stuck on shitty songs

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random.hero

random.hero

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i constantly have problems with songs... they all end up very pointless, empty, and often about heartbreak...

anybody wanna give out a fresh idea?
no bashing please
 
I don't know what you already do, but someone once told me to write down everything. Like if you have a notebook to write your songs/lyrics in then write everything in it regardless if you think it's crappy. If you write it down then the "crappy" lyrics wont linger in your head possibly messing up another song you are thinkin of. LoL I guess you could say Out with the bad, In with the good. Once you write/get rid of any of your "crappy" lyrics, your mind can move on to other things, possibly awesome things.

Hope this helps some, good luck with the songs.
 
random.hero said:
i constantly have problems with songs... they all end up very pointless, empty, and often about heartbreak...

anybody wanna give out a fresh idea?
no bashing please
Click to expand...

Everytime I get a new image or phrase (Usually while driving) I write it down and just keep dropping them in a large file. When I get stuck I start pulling them out at random and seeing what helps. Sometimes I end up with a new song, or a new idea, or it just gets me off dead center. If you write 3-5 images a day after a year or two it's a pretty impressive bin full of stuff. Even if you don't use it that day it seems to get your brain clanking and good stuff comes out. Hope this helps. ;)
 
awesome idea upfiddler, and also thanks for the help ninja.
ive written stuff down and looked at it, but never really pulled it out randomly...
nice advice...
:)
 
You could listen to songs that aren't about heartbreak, try writing a song about something arbitrary, like some current event. Try writing down a list of song titles about things that have nothing to do with your typical topics, then pick one title and try to write the song.
 
Some one on here recently said, finish all of your songs even if they suck. I have been trying that lately and it helps me feel like I accomplished something, and i can move on. Who knows, maybe you will end up liking it too. I wish I could remember who said tha because i think it was a good idea
 
Human beings have intense feelings about everything. Try this: pick some random subject, like say......this computer monitor. What does it represent to you? How does its existance make you feel? What is its story? Let me give you an example

(Soft Rock 4/4)
The Computer Monitor
by DJHead

My lonely bright window into the outside
The only night light to make it all right inside
Oh paint your picture with words and phrases
The only place I can spend my day is

(bridge-y thing)
In frooooooooooont of you, i can see through it all
In frooooooooooont of you, I can't see nothin else at all.....






So yeah i know it sucks, but really, you can write about anything.
Or you could just get wasted and make incomprehensible grunts and call yourself Hardcore :D
 
i happen to like the computer monitor song...

its catchy
lol
good ideas and thanks for the help guys
 
random.hero said:
i happen to like the computer monitor song...
Click to expand...


Reminds me a bit (pun intended) of one I wrote a few years back. Still waiting to have time to actually produce the musical (movie) that I wrote it for, but.... Anyway....

CRT Tanning
From "Second Chances: The Musical"
By David A. Gatwood

Comments:
An amusing musical soliloquy by the young Mike. He is trying to fix
problems with a program so that he can go outside on field day to
play with his best friend and true love, Jennifer.
​

I’m tannin’ by the CRT.
I like the way your phosphors glow.
As the hard drive picks up speed
spittin’ out billions of ones and ohs.
So boot that kernel, come on boot it right.
From this Apple, I am gonna take a megabyte.
I’m tannin’ from the CRT.
I’m tannin’ from the CRT.

Why won’t this program run?
It hasn’t started but it says it’s done.
Well, this will be my creed,
I’m gonna peek and poke ‘til the bug is gone.
Just load that flat file, come on, load that text.
For ASCII, I could swear this thing’s been hexed.... (chuckle)
I’m tannin from the CRT.
(repeat to end.)
 
random.hero said:
i constantly have problems with songs... they all end up very pointless, empty, and often about heartbreak...

anybody wanna give out a fresh idea?
no bashing please
Click to expand...

When they start getting too heartbroken, just start getting really sarcastic. Make it funny, or make fun of the fact that you/ or the issue is heartbreaking.
 
thanks, and good call on the sarcastic shit... that usually makes for a good laugh of a song:)
 
wait till you grow up and get a job...

then you won't have this problem. but all of your songs will go something like....

"fuck you you fucking assholes i want to kill you all!!! fuck!!!!!!!! where's my liquor at? "
 
I don't know if its relevant, but i really like they way Panic! At the Disco has some clever phrases about heartbreak stuff. A good break from normal shit anyway
 
i am just starting out writing lyrics myself but one technique that has worked pretty well was while i was watching a movie, i was writing down stuff that the movie made me think of. however, it wasn't a super engrossing movie. it's something to do while watching something that isn't that great.

then depending on what the movie is about, your phrases or whatever will tend to go in that direction. write as much as you can, pages, or whatever. also your phrases might tend to be more descriptive and cinematic, telling a story, than what you naturally come up with.

also once you have a few phrases that you are playing around with, try going to a rhyming website (kind of like a dictionary website) and keying in words, you will get a long list of words that rhyme and any one of those could send you off in a cool direction (plus it already rhymes!)

the last few sessions i have been sitting in front of my computer, with logic going on a loop, textedit (for lyric writing on screen), the mic in front of me, and the rhyme website in another window, keying stuff in and trying out lyrics while the loop is going. no attempt is made to sing it good or do a good recording, just get the phrasing roughed out. a lot of things that look good on paper sound horrible when you try to sing them, or just are hard to understand when sung.

also it might be helpful to have some ideas about what ARE cool things to write about. like the other night i decided to start writing about something to do with a river. rivers are always cool in songs, i figured. so i'll do a river song. or at least the first part will be about the river. then maybe the next part will be about the desert, i don't know. stuff that's kind of naturally NOT lame. if that makes sense.

good example, johnny cash wrote a lot about going to prison, something that's automatically kind of cool (in songs, not in real life hehe).

just some ideas. like i said i'm very new to this as well, and also tend to write about stuff that isn't that cool.
 
lol yes panic at the disco has some amazing music and lyrics... a lot of people hate them, but i liked their music a long time ago before they were on mtv or fuse...

from their song "lying is the most fun a girl can have without taking her clothes off" -
Ive got more wit, a better kiss, a hotter touch, a better fuck than any boy you'll ever meet, sweety you had me, girl i was it look past the sweat, a better love deserving of exchanging body heat in the passenger seat. no no no you know it will always just be me..."
Click to expand...
lol sry for that, but i must say that is a great line right there
 
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