Week 8: Crazy in Love … With Music
Maya P -
Hey y’all! It’s time to move on to my final product for the next 3 weeks.
I hope I’ve given enough background information so that you aren’t lost and can come along for the ride with me! I wanted to do a quick post detailing what the last few weeks of this project will look like and the different challenges and expectations I have.
To start, I have minimal experience in producing a hit song. I usually prefer raw and a more natural production of my songs, and my songs are often written for myself and not catered towards a major audience. I also tend not to write love songs, so it will be fun to challenge myself and see what I can produce in the next few weeks. I’ve spent a lot of time researching production methods, and if you are ever interested yourself in self-producing, I will say there is an absolute goldmine of information on YouTube. I will be using a lot of the knowledge I have gained from there to hopefully achieve a hit pop song sound in the end.
Another topic I wanted to bring up was the real-life consequences and cons of my research. I have heavily enjoyed researching all the commonalities of these hit songs and finding some of the similarities in their successes, but it is fair to say that when music loses its purpose and artistry, it loses its listeners as well. These songs are often hits not just because they followed a “formula” or “science” but because people enjoyed the music for its artistry, purpose, and meaning. There is only so much work that can be done in producing a mass hit: the reality is people can see through the facade of an artist if they are trying to mass-produce songs with minimal effort. For example, Katy Perry’s “Woman’s World” had six producers who worked on the song. This song, according to all my research, follows the pretty standard formula of a hit pop song, but it missed its mark as people felt it was a parody of the message it was trying to convey. Over-production happens all the time, and there is a delicate balance between science, trends, and artistry.
Honestly, this project has taught me more about myself and my relationship with my music than I could have thought. I love my minimal production qualities and the real and raw messages I pour into my music. Even though I hope to improve my own production and writing abilities with the knowledge I learn in this project, I hope that my music remains authentic even as it gets more polished and produced with time. Writing music for success is only one small part of the puzzle: music has to be written as art, and simply for the love and connection it brings us amongst each other and ourselves. That’s all for me today folks, thanks for listening to me ramble about music for so long and I’ll see y’all next week with final song progress!
Song of the Week: Crazy in Love – Beyonce
Comments:
All viewpoints are welcome but profane, threatening, disrespectful, or harassing comments will not be tolerated and are subject to moderation up to, and including, full deletion.