pop songwriting thread

  On 4/30/2010 at 11:57 PM, scones to die for said:

Brian Wilson claims that he can't take credit for his songwriting. He feels he's just channeling it from God, which can be interpreted as very modest or completely pompous.

Dude it's Brian Wilson, he is like the least pompous guy on Earth! He means he is no genius, he just writes down what he hears

I still think he's a genius tho

  On 8/9/2010 at 4:54 PM, o00o said:

I found this while researching Max Martin:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ub9AH15J83E

 

the part at 1:30 has so much from windowlicker and jackson. never seen max Martins productions from this perspective. In my opinion pop is all about to take what worked for the top10 and make something new out of it by using these elements as said in the manual by klf and practiced by daft punk. but its much harder to really do it than it sounds

This is actually kinda badass.

Terrible music theorist here. Are there any DAWs that let you squash down their piano roll to only display notes in a scale of your choosing? I've figured a less than ideal way of doing it in Ableton, just wondering if anything makes it easy.

  On 8/9/2010 at 4:54 PM, o00o said:

Pop is all about to take what worked for the top10 and make something new out of it by using these elements as said in the manual by klf and practiced by daft punk.

Yes, exactly, that's what pop is: a collage of everything that works and a few innovative curveballs. It's really what punk ought to be but isn't, in my opinion: a wonderfully heterogenous patchwork of what works (as in what many people agree sounds good) with no particular regard for any style or aesthetic of any kind. Or, to put it another way: Pop Will Eat Itself.

And although The Manual is somewhat tongue in cheek, there is some good advice in there.

  On 8/9/2010 at 8:03 PM, futuregirlfriend said:

Terrible music theorist here. Are there any DAWs that let you squash down their piano roll to only display notes in a scale of your choosing? I've figured a less than ideal way of doing it in Ableton, just wondering if anything makes it easy.

write in notes of the scale - > press fold

yeah that's my current method.