6am - 10pm Tips from APRA’s 2010 Song Summit
29 June 2010
Author: Victoria Girling-Butcher
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Victoria Girling-Butcher |
Over three days in early June the annual APRA Song Summit was held in Sydney, an opportunity for songwriters to network, attend workshops and hear widely respected speakers try to explain some of the mysteries of successful songwriting. Victoria Girling-Butcher attended the summit and was happy to share some of the wisdom bestowed by US-based musician, producer and song writer Ralph Murphy.
According to Ralph Murphy, all songwriters are “monumentally dysfunctional”. We are damaged humans who need to be loved and approved. We write songs because we want to be liked by everyone. This dysfunction, he says, is what stands in between the songwriter and their success.
Ralph Murphy isn’t a therapist or a self help evangelist, he was a speaker at the APRA Song Summit in Sydney, where I listened to his two hour tutorial titled ‘Murphy’s Law’ about writing number one hit singles for an audience of busy, preoccupied music listeners.
A published author on the subject, he has developed six song formulas to help propel our songs to the top of the charts. Born in England, raised in Canada and now Nashville-based, Ralph Murphy wrote his first number one hit in 1966 with Call My Name performed by James Royal. Since then he has enjoyed a prosperous international career writing songs for artists like Shania Twain, Cliff Richard and Don Williams.
Along with writing valuable songs, Murphy researches and studies the biggest international hits. He analyses lyrical content and arrangement and has narrowed down the formula into six popular song forms. Then, he takes his findings around the world and shares them with want-to-be songwriters at events like the APRA Song Summit.
As I mentioned, he started his lecture by telling us how fucked up we are. His advice was to get over it and consider the findings of his research about what does and doesn’t make money in song writing. More money sounds great, but I have to admit I find the idea of a song writing formula challenging. My motivation for writing songs is about the surprise, catharsis and the delusion that I may have written something original and unique to me alone. But that’s not what ‘Murphy’s Law’ about - it’s about the facts. According to Murphy, there are two types of songs that are defined by the time of day.
Songs that are written for 6am-10pm listeners are the biggest hits. This audience are largely people who are completely distracted by the clutter and chaos of their busy workday. They don’t have the intellectual space to be assaulted by anything complex. They don’t want hear a songwriter venting, whining or preaching and who can blame them? The 6am-10pm listeners will tolerate simple easy to follow, easy to understand lyrics that don’t require thinking about. If it gets too complicated, they’ll just turn off or change channels and the bottom line is “…the songs that are making money are making money for someone else,” he says. Radio stations need people to stay tuned in and listen to the ads, shopping centres need customers to groove along happily as they shop and advertisers want people think their product is going to change their lives.
Murphy was also very sure that this audience is made up entirely of women. He reckons 50% of women buy music, and the other 50% are men who are buying music for women or being told what to buy, by women. (Personally I give men a lot more credit.)
So the 6am to 10pm listener wants to be made to feel good, upbeat and able to cope with her day. It’s a no brainer. The rest of music goes into the post 10pm category. At this stage of the day the listener has wound down, maybe had a few drinks and can handle more abstract themes lyrically and more complex structure and arrangements. But we weren’t there to talk about post 10pm music. Next Murphy talked about lyrics.
He made an example of Beyonce who is empowering “all the single ladies”, with her song Put A Ring On It. In this song she tells the story of an unfaithful philandering man who left her but comes to his senses when he sees beautiful Beyonce mincing around a club looking peachy sweet. He then begs for her forgiveness, but she says, “If you want it, then you’d better put a ring on it.” He then used a song by Keith Urban to help illustrate his point about the success of writing lyrics for women but I lapsed into a rigid catatonic state as it played, because it was so nauseatingly ghastly. But, whether I agree with Murphy or not about the creditability of the songs and artists, is beside the point. The examples he was using were made because they have been hugely successful, massive, multi-million dollar songs.
In the second part of the tutorial he went into the detail about the six most popular and successful song forms. Looking at my notes, I don’t know if I can really do justice to the specifics of the six forms. Anyway, that would be giving away his secrets. But below are three of the six forms he talked about
Along with writing valuable songs, Murphy researches and studies the biggest international hits. He analyses lyrical content and arrangement and has narrowed down the formula into six popular song forms. Then, he takes his findings around the world and shares them with want-to-be songwriters at events like the APRA Song Summit.
As I mentioned, he started his lecture by telling us how fucked up we are. His advice was to get over it and consider the findings of his research about what does and doesn’t make money in song writing. More money sounds great, but I have to admit I find the idea of a song writing formula challenging. My motivation for writing songs is about the surprise, catharsis and the delusion that I may have written something original and unique to me alone. But that’s not what ‘Murphy’s Law’ about - it’s about the facts. According to Murphy, there are two types of songs that are defined by the time of day.
