What Makes a Good Song? by Graham English

What Makes a Good Song?

February 10, 2007

First of all, we have to agree on the definition of a song. For our purposes in Samurai Songwriting, a song is an art-form and a form of communication made up of melody, harmony, rhythm, lyrics, and form — the form of which includes a title, chorus, verse, and potentially a prechorus and/or bridge.

We can say a song is good when it achieves its purpose as defined by the artist.

Let’s also discuss what a song is not. A song is not the instruments used, that is called the arrangement. A song is not the sound of the recording, that is called the production. A song is not the vibe or mood of the final performance or recording, that is called the song’s style. These tools, arrangement, production, and style, are important to the communication of the art-form but they do not make up the core of the art of songwriting. If you write a good song, it will most likely be able to sound good using many different arrangements, productions, and styles.

A good songwriter is willing to let go of the song and allow a producer or arranger to cut it up, polish it, and change it in whatever way the producer or arranger sees fit. While it is true that a good songwriter may have a final vision or sound in mind, it is also true that unexpected alterations or directions could actually make the song better. So a Samurai Songwriter knows when to let go. A Samurai Songwriter neither holds a song too tight nor too loose.

Central to the idea of a good song is the song’s purpose. A song is meant to be listened to. Therefore, the mind of the listener is taken into consideration and used as inspiration while writing and making final decisions. Songs do not exist in a vacuum. If, when your song is listened to, the proper listener response is elicited, then you can say you have written a good song.

Sometimes, a song is meant for one listener. Other times, a song is meant for many listeners. How you write each of these songs will be different. A Samurai Songwriter knows this. A Samurai Songwriter knows how to craft a message that will be heard and understood by an audience of a specific age, sex, or other demographic.

Rather than define strict rules for how to create a good song, a Samurai Songwriter writes, gathers feedback, and adjusts until the desired result is achieved. This is the way of the Samurai Songwriter.

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6 comments on “What Makes a Good Song?”

- ric bonnell said:
- Mar 8th, 2007 at 5:31 pm
“We can say a song is good when it achieves its purpose as defined by the artist.”

i think we can also say a song can be good when it doesn’t achieve the original purpose as defined by the artist. there are plenty of good songs that are intened to reach the masses as originally intentioned by the artist and yet never do because of the nature of the music industry.

- Graham English said:
- Mar 8th, 2007 at 6:30 pm
Thanks for your comment, Ric. You are correct that a song can be good if it doesn’t reach the masses.

Let me make two points. One, reaching the masses isn’t a very good purpose for a song and that isn’t what I meant when I wrote that. A song’s purpose has to do with what you want to communicate to the listener. Writing a hit can be a desired outcome, but that’s not the same as the song’s purpose as I have defined it.

Second, for the purposes of Samurai Songwriting, we are dealing with “the art and precision of writing hit songs.” That should help us clear up our intention from the start. We will be focusing our direction on what makes a song a hit and how we can model our songwriting after other hit songwriters.

I hope that clarifies things.

- ric bonnell said:
- Mar 9th, 2007 at 8:52 am
hello graham. all things in music are one of the most subjective topics around and are probably the most intellectually stimulating topics too. especially with, what is a ‘good’ song? what is a ‘hit’ song?

“One, reaching the masses isnâ€™t a very good purpose for a song”

“Second, for the purposes of Samurai Songwriting, we are dealing with â€œthe art and precision of writing hit songs.â€

i don’t mean to be argumentative graham, but aren’t the above statements opposing views? how can you write a hit song without it’s very purpose being to reach the masses?

in the light of dealing with the ‘art and precision of writing a HIT song’ as you say this group is about, any HIT song is 100% gauged by the masses of people that BUY THAT SONG and make it commercially successful. it is also gauged by the amount of industry people that want to license and use that song. which means the MASSES have to agree that the song is somewhat ‘GOOD’ (according to somebody’s definition) as they have bought it and made it a commercial ‘hit.’ which, i would think, reaching the masses is the ONLY purpose for a hit song, because without it getting before THEM, the masses, then there is NO HIT.

