The problem with this topic is how one judges a good song.
Actually, the topic isn't about whether or not a song is 'good' {whatever that means} but whether the writing of songs {'good' or 'bad'} is given greater precedence over the other valid aspects of song creation. It's essentially a question that applies to the recording era, which leads me onto
If you’re the guy doing both the writing and arranging...it doesn't matter.
I think these days a lot of songwriters are also the arrangers, producers, engineers...etc...in their personal studios.
I've always worked that way, doing it all myself...so for me songwriting is the entire process
As I read through the initial responses to the thread, this ^^^^ began to dawn on me and I realize that for many of us, the OP possibly has little, if any, relevance because alot of what we're involved in features very little collaboration and although if other people are playing on our songs and are given some leeway, it won't necesarilly take songs in other directions so as Miroslav points out, they're kind of a done deal.
In saying that, however, the home recorder is in kind of a unique situation where things can be so much more isolated. I was thinking more of songs in general. I love songs and songwriting and will discuss it till the cows come home and leave again. And while I utterly agree with
you can’t have a recording without a song
I think that the writing of the song and the largesse accorded to it is out of proportion when seen as part of a process. This is, after all, a
recording question.
This is easily the lowest point ever for music in general. Disco wasn't even this bad.
I think the lowest point in music generally came fairly early on in the recording evolution, around the 1959~1962 period, a period that Keith Richards captures well in his statement "by then, the initial wham had gone out of rock and roll" and of which Jerry Lee Lewis said "They let rock'n'roll down in the [early] 60s. Elvis started singing like Bing Crosby ! All you could hear was Bobby ~Bobby Vee, Bobby Vinton, Bobby Denton, Bobby Rydell, Bobby Darin....There was nothing but Bobbies on the radio !"
That was a time when the Shadows were seen as the salvation of British music and most young artists had no minds of their own and didn't write or weren't encouraged to write songs, jazz had splintered into near unlistenable free jazz or a host of boring standard stuff, Motown was in it's infancy, folk/protest was America's big thing and the Brill building/wall of sound thing was the face of American pop.....
I know that's all rather simplistic and in actuality there was something brewing that was so immense that we still feel the ramifications of it today. But in terms of what was around {not counting the little underground that there was or that was emerging} on records, it was pretty dire. Now, there is so much choice and access to those choices that you don't have to even acknowledge the mainstream.
The internet has ruined music. It's way too easy to host one's own crap on any social networking or music site, and then bam, you're global. This inspires shitty people to make their own shitty music and so on and so on. Some people might think everyone having a "voice" is a good thing. I don't.
Whether everyone having a voice is a good thing, I can't say. But it's not the internet that's ruined music. There has always been music that loads of people think isn't worthy. Why shouldn't people put their music up ? No one is forced to listen to it !
On the contrary, the internet has helped in certain ways. All these sites that post obscure, forgotten, deleted single, EP and LP rarities from the past have been invaluable in my estimation. They've helped round out the predictable simplistic history that journalists and writers have fed us ad nauseum for the last 40 years. The net has also provided access to tons of bands, if one can be bothered to go searching for such. That alot of crunge also gets through is one of the prices one pays ! But again, I say it, you don't have to listen to it !
Actually, the fact that collaborations are possible and people writing, recording and mixing music can debate, learn from each other and all the rest can be a positive thing. It has also shown that it's not only established or label contracted acts that can make great music.
Even 'back in the day', the mainstream had tons of shit and wasn't
all there was as a gauge of what was 'going on'.
and then you chase after that image/fad and throw $$ and media attention at it.
my tunes.
