Damon Albarn might be right about songwriting – he’s just wrong about Taylor Swift. In fact, the strength of her writing proves his point.
The implication of Albarn’s LA Times interview was that much modern pop doesn’t stand up on song quality alone. By extension, he suggested this was because of the trend of songs being increasingly ‘cowritten’ by growing numbers of people. Really, this all comes down to whether you think pop is getting better or worse.
The burgeoning number of songwriters involved in hit songs has been a bone of contention for almost a decade now. In 2013, Music Week reported that just 5 per cent of songs in the UK chart had been written solely by their performer. In 2018, there were an average of 5.34 people involved in the 100 top singles, up from 4.84 and 4.53 in the two preceding years. This has raised the question of whether musical art is starting to be made by committees rather than visionaries.
Sadly, like many issues in the music business (think music piracy and Lars Ulrich) the topic has become tarnished by who has raised it and the way in which they’ve done so. Damon’s old nemesis Noel Gallagher also made the point about multiple writers, but interestingly he too undermined his point by referring to Swift. Albarn’s own hot take has gone down like a pint of cold sick because he wrongly claimed one of the world’s most successful songwriters isn’t on top of her craft.
Performers using songwriters is nothing new of course. A listen to the excellent ‘A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs’ podcast reveals how wide the practice has been since the beginnings of popular music. But in this age of data, algorithms and cold-eyed corporate process, the habit has been taken to extremes. More than ever before, the idea prevails that a hit can be lab grown and laser targeted. The data available in the digital age is based on listener behaviour. The algorithm knows when an intro is too long, the chorus comes too late or the third verse is one too many. This has led to the idea that if you just get a good enough team, you can tool the hit to fit the requirements. It’s a mercenary vision of music-making, leaving little room for the mavericks that break the rules – and set the new ones in so doing.
During my time in LA, I heard many a funny anecdote about the results of all this. The friend of a friend, invited into the studio, who ended up with a credit on a hit because they contributed to the ‘vibe.’ The artist teams who then aggressively sought this ingenue out, believing they must be the latest, genius, barely discovered hitmaker.
More dismally, using fifteen songwriters in the age of streaming only exacerbates the issue of payouts. Songwriters have traditionally received a far smaller share of income for their songs than the artists that record them. This has been chopped up into even tinier fragments under the streaming model, in which a small amount is paid out for each stream a song receives.
Arguably though, the best writing still soars to the top of the charts. Modern teams like Swedish hitmaker Max Martin’s are behind undeniable songs like The Weeknd’s ‘Blinding Lights,’ and both Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish are good examples. And writer/ performers aren’t always the best that music has to offer – Ed Sheeran writes his own songs too.
What do you think about Damon Albarn’s comments? Let us know in the comments below.
