Ninetales

No, she is cited on all except for Diamonds, Jump and Stay.

But yes im sure songs with multiple writers dont count oh wow look at that all of Janelle Monae's songs have more than just her as a writer, let it be known she is not an "artist". But im guessing this conspiracy theory doesnt go as far as her for an arbitrary reason that im sure youll dish out.

duga

That's a good point...I never thought about it that way. Of course, you could still argue that some people can "paint by numbers" so to speak. For example, taking a course and one of the projects is "how to paint a sunset". Are you still an artist at that point?

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Ninetales

Yes.

Soulflower

There is no difference. However, you say this like Rihanna is one of the greatest singers of her generation with impeccable range and depth. lol

She is not a Whitney Houston or a Luther Vandross.

Whitney could stand in front of a sold out stadium and do so many magical things with her voice. She didn't need a spetacle. She didn't need to prance around stage half naked.

She could stand on stage alone and entertain with her voice because she created an unmatched piece of vocal art when she sanged.

None of the above singers have nothing on her or Luther sorry.

Scarlett O'Hara

I absolutely agree, Stay is incredible. I like some 60's pop but most of it is rubbish like a majority of pop songs today. It's never going to change. No matter how many threads you make about the same, damn thing.

I think that the majority of stars are told what they need to do by their label but generally they get to decide which songs suit them (by ghost writers), what type of concert sets they like and of course what they wear (although they will have stylists too). Lady Gaga is a good example of controlling the reigns of the information, songs, outfits, sets, etc. She is talented however many have said before she is too talented for pop songs. In saying that, I know a lot of people are the reason she is here today. People who helped come up with her name, managers, publicists, people who supported her financially.

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James

Aww man if she had wrote Stay I would have so much more respect for her. Still an incredible song though.

I'm not sure. It's so complicated. My own personal definition of art is an expression that captures the soul. Van Gogh's my favourite painter because you look at his work and even if it's just a picture of the sky at night or some flowers there's unmistakably part of him within it. So even if you had to paint that sunset for a class, it's still art if you can create it in you're own way with feeling and emotion.
Songs can be 'art' even if they're not original, it's the depth of the interpretation that matters. That's why folk standards that have been around for a hundred years are still being sung today, and those performances are still beautiful.
But that'd all sound like pretentious mumbo jumbo to a lot of people. I'm doing a module on 'Aesthetics' at university, the examination of the ideas behind what we find beautiful. It's really interesting, when you think about it, like what even is beauty? That's an almost impossible question.

I think one thing that bogs down this sort of conversation is the fact people think calling something 'art' is a sort of praise. Art can be art but still suck. People are too quick to pigeonhole the stuff they dislike.

duga

"Art" can suck, but I think people tend to reserve the term "artist" for someone with real talent. I agree with most of your post, though...it's interesting stuff to think about.

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Soulflower

Edit big time edit!

I literally copied and pasted the entire page LOL I looked over it again and I noticed I was wrong and you are right.

Rihanna has a CO credit on those songs.

HOWEVER

Can you please explain to me how she was able to receive a co credit when she receives all her completed songs prior to recording them?

How could she possibly receive a credit when she was not involved in writing the song?


These 2010 pop tarts are not fooling anybody!


There is footage of Janelle writing her own songs and she candidly talks about the creation of her music. Mind you, when I said what defines an artist, I never said a singer HAS to write their songs in order to be called an artist. I also included vocal arrangements and overall input in the direction of their music which Janelle is heavily involved in.

Janelle also plays instruments and plays a big fundmental part in producing her music and writing it. She does not switch one or two words around in a completed song. She is active in the songwriting process.

There is a difference my love

Janelle has also written songs BY HERSELF she has proven her self to be a songwriter on her own merit. Please lets not compare her to Rihanna! There is NO comparision!

James

But that 'prancing' around the stage is just another aspect of the performance. Maybe it wasn't Whitney's style to put on a show like that because she could rely simply on her voice but Rihanna's public image and her stage show are just another element of her artistic oeuvre.

To reiterate, in the turn of the nineteenth century there was this popular Polish actress who used to sell out theatres, leave her audience in hysterical tears every night - just from reciting the alphabet. Her material wasn't important, this woman just had such a gorgeous way of expressing herself that she could draw out that much feeling from her audience. That's art to me.

blackdragon123

I wonder what she did for an encore....

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