“We wrote 200 or 300 or a million songs for this record”
Who cares.
It gets said under the notion that if you wrote THAT MANY!!! then certainly there MUST be some smashes that everyone will love, and your career will take off like the rocket ship that you’ve always believed it to be.
But it doesn’t work like that does it?
I wish every time I heard an artist ranting about the number of songs they’d written, that the album had even one or two undeniable ones. But most of the time…nope.
Sure, give yourself a much deserved pat on the back for putting that much effort into your album, but we don’t care about your effort, we care about finding a song we love.
Writing lots of songs does make you better at writing songs. It raises the floor at which the quality won’t be beneath.
But the muse doesn’t pay attention to numbers.
It could show up once every ten or fifty or a hundred or five hundred songs. No one really knows.
Don’t set out to write 200 songs for your record.
Set out to write a great song every time you write, and then another and another.
Then you’ll have a smash single and a great record.
Impressive.
And will skip the desire to impress people with the number of songs you’d written for this record.
p. s. “We wrote 200 and picked the best 12”. Of course you chose the best 12! Why would you do anything else?! And that’s just it, that’s the sad part. Because now you’ve told everyone that of these 200 songs, these 12 are the gems, but the gems look more like concrete blocks than rubies and diamonds.
p.p.s. I suppose stating how many songs you’ve written could have its place in your marketing strategy, but there ain’t a hit popping out the other end, thats about all its good for.
Don’t miss a post. Sign up for free.
I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com