Songs that are written for 6am-10pm listeners are the biggest hits. This audience are largely people who are completely distracted by the clutter and chaos of their busy workday. They don’t have the intellectual space to be assaulted by anything complex. They don’t want hear a songwriter venting, whining or preaching and who can blame them? The 6am-10pm listeners will tolerate simple easy to follow, easy to understand lyrics that don’t require thinking about. If it gets too complicated, they’ll just turn off or change channels and the bottom line is “…the songs that are making money are making money for someone else,” he says. Radio stations need people to stay tuned in and listen to the ads, shopping centres need customers to groove along happily as they shop and advertisers want people think their product is going to change their lives.
Murphy was also very sure that this audience is made up entirely of women. He reckons 50% of women buy music, and the other 50% are men who are buying music for women or being told what to buy, by women. (Personally I give men a lot more credit.)
So the 6am to 10pm listener wants to be made to feel good, upbeat and able to cope with her day. It’s a no brainer. The rest of music goes into the post 10pm category. At this stage of the day the listener has wound down, maybe had a few drinks and can handle more abstract themes lyrically and more complex structure and arrangements. But we weren’t there to talk about post 10pm music. Next Murphy talked about lyrics.
He made an example of Beyonce who is empowering “all the single ladies”, with her song Put A Ring On It. In this song she tells the story of an unfaithful philandering man who left her but comes to his senses when he sees beautiful Beyonce mincing around a club looking peachy sweet. He then begs for her forgiveness, but she says, “If you want it, then you’d better put a ring on it.” He then used a song by Keith Urban to help illustrate his point about the success of writing lyrics for women but I lapsed into a rigid catatonic state as it played, because it was so nauseatingly ghastly. But, whether I agree with Murphy or not about the creditability of the songs and artists, is beside the point. The examples he was using were made because they have been hugely successful, massive, multi-million dollar songs.
In the second part of the tutorial he went into the detail about the six most popular and successful song forms. Looking at my notes, I don’t know if I can really do justice to the specifics of the six forms. Anyway, that would be giving away his secrets. But below are three of the six forms he talked about
Pop/Country form.
Vs/Ch/Vs/Ch/Bridge/Ch
Vs/Ch/Vs/Ch/Bridge/Ch
Rock form.
Vs/Ch/Vs/instrumental/Ch
Vs/Ch/Vs/instrumental/Ch
He made a special example of Lady Gaga’s big hit Poker Face. She uses what he calls
a ‘lift’ before each chorus to build the tension. He was a big fan of Lady Gaga. The
song form looks like…
a ‘lift’ before each chorus to build the tension. He was a big fan of Lady Gaga. The
song form looks like…
Vs/lift/Ch/Vs/Lift/Ch/Bridge/lift/Ch
Murphy confessed that once upon a time there were seven forms. The missing seventh form is simple and was used mostly by folk singer/song writers. It looks like this.
Folk Form.
Verse/verse/verse/verse/verse
Verse/verse/verse/verse/verse
‘Folk form’ relied on repetition and stimulating, compelling lyric writing. This was considered good song writing in the days when we had an attention span. I did my own research to find a few examples of the obsolete seventh form. I found Bob Dylan’s Visions of Johanna which is an epic, five verses long, spanning seven minutes and thirty seconds - however was never a number one. Then I stumbled across Led Zeppelin’s Stairway To Heaven, which is seven minutes fifty-five seconds long. Love or hate it, Stairway to Heaven is the MOST REQUESTED SONG OF ALL
TIME based on airplay royalties.
What has happened to us? Why has our music listening capacity has changed so drastically? But Murphy didn’t offer any answers to this question. He was just trying to help us make a buck. ‘Murphy’s Law’ is simply about the factual reality of what makes a contemporary hit. Ralph Murphy is a seasoned, experienced songwriter who was born in the same decade as Bob Dylan, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant and has lived through the biggest
evolutions in popular music. He is doing modern songwriters a service by helping them shortcut the heartache of never achieving success.
TIME based on airplay royalties.
What has happened to us? Why has our music listening capacity has changed so drastically? But Murphy didn’t offer any answers to this question. He was just trying to help us make a buck. ‘Murphy’s Law’ is simply about the factual reality of what makes a contemporary hit. Ralph Murphy is a seasoned, experienced songwriter who was born in the same decade as Bob Dylan, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant and has lived through the biggest
evolutions in popular music. He is doing modern songwriters a service by helping them shortcut the heartache of never achieving success.
