Songland

I've been watch Songland on NBC and it's great. IMO it's probably the best one of those music competition shows. It's not about the performer, it's about the song.

The short premise: Every week there's a different big name pop star (John Legend, Will i Am, Macklemore) along with three top notch pop songwriters. Four songwriters come in and perform their songs with a live band. Right then and there, the star and songwriters pick up instruments and start tweaking the songs. Then three of the songs are chosen to refine. And that's where it gets great.

Each of the pro songwriters teams up with the amauteur songwriters and they transform the songs. It's some real high-level masterclass song crafting. They break down the feel, lyrics, melody, keys, instrumentation, song structure. Then they come back, play the rewritten songs, the pop star picks the best one and they record it themselves

Even if you're not into pop music, it's great to see the songs transformed. Great to see what top-level songwriters really do and how natural they make it seem. Great to hear how they talk about songs and their insight. How they talk about melodies and hooks. How much they try to make every every element pack a punch. It's great.

I highly recommend the show. Check out the evolution of this song:

 

Which guy? The Nashville guy or the pop guy? The pop guy seems to try to change the style to match what he thinks the artist will like. Not sure if that’s good or bad.

 

Yeah, I get what you're saying about that guy. But he's really good with melodies and words. He does a lot of "what if you went up at the end of that line?" He's also good at changing just one word that twists the entire meaning. I'm a melody/words guy so I really appreciate what he does with those.

I nearly spit out my coffee when the Jonas Brothers said "we're a pop, ROCK, RnB band." If that's what passes for rock these days, we're doomed.

 

I really like how positive, encouraging and creative everyone on the show is.

 

Yeah, a friend of mine once sat me down and played me all he hooks that the BEPs stole for their hits. Pretty much anything that's catchy was appropriated from somewhere else.

 

"In country, we've heard this before."

And then they turn it into a friggin' Jimmy Buffett song.

 

There's an old saying in Nashville about songwriting royalties: "Write a word, get a third"