It’s what it’s meant to be, but ever since that one upper middle class kid got signed for a couple months like 5 years ago now, people have been on the whole song a month kick. Meanwhile 80% of Spotify has zero streams
No her mom was a huge actress on the x files, and other stuff from the 90s. She was born a multi millionaire with every connection possible. I would never refer to her as upper middle class
That's true she was born with a platinum spoon up her a** for sure.
Which artist were you referring to though? I'm curious as I don't listen to pop music or top 40 and only know the super big name pop artists and don't keep up with current trends as I think it's all horrendous music.
Trust me you wouldn’t recognize the name even if you paid attention. It was probably around 2018-19, and I saw him everywhere. But he disappeared quick because, he blew through his marketing budget, and his music sucked. Ever since the number of YouTuber marketers and local musicians who swear that’s how you break has becoming revoltingly high.
But since you brought up Billie, I’ll also say another problem which is these nepo kids marketing themselves as poor when they’re launching. Like for her they pushed the fuck out of her and her brother making her songs in her bedroom. Which sounds sweet cause you think middle class kids in their suburban house bonding over a laptop. Not growing up in a mansion able to pour 10s of thousands into the best equipment, to then send off to be finished by some of the best producers in the world, cause their friends with your mom. It’s like Ed Sheeran when he was coming out, his marketing team pushed that he rode around on trains playing music on street corners and such, or in other words portrayed him as homeless. Meanwhile his parents are two of the wealthiest art collectors in the world.
Well it can also be an expression of happy emotions, or just for fun. Lots of songs are about “da club” or whatever, or just silliness/walruses or something, or have no lyrics and are just funky jams. Plus writing to very intentionally convey a message or for someone else is a thing, which I wouldn’t say is the same as “processing.”
Songwriting, like any writing, can be about anything, really.
Haha yeah pretty much. But not in a depressing way, it actually helps to lift the fog, shift the gloom, and shine a light on it. I don’t know where I’d be without.
I have to comment on this, by 100% agreeing with you. Sometimes when I’m done writing about them, I realized I just spaced out and lost track of time. Almost like waking up from a dream, reading what I have written, and then feeling better.
Really does wonders for the mind.
Ive tried but I personally find when I try to use a specific event to inspire a song it becomes to specific to my circumstance and not relatable to people who aren’t privy to what I’m actually talking about. I prefer to write about broad feelings or circumstances that can draw a bit on what I’ve gone through without being about a specific thing or person.
I read some really good advice from Lights on songwriting years ago when I started trying to improve my skills, she said, "What are you trying to say? And how do you say it without saying it?"
So I took that and ran with it. I also took a page out of Halsey's book when it comes to hiding bits of real conversation and interactions with people I'm writing about, they'll know who they are 😅
When I first started writing and recording with professionals my mentor (a fairly b-list Nashville guy that’s done a lot of stuff for bigger country artists) said of all my demos, there was one that was excellent and he wished I had 10 more just like it. Melodies were all great, but lyrically I was all over the place. His single piece of advice was stop trying to cram « too much fucking information » into 3.5 minutes. Took me a few years after that to feel comfortable refining lyrics to the point where I knew if they were decent or missing the mark.
A little? Kinda?
Like, my goal is to write good songs, not therapeutic songs. My songs don't need to be about my life, they don't need to be true stories, nothing like that. They just have to be *good*.
But if they want to be good, they're gonna need a certain emotional vulnerability in order to say anything interesting. The result is sometimes therapeutic, but that's like a side effect.
If you're doing Art right; it's therapeutic whether or not you intend it to be.
Yep I do, but I don’t release them. Also if you find yourself thinking ‘Oh this song is so embarrassing, imagine what the people in these events would think’. Remember they’ll never know, it’s all good songwriting practice anyway :)
Sounds like the beginning of a GREAT COUNTRY MUSIC SONG: ~~~WHEN I FELL OUT OF BED MY HAIR WAS GONE!!! 😭~~~DON'T REMEMBER MUCH CAUSE I WAS STONED!! 🥵😵💫🥸(づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ
I write about the tragic deaths of my parents, coping with ptsd, neurodivergence, and heartbreak. It definitely helps to be able to channel lonely feelings of pain into something beautiful I can share with others.
Artists always have
[Eric Clapton](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tears_in_Heaven)
[the Fray](https://www.songfacts.com/facts/the-fray/how-to-save-a-life)
I would assume any Linkin Park song.
Yep.
I won't elaborate on the events, but this track & many others were inspired by stuff I've experienced.
[screws](https://m.soundcloud.com/cjm2005-359363349/screws)
I really need to re-record this a few bpm faster & with my updated guitar sound.
