I walk in a commercial area where I have not been before. One of the doors has the title “Pogue Entertainment Group.” When I look it up at http://pogueentertainmentgroup.com,
the “Who We Are” section says, “Pogue Entertainment Group is a music school and artist development company based in Dallas, Texas. The company focuses on the instruction of voice, instrument, songwriting and dance. Through proper technical and stylistic training each client is trained to master the skills — whether it’s just for fun, collegiate preparation or a career in music. Each year 15 artists are selected to be a part of PEG’s Premier Group. These artists are place with top industry songwriters, producers, PR companies and perform monthly shows with PEG sponsors. The venues clients range from small coffee shops to large concert venues e.g., The House of Blues. Regardless of the path of each client, the core mission of Pogue Entertainment Group is: to change the world one art at a time. It provides classes in production, songwriting, rock band, social media and live performance. There are also one-on-one lessons in vocal performance, dance, piano, guitar and stage presence.
I always knew you could take lessons in piano, guitar and dance, but music production, rock band, songwriting, etc.? I did not know those kinds of lessons were available anywhere except California, New York or Nashville. Songwriting seems like such a creative art that only occurs organically. On the other hand, I have taken classes in creative writing. So, why shouldn’t there be classes in songwriting? In creative writing, you have to have a certain amount of imagination, but there are still techniques that can be taught. I assume songwriting is the same. Let’s find out.
According to Wikipedia, a songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions and writes lyrics for songs. A songwriter can also be called a composer, although the latter term tends to be used mainly for individuals from the classical music genre and film scoring, but is also associated with writing and composing the original musical composition or musical bed. A songwriter who mainly writes the lyrics for a song is referred to as a lyricist. The pressure from the music industry to produce popular hits means that songwriting is often an activity for which the tasks are distributed among a number of people. For example, a songwriter who excels at writing lyrics might be paired with a songwriter with the task of creating original melodies. Pop songs may be composed by group members from the band or by staff writers — songwriters directly employed by music publishers. Some songwriters serve as their own music publishers, while others have outside publishers.
The old-style apprenticeship approach to learning how to write songs is being supplemented by university degrees and college diplomas and "rock schools." Knowledge of modern music technology — sequencers, synthesizers, computer sound editing; songwriting elements; and business skills are now often requirements for a songwriter. Several music colleges offer songwriting diplomas and degrees with music business modules. Since songwriting and publishing royalties can be substantial sources of income — particularly if a song becomes a hit record — legally, in the U.S., songs written after 1934 may be copied only by the authors. The legal power to grant these permissions may be bought, sold or transferred. This is governed by international copyright law.
Songwriters can be employed to write either the lyrics or the music directly for or alongside a performing artist, or they present songs to A&R or artists and repertoire — the division of a record label or music publishing company that is responsible for talent scouting and overseeing the artistic development of recording artists and songwriters, publishers, agents and managers for consideration. Song pitching can be done on a songwriter's behalf by his or her publisher or independently using tip sheets like RowFax, the MusicRow publication in Nashville and SongQuarters. Skills associated with songwriting include entrepreneurism and creativity. Staff writers do not necessarily get printed credit for their contributions to the song.
Staff writers
In the form of contract agreement as a songwriter, a publisher can appoint a duty of publication of copyrighted works for staffs. Being a staff writer effectively means that, during the term of the songwriter's contract with the publisher, all his or her songs are automatically published by that company and cannot be published elsewhere.
In the Nashville country music scene, there is a strong staff writer culture where contracted writers work normal "9-to-5" hours at the publishing office and are paid a regular salary, says staff writer Gary Growden. This salary is in effect the writer's "draw," an advance on future earnings, which is paid on a monthly basis and enables them to live within a fixed budget. The publisher owns the copyright of songs written during the term of the agreement for a designated period, after which the songwriter can reclaim the copyright. In an interview with international music industry publication HitQuarters, songwriter Dave Berg extolled the benefits of the set-up: "I was able to concentrate on writing the whole time and have always had enough money to live on."
Unlike contracted writers, some staff writers operate as employees for their respective publishers. Under the terms of these work-for-hire agreements, the compositions created are fully owned by the publisher. Because the recapture provision of the United States Copyright Act of 1976 does not apply to "works made for hire," the rights to a song created under an employment contract cannot be "recaptured" by the writer after 35 years. In Nashville, young writers are often strongly encouraged to avoid these types of contracts.
