Re: Murphy Law Of Songwriting Pdf Download
Gerarda Zmuda
For a small business owner such as a songwriter/publisher, knowing the market is vital. Budgeting for success means looking at income (when it decides to come in!) and making informed decisions about how to spend it most effectively. Up near the top of the list of expenditures (almost right next to eating) are demo costs. The financial outlay for demonstration recordings has risen to $750 - $1,000 per song. So, if you write 30 songs a year and only have $10,000 in your demo budget, you're going to have to make some hard choices.
Let's say you've written this song about a Chicken. You love it! Your mom loves it! The special person in your life loves it! However . . Radio is only playing Dog songs. Fortunately, you've also written four Dog songs, which everybody loves. Your dilemma? You only have enough money to produce a three-song demo, but you have five songs (four Dog songs and one Chicken song). What do you do? Now, unfortunately, I have suitcases full of demoed Chicken songs, so I know what the songwriter side of me says; however, I noticed early on in life that food is a good thing and that eating makes me happy. So, while grumbling and complaining about how radio should be playing more Chicken songs, I demo three of my four Dog songs so I can continue to support my nasty food habit! In the frustrating war between art and commerce, commerce wins.
Let's be honest. Though it shouldn't, radio drives the "commercial" aspect of the songwriting process. (Did I already mention that I like to eat?) It affects just about every decision we make creatively. In the year of 2013, country radio did something seismic in nature, which impacted songwriters and publishers dramatically. As an experiment to maintain listenership, Country radio decided to slow the progress of records going up and down the charts in hopes of breeding the kind of familiarity that keeps listeners coming back for more - commercials, that is.
As a result, I became curious and decided to try an experiment of my own. I started by researching the Billboard Country chart for 2013 and found that a total of 11 songs reached #1. Taking a closer look, I began to wonder: what type of song is reaching the top in this brave new world of radio? A world in which, though yet another ripple effect of deregulation, big radio chains have been allowed to buy up and homogenize most of the "mom and pop" country stations resulting in:
TEMPO
When you look at tempo you find that only 3 of them were above 100 BPMs (beats per minute) and the fastest was only 106 BPM. Of the 8 that were under 100 BPMs, They spent 39 weeks at #1. So, you can deduce that they were all aimed at radio.
GENDER
BILLBOARD HOT CONTRY SONGS
Women were only featured as artists on 3 records and there was only one female solo artist to go to #1.....and that was of course Taylor Swift.
Songwriters were 28 male and 4 female.
BILLBOARD COUNTRY AIRPLAY SONG
There was not one solo female artist to have a number one record the the Billboard Country Airplay Charts and the writers were disproportionate as well, with 8 females writing on a #1 and 55 males writing on a #1 (Rodney Clawson had 5, Ashley Gorley had 4 and Chris Tompkins had 4 as well)
ARTIST INVOLVEMENT
BILLBOARD HOT COUNTRY SONGS
The artists contributed to 50% of these records about 5 of the 11 Billboard Country Airplay Songs. 11 of the number one had the artist writing on it, about 1/3.
So, this year the listener, as opposed to the dancer is accommodated. 6 #1s were under 100 BPMs and Miley Cyrus with her infamous song "Wrecking Ball" was actually "at rest", or around 60 BPM! .......coming to a radio near you!
FIRST USE OF THE PRONOUN "YOU"
4 of the number ones were about "issues" or "stuff"
"Thrift Shop" by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis (also the #1 Hit of the entire year of 2013), was about....Guess What?
"Harlem Shake" was a instrumental dance track (140 BPM)
"Can't Hold Us" again, by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, although they invite you in....literally, with "Good to see you, Come on in..." The Track really is not about the listener.
And of course there was a hit "The Monster" by Eminem, featuring Rihanna
The rest of the records (7) invited the listener in by using the pronoun "you" on average, around the 23 second mark.
6 number ones used the 4th form. That structure seems to be structure "du jour". That structure took up 37 weeks. Of number one time, and the songs are more songs than just dance tracks like Harlem Shake".
Third form showed that it was alive and well as it posted "Locked out of Heaven" and "Thrift Shop". Third form really resonates with audiences and really works well with radio.
The only second form was "The Monster" by Eminem, featuring Rihanna.
I would like to acknowledge the invaluable assistance of Phil Goldberg and Chad Green indulging my "need to know" in helping research the above information. Most importantly, thank you, Mark Ford, for massaging and editing my lunatic fringe ramblings into a coherent form.
