I can’t speak for all songwriters, but when I’m trying to write songs the most important thing to me is that the songs should establish an “emotional connection” with the listener.
And the earlier in the song that the emotional connection can be established, the better.
The method doesn’t really matter – you could be using just three chords throughout, or you could be playing in the simple key of C major, or you could be using very elementary lyrics…it doesn’t really matter.
It’s the effect that matters.
Conversely, it doesn’t matter if you’re using complex harmonies and chord progressions, or complex rhyming schemes…if there is no connection, then I personally feel that the song did not achieve its intended effect.
How then, does a song establish an emotional connection? How does it “speak” to the listener?
Well, this is a hard one to answer. I wish I knew the answer to that too.
I personally think it’s just a matter of putting yourself in the shoes of the listener and imagining what the listener would like to hear.
But of course, everyone wants to hear different things, so I just focus on a particular type of listener in my mind that I want the song to “speak” to. (In business jargon, I think it’s called knowing your “target market”.)
So as long as my song can establish an emotional connection with the people I would like to establish an emotional connection with, I’m very happy.
hmm…emotional connection.
I think it is kind of 1 way, or the other, or 2-way. Firstly, the songwriter has to put some form of real emotion into the song, so the audience can “feel” it too.
Secondly, it relies too on the audience’s personal experiences to relate to it.
It probably also has something to do with the performance as well. If the performer can’t bring the message in the song across as intended, the connection will be broken, no matter how well the song is written.
Yup you’ve brought up a good point about the “performance” part. I guess the delivery is very important…maybe just as important as the song itself.
I guess some people are fortunate enough to have the talent to deliver the song in the way they want to (e.g. Jason Mraz). As for the rest, I guess they would have to be content with being the songwriter/composer, and having someone else deliver the songs (e.g. Andrew Lloyd Webber).
Guess that’s why some [cheesy] boybands belting out [mushy] ballads can make the female fans go crazy ;p
I really like this emotional connection with the listeners which is missing now in a lot of songs nowadays and in a positively ways.