Urban Hat€monger ?

This whole having to write your own material crap has only been a factor since the mid 60s, and even then it's still only a part of a very narrow sphere of popular music.

The most people I tend to hear this from are usually classic rock bores who have opinions on which is the best guitar solo ever or think Led Zeppelin 4 is a good album.

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edwardc77

And in your opinion, what makes Led Zeppelin 4 such a bad album ?

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Thought he lost everything then he lost a whole lot more....

BadassBaconBreath

I would prefer if you would stay on topic instead of addressing the tangents of his argument.

BadassBaconBreath

I have been watching a movie lately called Amadeus. It's about, as I'm sure you can all guess, Mozart. Seeing the way that the movie portrayed Mozart as a composer really helped to open my eyes as to how one can truly be a songwriter.
So on that note, I will have to say that I was wrong in thinking that all musicians should write their own music. This was a notion that was formulated in my middle school years and I'm still in the process of working through many of the ideas I had then in a more logical sense.
But I do have this to say: if I am not mistaken, during the 1700s when Mozart was still alive, it was the composers of music that became famous. Of course, many performers would achieve renown as well, but it seemed that the focus of the music was the actual composition versus those who were performing it. Unlike now when the focus is on the performer. People would go to see Mozart's new opera because he was the composer, and not just because of the people performing the songs. And out of personal opinion, I would prefer the focus be on the composer.

Trollheart

Yeah but back then Mozart performed the music himself, or at least conducted it. Anyway you can't compare classical music to modern music: there has never, to my mind, been a classical composition NOT written by the composer/artiste it's identified with. In other words, Beethoven didn't ask people to write for him, nor did Grieg, Haydn, Liszt... the whole idea was to compose and own your own music, AND play it too.

Completely different ballgame.
What do you think of my Sinatra point?

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

BadassBaconBreath

Well, how many symphonies have there been when the composer has not been there to conduct his music? But we still identify the piece with the composer. I guess you do make in point in saying that the climate of the musical world has changed a great deal since then. So perhaps I am being idealist in thinking that more credit should go to composers than they currently receive. Despite that, it would be nice if it were so.
And about Sinatra, although I don't consider myself well-versed enough in his music to give an accurate opinion of his work, I would like to point out the validity in your argument that the songs on his records wouldn't sound the same if not coming from his distinctive voice regardless of whether or not he wrote the songs himself.

Trollheart

So.... are you agreeing with me? I'm not being smart: it seems like you are but it's phrased somehow as if you're not...?

The point I was making about classical is that it was a whole different world back then. There was no such thing as playing others' music: any composer would have to write his own music and play it, so far as I know. As for symphonies now playing their music, well be fair: they're hundreds of years dead. It's not like there's a choice. And if Mozart had played a sonata composed by Haydn, or whomever, I think it would still have been associated with him, just as my other examples are. Not too many people these days remember or even know (or care about) the songwriter, just the song. Then of course you have the likes of Diane Warren, who has written chart-toppers for so many artistes, but achieved no success herself in the actual music world other than as a songwriter. Would you consider the songs she wrote for, say, Meat Loaf or Starship as hers or theirs?

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018