Ralph Murphy, hit songwriter and expert, has been successful for five decades. He wrote huge hit songs such as Crystal Gayle's "Talking in Your Sleep" and "Half the Way". Consistently charting songs in an ever-changing musical environment makes him a member of that very small group of professionals who make a living ding what they love to do. Add to that the platinum records as a producer, his success as the publisher and co-owner of the extremely successful Picalic Group of Companies and you see a pattern of achievement based on more than luck. Achieving "hit writer" status has always been a formidable goal for any songwriter. Never more so however than in the 21st century. Catching the ear of the monumentally distracted, fragmented listener has never been more difficult. Getting their attention, inviting them in to your song and keeping them there for long enough for your song to become "their song" requires more than being just a "good" songwriter.
*His new book Murphy's Laws of Songwriting "The Book" arms the songwriter for success by demystifying the process and opening the door to serious professional songwriting. Hall of fame songwriter Paul Williams said in his review of the book "If there was a hit songwriters secret handshake "Da Murphy" would probably have included it." To get the book, enter 3 or more songs at the 20th Annual USA Songwriting Competition and receive this exclusive book
You are the smallest business in America. Your product is a vital part of many of the largest businesses in the world (radio, TV, film, restaurants, clubs, hotels, supermarkets, etc.). The only reason they use your product is to make money. They grudgingly pay you a small portion of what you earn them, and you must raise a family, pay bills and create more product on that money. Demos are not cheap; opportunities to pitch your work are few.
This article is researched knowing that as a creator you write what you want, about what you want, how you choose to write it. However, when you have completed your song, you MUST change hats and become a small business person who understands what big business wants.
I am constantly asked why, when doing my research, I only check out the songs that get to #1 on the charts. I am reminded that there are many wonderful songs that only go Top 5 or even Top 10. Well, back in the early '70s, my first Country hit ("Good Enough To Be Your Wife" by Jeannie C. Riley) went to #2 and sat under "I Never Promised You A Rose Garden" by Lynn Anderson for a while before slipping back down the charts. Consoled by friends (who put another drink on my tab) that #2 was just as good as #1, I was haunted by the wise words of an old dogsled driver I used to know, "If you ain't the lead dog, the view never changes." So with those thoughts in mind, let's look at what worked for radio at #1 in Country music in the year 2002.
Anything in common?
About the only thing that all 21 #1s had in common was the time signature (all were 4/4). I guess that means not a lot of people are waltzing out there - at least not during "drive time." Something else these songs had in common was their race to the first use of the title. 19 of 21 used the title within the first 60 seconds (including intro!).
While we're on the topic of title use, let's check out the number of repetitions of the title. The variance (including fades) went from 1.5 repetitions ("These Days" - Robson/Steele/Wells) to 14 repetitions ("Blessed" - James/Lindsey/Verges) with 8 of 21 having five or fewer repetitions, 9 of 21 having six to 10 repetitions and 4 of 21 having 10 or more repetitions of the title. 10 of 21 had five or six repetitions of the title.
Although the dean of Nashville songwriter, Harlan Howard, always said, "Only a dumbass takes more than three minutes to tell anything," in defense of the songwriters, a large number of these songs could have been three minutes or much shorter. Some of the fades were a minute or more in length!
Song Form
Other than the larger number of topics writers were allowed to talk about in 2002, there was other good news. The 6th Form or "Rondeau" (or "Rondo" as W.O. Smith called it or "Honky Tonk Form" as Harlan Howard affectionately labeled it) reappeared at #1. (The basic Rondeau is Chorus-Verse-Chorus- Instrumental-Bridge-Chorus.) "Good Morning Beautiful" - Cerney/Lyle, written in Rondeau, held the listener for 26 weeks to get to #1, kept them singing along for six weeks at #1 and entertained them for a further eight weeks after that in its most perfect structure for a whopping 40 weeks on the chart!
Next came good old 2nd Form (Verse-Chorus-Verse-Chorus-Instrumental-Chorus). This form has been used for decades by Country writers, Rockers and Folkies to tell stories because of its flexibility - you can add verses to tell the whole story if you feel you need them. It therefore comes as no surprise that the patriotic themes of "Where Were You (When The World Stopped Turning)" - Jackson and " Courtesy Of The Red, White And Blue (The Angry American)" - Keith were best told without the frills of bridges, middle 8ths, lifts, channels, pre-choruses, etc.
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