• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

How to write a really, REALLY unoriginal song?

#21
MonetBass said:
From a pop standpoint, I've seen a lot of vi-IV-I-V lately.
Click to expand...

Well, it's really i-VI-III-VII, I think, but now we're getting somewhere. But that gets you "Danza Kuduro", "We Found Love", "More Than Friends", "Que Viva La Vida", most of "S&M" just off the top of my head, and even some classic rock like "Zombie" and I think "Passenger".

Do that in A minor (since a lot of big dance clubs' sound systems reproduce frequencies down to about 50 Hz well, and 55 Hz is an A) so it's Am-F-C-G and put it at 128 bpm.
 
#23
Going off topic, but I wanted to voice this:

I'm a alternative music guy. I love the Chili's, Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave. But for some reason, I really like Nicki Minaj. Avoid her if you want unoriginal music. Seriously, some of her stuff is like nothing I have heard before.
 
#24
They actually did an experiment like this in the 50ties where they fed a computer (miles of wires and tubes, back then) all the rules as to how to write a strict fuga and see what came out. You could start to hear the difference between, say, a Bach fuga and 'the rules' on their own.

I think a lot of Zappa music is composed or arranged in a similar way - by juxtaposing rulesets for different styles and see what comes out.

In that same vain I would create a set of rules for a given genre, say Perry or Bieber, and then see what comes out.

I'd like to see what the actual differences are between an actual Perry or Bieber tune vs a mechanically generated one. This experiment would help to answer poignant questions such as: Did I grasp the rules of a Bieber song correctly? Is there way more creativity in a Katy Perry tune than I think?
 
#25
DannyBob said:
Going off topic, but I wanted to voice this:

I'm a alternative music guy. I love the Chili's, Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave. But for some reason, I really like Nicki Minaj. Avoid her if you want unoriginal music. Seriously, some of her stuff is like nothing I have heard before.
Click to expand...

OK, I'll check it out. I rarely listen to hiphop or rap - but this record LIZZOBANGERS by a lady from the Northwest going by the name of Lizzo really hooked me - colorful textures, funny lyrics and voices, very musically put together with an experimental mindset. That record really cheers me up.
 
#27
12 bar blues in E
4/4 time
I - IV- V progression with a V - IV turnaround
Rinse and repeat for 5 to 7 minutes while every other instrument in the band wanks incessantly between Verses about getting up in the morning and broken love affairs.
 
#28
Look up a song by Andy Gullahorn called "Working Man". If you can, get a video where he first explains "They Danced Alone".

It will both answer your request on how to do generic music and make you laugh a significant fraction of your @$$ off. But now I'm going to ruin it for you by telling the story.

IF YOU'RE SMART, YOU'LL SKIP THIS SECTION AND SEARCH FOR THE VIDEOS.

Basically, he moved to Nashville hoping to make a better living as a songwriter and discovered that Nashville country music was fairly different from Austin country music. And he quickly was taught to hate it. So one day he is ranting to the woman who would normally be shopping his music around. He tells her how he hates the emotionally manipulative nature of country songs that just tell a story designed to make you cry.

She was baffled. She thought they were all legitimate heartfelt tales of woe. He tried to inform her of her error. She didn't buy it. So he invited her to challenge him. "Give me a title. And I'll give you a song that makes you cry."

She gave him "They Danced Alone" and he went back to his place and pounded out everything but the last verse in about an hour. But he just didn't have the heart to do what the last verse required. So he put the song up.

Time passed.

Andy was set up to do a co-write with an up-and-comer named Matthew West. They weren't jibing quite as well as they'd hoped at first. So one would have ideas and the other wouldn't be able to do anything with them. And vice versa.

Then Andy suggested "I have one that's a guaranteed country hit. But you have to kill a little old lady." Matthew said "I'm okay with that."

Andy tells the story like he wasn't sure at first that Matthew knew he only had to kill the little old lady IN THE SONG.

But they wrote the last verse and Andy took it to the woman who'd challenged him to write it. He played it for her and she bawled her eyes out. So he decided he shouldn't remind her that it was written as a joke.

So he started over and wrote a song about how to write a generic hit country song.
 
#29
God if all country songs were true, there's some country artists who spent their whole life being absolutely miserable and in constant heartbreak.

I never bought it. This whole "authenticity" of country. Doesnt matter though, if the song is good, its good, so what.

I'm a big Cure fan, a large amount of cure songs are mainly about being miserable and ********* of them are about failed or unrequited or whatever love. Robert Smith, the guy who wrote all of them, has been with the same woman since he was like 15 (so about 35 years). Clearly not one line of these songs is true.... Doesn't mean they're not any good though. Do they sound genuine? Good enough...
 
#33
unclebass said:
Check this out on youtube...perfect example of generic music!

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...=9N6xTIb55w8UPqfv82QiMw&bvm=bv.60444564,d.b2I
Click to expand...

Bard2dbone said:
Look up a song by Andy Gullahorn called "Working Man". If you can, get a video where he first explains "They Danced Alone".
Click to expand...

pklima said:
Ha, I remember reading this great story on TB before - you probably are the one who posted it - but couldn't remember the name of the songs or the writer.
Click to expand...

If the link above is to Da Vinci's Notebook's 'Title Of The Song' (I can't open Youtubes at work.) then it's the OTHER song I thought of while reading the OP. I loved Da Vinci's Notebook. I only got to see them twice, though.

One of my favorite TBOT threads, ever, was called "BAND!" and it was hilarious. The whole thing was comments like "I like Band, but I can't really get into Genre, otherwise." and "I heard that the whole inspiration behind the songs on Album were when Singer got in to Obscure Eastern Religion."

So I had to post a link to Title Of The Song. I just had to.
 
#34
Do a little research on the Music Genome Project. If I am correct, they computed a remarkably accurate formula that could determine if a song would be a hit, based on a number of variables. I think it eventually became absorbed by/connected with Pandora.

On a more personal level, I would recommend the following:

Look at bumper stickers in a novelty shop. Title your song after one of these bumper stickers, and feature it as your chorus.

i.e. "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger," "Sticks and stones can break my bones but whips and chains excite me," perhaps even "Take it Easy."

Finally, and I will admit this one is personal opinion: Use the following rhyme:

"I am down on my knees
Begging you please."

My 2c
 
#36
For metal:

1. Drop-D tuning.

2. Make a sequence involving fretting the bottom three strings (on the guitar, just the bottom string on bass) at the first, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh frets.

3. ????

4. Song.
 
#39
Milk said:
God if all country songs were true, there's some country artists who spent their whole life being absolutely miserable and in constant heartbreak.

I never bought it. This whole "authenticity" of country. Doesnt matter though, if the song is good, its good, so what.

I'm a big Cure fan, a large amount of cure songs are mainly about being miserable and ********* of them are about failed or unrequited or whatever love. Robert Smith, the guy who wrote all of them, has been with the same woman since he was like 15 (so about 35 years). Clearly not one line of these songs is true.... Doesn't mean they're not any good though. Do they sound genuine? Good enough...
Click to expand...

It isn't just country. My drummer and I both have song types that we default to if we don't start off with a better idea. I often write fairly tragic breakup songs. He's done a BUNCH of hard-drinking songs. But I've been married to the same woman for twenty one years. And he doesn't need a liver transplant yet. If he really drank like his songs make it sound? He'd probably have worn out his second liver already.
 
#40
Required lyrics:

Giiiiirl...

If _____ is wrong I don't wanna be right

Use of the word "flow" for things that do not actually flow

Opportunity to use the word "sweat"

You're gonna ____ like a _____

And if you write country you're going to need [Invalid or Expired Link Removed].
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back