MartinL

This has happened to me at least 10 times now, with different songs too, and it always has me feeling disheartened. :( I'm a lyricist and songwriter, mostly. I can't sing well. I make very ameteur beats but that's kind of it. I like writing melodies and words. When I find musicians to collab with, I show them my demos (and I forewarn them that they are very rough-sounding and my voice is bad), then they stop replying. I don't know what to do at this point. I feel like I should just post all my demos online for everyone to laugh at. (Okay, that's an exaggeration, but, still). Anyone else ever have this happen?

So what makes a great song? I was thinking about this today. For me, it's: 1. Craft. I need some cleverness, both in lyric and music... I want to glimpse the intelligence behind the song. 2. A story. A great song isn't static: it moves in time, it tells a story of some kind. "How Am I Supposed Too Live Without You" sux. "I'm Not The Same Without You" doesn't. 3. But not an on-the-nose story. Too much real life detail kills art. 4. Mystery. No work of art appeals to me with a sense or something untold, something unsaid, something mysterious about it all. So, obviously I think the worst songs are clichéd, don't describe anything but the singer's current state of mind (or, god forbid, their wild guess at somebody else's state of mind), and lives nothing to the imagination. Just like the last 500 pop songs you heard ("ooh, baby, I'm in the club an' Imma wantchoo, and that's all I got.") I don't want to hear that you're in love, that she doesn't love you back, that you broke up and you're heart is aching... because I don't care. There's nothing to be learned about living a human life in a song that just parrots a couple of base feelings we all have. So, what's the criteria for you?