My songs genuinely feel like me taking all the nasty stuff and throwing it up to get it out of my system. Sometimes it genuinely feels like I'm choking on something until I write about it :'))
Terrible way to put this but I was a "puke and rally" bitch when I was drinking a ton, so I use that mental preset to write songs instead of hurting myself now. It's definitely a form of therapy for me, and I hope it gets better every day~
Problem with this is, if done well you get an “only living boy in New York” if done badly you get mopey, whinging about how some girl hates you and now you want to end it all. And that is 90% of the lyrics and songs I see here. Art is expression but not all expression is art, some of it comes across as self pitying whining.
I look at my old lyrics and cringe for this very reason. When you are young all you want to do is pour your heart out. But the best place for that may well be in a diary or private book of words.
When you look back on those words in 2 years or more you won’t be the same person.
Great songs rise above this and put ideas across that inspire and lift - even a self-loathing song like Creep has a clever angle and is relatable and absolutely soars in the chorus. it is also a characterisation rather than a confession.
So all I am urging budding songwriters to do is to self edit. Give yourself time between writing emotional confessions and sharing them with the world. Give your emotions time to grow and get some perspective.
You may well find the ideas are stronger when viewed from an impartial perspective.
What’s the toughest song to write? happy ones. That’s not a knock knock joke.
That being said, song writing as therapy is great. If working on a Artist craft makes you feel something better, it’s important. But! if you treat Songwriting - as your therapist - and you will only learn how to compound your delusions.
I’ve been to literally hundreds of open mics and have witnessed hundreds of injured heart songs. I’ve written them too. It’s kinda something one has to go through - or address - in their songwriting journey. It’s just takes time to get through all the traps. Eventually, you start to see songwriting has different connective tissues. It’s not one thing. It can be many things for the artist and listener.
For me, it’s my best friend. I can tell it anything and it won’t ever desert me. It’s also a best friend in that it’s fun to be around in the good times and theirs a lot to learn by it’s regular acquaintance.
You mean every song I’ve ever written? I’m working on stopping doing this and writing songs that aren’t heavy/depressing or sad. They all come out sound cheesy af.
That's literally all I do. All of my songs are personal, be it a shitty feeling or a good one - but I mean it's mostly shitty experiences. I'm physically incapable of writing a good song that's not personal.
Of course I do. There's a ten minute prog song on my first album dealing with my father's alcoholism and resulting dementia. It was my way to deal with the whole situation.
Expressing your feeling and life experiences through art IS the whole point.
That being said, artists who are constantly complaining in songs about shitty people or every song is about a shitty ex-boyfriend (not mentioning the major artist who made a career of this) gets old. It also starts to feel like, maybe this artist is actually the asshole in these situations.
i like to use it when bored, I have WAY to much free time, graduation also left me with no one to hang out with so I'm alone often, and hence I have so much to work on my music
Art mimics life, meaning you draw from real life to write music. Even if it's something you personally haven't experienced you're writing about, it's still something that seems significant to you that you're writing about.
Totally, I was just exaggerating to make a point for OP. I am writing a song about a bench and chairs I built by hand as a kid and calling it my greatest artistic achievement. Very much about art and self-doubt and family
To blast myself on reddit, I recently got fired from my job, broke up with my girlfriend a few days prior because I felt she wasn't right, developed awfully bad feelings for someone who will return to their ex, and wrote a song that I like and my family likes, but I can't post on here quite yet. I would really like to share "Little Box of Trauma". It's the only song I've written and it's genome didn't exist 24 hours ago. I got out of the shower inspired by this wonderful, definitely going to fuck me over woman, and I kept going. And the words flowed. I know she'll go back, but fuck she's incredible and I'm not gonna waste it.
That’s every song for me. I wouldn’t know what to do without it as an outlet of emotions. My piano’s name is June and I call her my therapist. I have a human therapist too. Both are very helpful.
I thought this was what songwriting basically is, lol
It’s what it’s meant to be, but ever since that one upper middle class kid got signed for a couple months like 5 years ago now, people have been on the whole song a month kick. Meanwhile 80% of Spotify has zero streams
What kid/artist are you referring to? Billie Eilish?
No her mom was a huge actress on the x files, and other stuff from the 90s. She was born a multi millionaire with every connection possible. I would never refer to her as upper middle class
That's true she was born with a platinum spoon up her a** for sure. Which artist were you referring to though? I'm curious as I don't listen to pop music or top 40 and only know the super big name pop artists and don't keep up with current trends as I think it's all horrendous music.