Staff writers are common across the whole industry, but without the more office-like working arrangements favored in Nashville. All the major publishers employ writers under contract. Obtaining a staff writer contract with a publisher can be a first step for any professional songwriting career, with some writers with a desire for greater independence outgrowing this set-up once they achieve a degree of success. Dutch songwriter Allan Eshuijs described his staff writer contract at Universal Music Publishing as a starter deal. His success under the arrangement eventually allowed him to found his own publishing company, so that he could "keep as much [publishing income] as possible and say how it's going to be done."
Beatmaker
A beatmaker is a songwriter who creates and composes music or beats for a song, often laying the groundwork or “musical bed.” Then a composer who specializes in melody will create the top line for the track. Tools typically used are keyboards, drum machines, softsynths and digital audio workstations. Beatmakers or composers aren't necessarily record producers by definition or acting role since they generally do not work directly with an artist in a recording studio that oversees the production and recording of the final product. However, record producers can be involved in co-writing songs as the composer wearing two hats as the producer and songwriter, as they may write and compose the original music such as the beat and then oversee the production that takes control of the recording sessions with the artist and engineer all the way down to the mix stage. They are referred to as record producer/songwriters, as they generally receive songwriting and production credits for both roles. This is especially true for R&B, hip-hop producers in urban hip-hop production, when composing the original music as the co-writer is integrated into his or her traditional role as a record producer, such as Rodney Jerkins, Dr. Dre, Timbaland or Pharrell Williams, as opposed to a rock producer that may rarely contribute as a co-writer of a song.
Top-liners
A top-line writer or top-liner is a songwriter who writes a song over a pre-made beat. In top-lining, the writer is not creating a song from scratch, but rather creating lyrics and melodies over an existing music genre, tonality, narmony, rhythm and form of a song.
In modern commercial writing, it is a common practice for the musical track to be produced first without any vocal melody or lyrics. This is partially due to the rise of portable music production equipment and digital audio workstations that are designed for the swift arrangement of electronic music, such as Cubase and Ableton Live.
The top-liner usually is also a singer, and will sing over the track as the demo singer. If the song is for a particular artist, the top-liner may sing the demo in that artist's style. Top-liners often work in groups to co-write. Sometimes producers send out tracks to more than one top-line writer so that the producer or singer could choose the best option. Since the track is the same, melodies by different writers can sometimes be very similar. Occasionally, the producer might choose a few lines of melodic or lyrical ideas from one top-liner without properly crediting or paying them. These situations sometimes result in legal battles over ownership of the melodies or lyrics.
Multi-tasking songwriters as musicians
Songwriters are also often skilled musicians. In part, this is because the process of "working out" a song or arrangement requires a songwriter to play an instrument, typically the guitar or piano, to hear how the chord progression sounds and to hear how well a given set of chords supports a melody. In addition to selling their songs and musical concepts for other artists to sing, some songwriter-musicians create songs to perform themselves. Songwriters need to create a number of elements for a song, including an introduction, various verses and a chorus. At minimum, a songwriter must prepare a lead sheet for a song, which consists of one or more pieces of sheet music with the melody notes and chord progression indicated on it.
The songwriter may expand upon the melody and chord progression by adding an instrumental melody — which may occur before or after the vocal melody or alongside the vocal melody — and creating a more complex song structure e.g., verse, chorus, bridge, instrumental solo section, verse, etc.
Multi-tasking songwriters as producers
With recent technological improvements, a songwriter can now create commercially viable music almost entirely on their laptop. This technological advancement has made the producer/songwriter role a much more popular occurrence. Perhaps because the role of producer is not generally understood by the public, the average listener does not know when an artist also takes on the role of producer.
Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys is one of the earliest and most widely known examples of a songwriter turned music producer. Within two years of the band's commercial breakthrough, Wilson had taken over from his father Murry, and he was the sole producer of all their recordings between 1963 and 1967.
Multi-tasking songwriters as singers
Singer-songwriter is used to define popular music artists who write and perform their own material, which is often self-accompanied generally on acoustic guitar or piano. Such an artist performs the roles of composer, lyricist, vocalist, sometimes instrumentalist and often self-manager. According to AllMusic, singer-songwriters' lyrics are often personal but veiled by elaborate metaphors and vague imagery, and their creative concern is to place emphasis on the song rather than their performance of it. Most records by such artists have a similarly straightforward and spare sound that placed emphasis on the song itself.
