Writing a hit song: Eight common misconceptions

by John Capek, Fall 2007

1. A hit song is easy to write — all you have to do is dumb it down.
My best friends when I’m writing songs are the wastepaper basket and the delete button on my computer. Songwriting is a craft as well as an art. I and my peers spend days, weeks and months looking for the perfect combination of lyric and melody, editing, discarding and crafting what we do. The task is time-consuming and meticulous.

Presenting an idea in a simple, accessible form is not dumbing down. We artists/craftspeople want our work to be accepted by as large an audience as possible. We speak the language of song and want to be understood.

All good songwriters are following their own truths. Some of us are content to write a simple, sexy love song that resonates with a large audience — something that is in fact extremely difficult to do.

2. It only takes a few minutes to write a song.
Some of my songs did “write themselves” in a few minutes, but it took about 10 years and a thousand songs to get to that point. My most successful songs have taken weeks and months to complete.

3. Any musician can write a song
Skill with a musical instrument is totally unrelated to the ability to compose a song. Many great virtuoso instrumentalists have no composition skills at all.

4. Lyrics don’t matter — nobody listens to lyrics.
Lyrics have changed the world: “Imagine,” “If I Had a Hammer,” “What’s Going On.” Even if we’re not immediately conscious of lyrics, they have a subliminal effect. When they are not correctly placed, when they are not engaging and when the lyrics and melody don’t work together, we don’t respond to the song.

5. Songwriting can’t be taught — you either have it or you don’t.
I believe songwriting can’t be taught academically. In other words, if we deconstruct hit songs and analyze all of the elements, I don’t believe this will help us to write our own hit song. There are only a couple of rules: don’t be boring and keep it short.

I do believe, though, that songwriting can be taught in the form of games and exercises, as outlined in my book How to Write a Hit Song Without Really Trying [available at www.johncapek.com]. Attending seminars and workshops is also helpful, and hearing the stories shared by successful songwriters can be inspirational.

6. Songs provide a vehicle for self-analysis and psychotherapy.
Nobody is interested in your inner pain except your near and dear ones. An audience wants to hear a good story. If a song/story can communicate a commonly held feeling, you have succeeded. The most challenging part of being a successful songwriter is that we have to tell our stories in a concise, interesting way.

7. Il Divo, Andrea Bocelli, Rod Stewart, Michael Bublé and Barry Manilow have achieved enormous commercial success because of some aberration or force that does not reflect what audiences actually want to hear.
Audiences love a great tune. They always have and they always will.

8. This sound system sucks. If you could hear my song on a better system you would like it.
The art of a great mix is in making the music sound good anywhere. I test my mixes on different speakers, different systems and in the car. If the song is strong enough, the vocal performance exciting enough and the mix engineer skilled enough, my work sounds good anywhere.

Adapted from an article by internationally acclaimed composer, songwriter and musician John Capek.

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