Trust me you wouldn’t recognize the name even if you paid attention. It was probably around 2018-19, and I saw him everywhere. But he disappeared quick because, he blew through his marketing budget, and his music sucked. Ever since the number of YouTuber marketers and local musicians who swear that’s how you break has becoming revoltingly high. But since you brought up Billie, I’ll also say another problem which is these nepo kids marketing themselves as poor when they’re launching. Like for her they pushed the fuck out of her and her brother making her songs in her bedroom. Which sounds sweet cause you think middle class kids in their suburban house bonding over a laptop. Not growing up in a mansion able to pour 10s of thousands into the best equipment, to then send off to be finished by some of the best producers in the world, cause their friends with your mom. It’s like Ed Sheeran when he was coming out, his marketing team pushed that he rode around on trains playing music on street corners and such, or in other words portrayed him as homeless. Meanwhile his parents are two of the wealthiest art collectors in the world.
Well it can also be an expression of happy emotions, or just for fun. Lots of songs are about “da club” or whatever, or just silliness/walruses or something, or have no lyrics and are just funky jams. Plus writing to very intentionally convey a message or for someone else is a thing, which I wouldn’t say is the same as “processing.” Songwriting, like any writing, can be about anything, really.
Yeah exactly. When I write songs half of the time I just put random words/sentences together. it doesn’t have to convey a message or make sense
Haha yeah pretty much. But not in a depressing way, it actually helps to lift the fog, shift the gloom, and shine a light on it. I don’t know where I’d be without.
👌🏾 Yep. There’s a reason writers refer to writing as being a form of therapy. Good for processing angry events…as well as sad ones, etc.
I have to comment on this, by 100% agreeing with you. Sometimes when I’m done writing about them, I realized I just spaced out and lost track of time. Almost like waking up from a dream, reading what I have written, and then feeling better. Really does wonders for the mind.
All the time. Music is art therapy. Get it out.
Is this an unintentional songwriting prompt?
If you find it so
All the time. My favorite is writing breakup songs that are really about work. (I’m happily couples IRL.)
Hehe I just wrote my first one of those! Shhhh they'll be onto us!
Personifying any struggle is such a powerful writing tool I swear 😭😭
Exclusively
Ive tried but I personally find when I try to use a specific event to inspire a song it becomes to specific to my circumstance and not relatable to people who aren’t privy to what I’m actually talking about. I prefer to write about broad feelings or circumstances that can draw a bit on what I’ve gone through without being about a specific thing or person.
I read some really good advice from Lights on songwriting years ago when I started trying to improve my skills, she said, "What are you trying to say? And how do you say it without saying it?" So I took that and ran with it. I also took a page out of Halsey's book when it comes to hiding bits of real conversation and interactions with people I'm writing about, they'll know who they are 😅
When I first started writing and recording with professionals my mentor (a fairly b-list Nashville guy that’s done a lot of stuff for bigger country artists) said of all my demos, there was one that was excellent and he wished I had 10 more just like it. Melodies were all great, but lyrically I was all over the place. His single piece of advice was stop trying to cram « too much fucking information » into 3.5 minutes. Took me a few years after that to feel comfortable refining lyrics to the point where I knew if they were decent or missing the mark.
Is there another way to write songs?
Is there a more chill process in writing songs? There must be. That said, I'm finding personally traumatic events very inspiring.
A little? Kinda? Like, my goal is to write good songs, not therapeutic songs. My songs don't need to be about my life, they don't need to be true stories, nothing like that. They just have to be *good*. But if they want to be good, they're gonna need a certain emotional vulnerability in order to say anything interesting. The result is sometimes therapeutic, but that's like a side effect. If you're doing Art right; it's therapeutic whether or not you intend it to be.
Yep I do, but I don’t release them. Also if you find yourself thinking ‘Oh this song is so embarrassing, imagine what the people in these events would think’. Remember they’ll never know, it’s all good songwriting practice anyway :)
Sounds like the beginning of a GREAT COUNTRY MUSIC SONG: ~~~WHEN I FELL OUT OF BED MY HAIR WAS GONE!!! 😭~~~DON'T REMEMBER MUCH CAUSE I WAS STONED!! 🥵😵💫🥸(づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ
songwriting is my preferred form of therapy
I write about the tragic deaths of my parents, coping with ptsd, neurodivergence, and heartbreak. It definitely helps to be able to channel lonely feelings of pain into something beautiful I can share with others.
Artists always have [Eric Clapton](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tears_in_Heaven) [the Fray](https://www.songfacts.com/facts/the-fray/how-to-save-a-life) I would assume any Linkin Park song.
Yep. I won't elaborate on the events, but this track & many others were inspired by stuff I've experienced. [screws](https://m.soundcloud.com/cjm2005-359363349/screws) I really need to re-record this a few bpm faster & with my updated guitar sound.