The term has also been used to describe songwriters in the rock, folk, country and pop music genres including Henry Russell, Aristide Bruant, Hank Williams and Buddy Holly. It came into popular usage in the 1960s onwards to describe songwriters who followed particular stylistic and thematic conventions, particularly lyrical introspection, confessional songwriting, mild musical arrangements and an understated performing style. According to writer Larry David Smith, because it merged the roles of composer, writer and singer, the popularity of the singer-songwriter reintroduced the Medieval troubadour tradition of "songs with public personalities" after the Tin Pan Alley era in American popular music. Song topics of singer-songwriters from the American folk music revival include political protest, as in the case of Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger.
Sole writing
In solitary songwriting or sole writing, only one person is responsible in creating the entire music and lyrics of a song. According to Billboard, 44% of the songs that reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart during the 1970s were written by just one songwriter. The percentage declined to 42% in the 1980s, 24% in the 1990s, 6% in the 2000s and 4% in the 2010s. Lionel Richie and Diane Warren are the only songwriters with at least eight No. 1 singles written solely by themselves.
Co-writing
Songs written by more than one person is co-written, written jointly or written in collaboration with other authors. Co-writers may use the “stream-of-consciousness” approach, referring to having ideas flow rather than being discussed. The first step in co-writing is to establish the division of the contribution between co-writers. In copyright law, there is no distinction of importance between the lyrics of the song or the melody of the song; therefore, each writer is given equal ownership over the song — unless another agreement is arranged. "Phantom" songwriters provide small contributions to songs. The songwriter suggests a line for a verse or a session musician who informally proposes a chord progression for a coda. “Phantom” songwriters are usually not given credit.
Songwriting partnership
Songwriting partnership or songwriting duo is a prolific collaboration which consists of two songwriters, usually sharing 50% royalty each. Songwriting partnership can be between a composer and a lyricist (Andrew Lloyd Webber with Tim Rice or Elton John with Bernie Taupin), a performer and a producer (Madonna with Patrick Leonard or Mariah Carey with Walter Afanasieff) or between bandmates (John Lennon with Paul McCartney of the Beatles or Björn Ulvaeus with Benny Andersson of ABBA).
Songwriting camp
Songwriting camp is a gathering of multiple producers and topliners in a pre-selected location for the purpose of writing songs for a specific artist. As one of the most successful artists in releasing many hit songs, Rihanna has been known for holding various writing camps to make her albums. Writing camps are also very popular in the K-pop music industry.
Beyoncé
According to Nora Tirrell’s 2016 article “Songwriting Advice from 10 Grammy-Nominated Songwriters” in Berklee Online, Beyoncé had a record number of collaborators on her 2016 album “Lemonade.” In songwriting alone, the credits for the album cite 56 different co-writers, with the only consistently credited writer being Beyoncé herself.
Regarding her approach to collaborative songwriting, the singer once told a UK radio station, “I love being around great writers because I’m finding that a lot of the things I want to say, I don’t articulate as good as maybe Amanda Ghost, so I want to keep collaborating with writers, and I love classics, and I want to make sure years from now the song is still something that’s relevant.”
It’s worth noting that 1986 Berklee College of Music in Boston alum Tony Maserati worked as a producer and engineer on the “Lemonade” album. Incidentally, he has been recognized by the Grammys in the past, for his work on Beyoncé’s “Crazy in Love.”
Sia
Sia has been one of those writers that Beyoncé has turned to for material. She penned “Pretty Hurts” for the singer’s self-titled 2013 album. Last year in a piece in Interview, she told Kristen Wiig that she doesn’t always like to let go of what she writes. “Sometimes after I finish the lyrics and have all the melodies and harmonies and the pop and vocal, I’ll be like, ‘I have to keep it. I love it too much.’” Sia has written other hits for other artists, such as “Diamonds” for Rihanna and “Radioactive” for Rita Ora. In 2016 Sia’s song “Cheap Thrills” was nominated for the Best Pop Duo or Group Grammy, and her album, “This Is Acting,” was nominated for Best Pop Vocal Album.
