cover3
Recording - January 2015 - Cover4
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