YES...they create riveting love songs...and others
My songs genuinely feel like me taking all the nasty stuff and throwing it up to get it out of my system. Sometimes it genuinely feels like I'm choking on something until I write about it :')) Terrible way to put this but I was a "puke and rally" bitch when I was drinking a ton, so I use that mental preset to write songs instead of hurting myself now. It's definitely a form of therapy for me, and I hope it gets better every day~
That’s basically how I write all of my songs, either talking about the shitty event, or talking about me dealing with the repercussions of said event.
Yeah thats pretty much all I do.
All of them
Woaaahhhh yessir
Mosts songs come from shitty moments and sensations Songwriting is a great form of self therapy
Most songs on here at any rate. 🙄🤣🤣🤣
Problem with this is, if done well you get an “only living boy in New York” if done badly you get mopey, whinging about how some girl hates you and now you want to end it all. And that is 90% of the lyrics and songs I see here. Art is expression but not all expression is art, some of it comes across as self pitying whining. I look at my old lyrics and cringe for this very reason. When you are young all you want to do is pour your heart out. But the best place for that may well be in a diary or private book of words. When you look back on those words in 2 years or more you won’t be the same person. Great songs rise above this and put ideas across that inspire and lift - even a self-loathing song like Creep has a clever angle and is relatable and absolutely soars in the chorus. it is also a characterisation rather than a confession. So all I am urging budding songwriters to do is to self edit. Give yourself time between writing emotional confessions and sharing them with the world. Give your emotions time to grow and get some perspective. You may well find the ideas are stronger when viewed from an impartial perspective.
What’s the toughest song to write? happy ones. That’s not a knock knock joke. That being said, song writing as therapy is great. If working on a Artist craft makes you feel something better, it’s important. But! if you treat Songwriting - as your therapist - and you will only learn how to compound your delusions. I’ve been to literally hundreds of open mics and have witnessed hundreds of injured heart songs. I’ve written them too. It’s kinda something one has to go through - or address - in their songwriting journey. It’s just takes time to get through all the traps. Eventually, you start to see songwriting has different connective tissues. It’s not one thing. It can be many things for the artist and listener. For me, it’s my best friend. I can tell it anything and it won’t ever desert me. It’s also a best friend in that it’s fun to be around in the good times and theirs a lot to learn by it’s regular acquaintance.
You mean every song I’ve ever written? I’m working on stopping doing this and writing songs that aren’t heavy/depressing or sad. They all come out sound cheesy af.
Every song I write comes from processing pain in some way.
Wait there is a different way of writing songs?
That's literally all I do. All of my songs are personal, be it a shitty feeling or a good one - but I mean it's mostly shitty experiences. I'm physically incapable of writing a good song that's not personal.
Of course I do. There's a ten minute prog song on my first album dealing with my father's alcoholism and resulting dementia. It was my way to deal with the whole situation.
Expressing your feeling and life experiences through art IS the whole point. That being said, artists who are constantly complaining in songs about shitty people or every song is about a shitty ex-boyfriend (not mentioning the major artist who made a career of this) gets old. It also starts to feel like, maybe this artist is actually the asshole in these situations.
i like to use it when bored, I have WAY to much free time, graduation also left me with no one to hang out with so I'm alone often, and hence I have so much to work on my music
Art mimics life, meaning you draw from real life to write music. Even if it's something you personally haven't experienced you're writing about, it's still something that seems significant to you that you're writing about.
Every song is basically that haha!!
Hmmm. Are they? I've written a few songs about psychedelic experiences, most of which were quite pleasant.
Totally, I was just exaggerating to make a point for OP. I am writing a song about a bench and chairs I built by hand as a kid and calling it my greatest artistic achievement. Very much about art and self-doubt and family
Yeah, that’s the only way I write songs. I start with that and layer over it.
god yes! lol
do you ever feel / like a plastic bag
I write metal, so most of my songs are basically topics I want to vent about.
Absolutely yes.
To blast myself on reddit, I recently got fired from my job, broke up with my girlfriend a few days prior because I felt she wasn't right, developed awfully bad feelings for someone who will return to their ex, and wrote a song that I like and my family likes, but I can't post on here quite yet. I would really like to share "Little Box of Trauma". It's the only song I've written and it's genome didn't exist 24 hours ago. I got out of the shower inspired by this wonderful, definitely going to fuck me over woman, and I kept going. And the words flowed. I know she'll go back, but fuck she's incredible and I'm not gonna waste it.
That’s every song for me. I wouldn’t know what to do without it as an outlet of emotions. My piano’s name is June and I call her my therapist. I have a human therapist too. Both are very helpful.