Sara Bareilles
Sara Bareilles’ album “What’s Inside: Songs from Waitress” was nominated for a Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album in 2016, and the singer/songwriter had previously earned five Grammy nominations, including an award for Album of the Year for her album “The Blessed Urest.” In her new book, “Sounds Like Me: My Life (so far) in Song” she recounts inner battles with her insecurities, her body image and how she has learned to love herself. She also discusses her fight to remain true to herself while resisting the urge to please the big record companies. She writes, “Nothing makes me more panicky and rage-filled than the worry that I’ve done something in order to position myself for business over the art.”
Carole King
In 2014, Bareilles performed at the Grammys with Carole King, who in 1972 swept every category she was nominated for, taking home the Grammys for Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance. Much of King’s best-known work were collaborations with husband Gerry Goffin, who worked as her lyricist. Of the collaboration, she once told NPR’s “Fresh Air,” “What made him so extraordinary as a lyricist was his ability to say in really simple words big ideas, big feelings, big thoughts.” King also described how she writes songs, and one thing that stuck out was that, when she starts writing a song, it comes in stages. She described that her “joy” is when she hears the vision, gets it onto a demo and the producers run with it. “When you hear a song that you wrote being sung and interpreted by several artists, who each add their own embellishments to it, that’s joy,” she says.
Stevie Wonder
In addition to his 25 Grammy awards, Stevie Wonder is only one of two artists to have won the Album of the Year Grammy three times as the main credited artist. The only other artist is Frank Sinatra, who is not known for writing his own material. During an interview with Larry King on CNN, Wonder said in regards to songwriting, “I can’t say that I’m always writing in my head, but I do spend a lot of time in my head writing and coming up with ideas. And what I do usually is write the music and melody and maybe the basic idea, but when I feel that I don’t have a song, I just say ‘God please give me another song,’ and I just am quiet, and it happens, and it’s just amazing.”
John Legend
In 2006, John Legend won Grammys for Best New Artist and Best R&B Album for his album “Get Lifted.” He has received a total of 23 nominations over the years, with 10 wins, including in 2016, where he won a Grammy for Best Song Written for Visual Media for his song “Glory.” He is quoted on americansongwriter.com, discussing his craft as such: “I just try to go with what feels right musically and melodically. I’ll sometimes establish the musical format of the song and the melody of the song within the first ten minutes of the original idea coming to me…I think music should dictate the lyrics — always.”
Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift has been nominated for 29 Grammys since 2008, having taken home 10 awards over the years, including the Album of the Year award in 2016, with “1989.” In a 2013 interview with the Associated Press, she said, she needs her identity as a songwriter to always take precedence to her identity as a pop star.
“I see myself as kind of this girl who writes songs in her bedroom. You can kind of dress it up all you want, and you can put together an amazing theatrical production. You can become a better performer as time goes by, and you can try to excite people. But, I’m always going to be a girl who writes songs in her bedroom in my own personal perception of myself. And I think it’s important that I don’t necessarily think too hard about what everybody else’s perception of me is or else I’d just get completely lost in it. It’s just easier to think of myself that way.”
Billy Joel
Billy Joel has garnered 23 Grammy nominations and six wins since his first big year in 1977, with his album, “The Stranger.” He was presented with a Grammy Legend Award in 1990, and later inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1992. At the Melbourne Music Festival in 1991, Joel said, “I find I write best when I sit myself down, have a coffee, go into wherever my space is, and I have to have something that I like to look at because there’s a lot of dead time in the writing process … I like to have a view of the ocean.”
Leonard Cohen
The late Leonard Cohen believed more in hard work than just inspiration when it came to songwriting. Writer Maria Popova wrote a blog based on an interview with Cohen, and quoted him saying, “Songs don’t dignify human activity. Human activity dignifies the song.” He said, in reference to the idea of inspiration, “Inspiration is for amateurs – the rest of us just show up and get to work … A writer who waits for ideal conditions under which to work will die without putting a word on paper.” Cohen earned the Lifetime Achievement Award Grammy in 2010 and a Hall of Fame Grammy in 2015 for his album, “Songs of Leonard Cohen.”
Madonna
Madonna has been nominated for 28 Grammys over the years and won seven of those awards. In an interview with Time magazine in March of 2015, Madonna said, “Songwriting is a really intimate experience; it’s kind of like sitting down with a stranger and telling them every secret of your soul…you have to be not afraid to make a fool of yourself.”
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