“One, reaching the masses isnâ€™t a very good purpose for a song”

in my understanding, reaching the masses is the ONLY purpose of a hit song, because WITHOUT THEM, there is NO HIT. (and yet, those MASSES are manipulated by the music industry.)

HIT songs don’t necessarily mean they are GOOD songs.

GOOD songs don’t necessarily mean they are HIT songs.

To me, there are many HIT songs that are not good songs, and there are many GOOD songs that are not HITS.

graham, how do you define a ‘HIT’ song?

- ric bonnell said:
- Mar 9th, 2007 at 8:56 am
please don’t take my comments and view points as being a prick.

my purpose is to make sure i am going in the same direction as everyone else…understanding the ‘monster’ the same way.

that way, the ‘monster’ can be attacked methodically and with precision within the realm of music.

- Graham English said:
- Mar 9th, 2007 at 10:47 am
No worries, Ric. You’re being very respectful. Let’s see if I can respond to all of your comments.

“all things in music are one of the most subjective topics around”

Not everything musical is subjective. Music theory is rule-based and very objective. So we can agree on musical conventions that are considered to be true. Where subjectivity comes in is usually to one’s response to music. That’s where we, as musicians, have to be very flexible and tolerant. What I like is different from what you like. And believe me, I have plenty of “guilty pleasures” - songs that I listen to that break all the rules. But we can still agree that a 7th chord is a 7th chord.

“how can you write a hit song without it’s very purpose being to reach the masses?”

As I define the song’s purpose, it is the message you wish to communicate with your song. Therefore, writing a hit song isn’t a purpose, it’s an objective. Let’s break it down. If your song’s purpose is to be a hit, then you might start with a song title, “Please Buy Me!” The verse might go, “All I ever wanted is for you to like me.” Make sense?

Now, as a ground rule and a focusing intention of Samurai Songwriting, one of our objectives is to write a hit song. That doesn’t necessarily mean that it will actually be a hit. The odds are stacked against us there. But we are still using some of the hits of past and present to model when we teach and write here at Samurai Songwriting.

I’m sure you’ll find that many of these songwriting techniques will be useful for songs that aren’t intended to be hits. As I said before, you might be writing a song that is intended only to be heard by one person. You can still use hit songwriting principles to write that song.

Also, every rule or principle that we learn or teach will be broken at some time. That’s just the world of paradox that we live in. Everything I say can be true in one situation and false in another. That being said, we operate by the principle learn the rules before you break them. The rules, or fundamentals of music, are only there to help.

So to make things clear, there is a difference between a song’s purpose and a song’s objective. For the purpose of focus only, we will be concentrating on songwriting principles that have been gleaned from hit songs of the past and present. It’s true that not every song on the charts can be considered good by these standards. These are the exceptions to the rules. Which is why, again, we learn the rules before we break them.

I hope this clarifies things. I really do appreciate your comments and hope you continue to contribute to the discussion.

- David Niall Wilson said:
- Jul 12th, 2008 at 11:42 am
As more of a fiction writer than a songwriter, I’m struck by the parallels of this discussion to dialogues we’ve had on writing at places like http://www.storytellersunplugged.com.

Art,I think, in whatever form, is meant to take some concept or idea and make it concrete - to display it in a fashion that will evoke similar reactions in a variety of viewers, listeners, or readers.

The “hit” idea is very much like bestsellerdom for authors…two schools are prevalent in most discussions, those who believe you need to write to the big audience and try to get a “hit” and those who believe if you achieve the actual purpose of your art - to bring a concept to life and share it - that the “hit” status should follow, or that at least the work will be more enduring.

Interesting to see it applied to song writing. I have written some lyrics, and a few basic songs … but as it was when I started writing books, I’m not familiar enough with what to do with that work to get it out to the world to pursue it much..

DNW

Graham English