{"id":3551,"date":"2012-01-10T08:16:06","date_gmt":"2012-01-09T21:16:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.zenashapter.com\/blog\/?p=3551"},"modified":"2021-08-30T16:41:38","modified_gmt":"2021-08-30T06:41:38","slug":"are-all-songwriters-poets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/are-all-songwriters-poets\/","title":{"rendered":"Are all songwriters poets?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Adele sets fire to the rain.<\/p><\/div>\n

I\u2019ve been listening to Adele a lot recently (getting into character for a writing project), and her lyrical songwriting reminded me of school \u2013 but not because of any teenage heartbreak. I was sweet sixteen \u2013 into poetry, candles and boys \u2013 and my school had no writing club (shock, horror!). So I started one. Last time I checked, it was still going (if you know anyone connected to Bournemouth Grammar School for Girls<\/a>, I\u2019d love to know for sure). But why \u2013 do you ask \u2013 does Adele remind me of my teenage writing group? Well, one of the first questions I posed to my group was…<\/p>\n

are all songwriters really poets?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To inspire the group, I borrowed a cassette player (oh yes!) from my history teacher and brought in a compilation tape I\u2019d pre-recorded. Simon and Garfunkel\u2019s The Sound of Silence<\/em> was of course on the tape, but so too was Bohemian Rhapsody<\/em> by Queen and Sweet Child o\u2019 Mine<\/em> by Guns’n’Roses, November Rain<\/em> too. I don\u2019t remember whom else we discussed (after all, sixteen is a long time ago now \u2013 probably REM, INXS, Madonna, who knows?!), but lyrics such as the ones below inspired us to agree that, yes, all songwriters whether their delivery be through jazz, rock, metal, country or punk, must be<\/em> poets at heart for them to write what they do.<\/p>\n

Because a vision softly creeping<\/em>
\n Left its seeds while I was sleeping<\/em>
\n And the vision that was planted in my brain<\/em>
\n Still remains<\/em>
\n Within the sound of silence<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0Simon and Garfunkel, The Sound of Silence<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Now and then when I see her face,<\/em>
\n She takes me away to that special place.<\/em>
\n And if I stayed too long<\/em>
\n I’d probably break down and cry.<\/em><\/p>\n

Guns ‘n’ Roses, Sweet Child O’Mine<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

And when your fears subside<\/em>
\n And shadows still remain<\/em>
\n I know that you can love me<\/em>
\n When there’s no one left to blame<\/em>
\n So never mind the darkness<\/em>
\n We still can find a way<\/em>
\n ‘Cause nothin’ lasts forever<\/em>
\n Even cold November rain<\/em><\/p>\n

Guns ‘n’ Roses, November Rain<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Is this the real life?<\/em>
\n Is this just fantasy?<\/em>
\n Caught in a landslide<\/em>
\n No escape from reality<\/em>
\n Open your eyes<\/em>
\n Look up to the skies and see<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

KLF\u2019s hit 3am Eternal<\/em> was popular back then, so too was Grove is in the Heart<\/em> by\u00a0Deee-Lite, but we considered these to be dance tracks, not ‘songs’ written by songwriters. For us, there was a difference between writing dance music and songwriting. I can’t remember how we came to that distinction, but we did.<\/p>\n

However, listening \u2013 as I have been over the holidays \u2013 to dance tracks such as Jason Der\u00fclo’s Breathing<\/em>, <\/em>David Guetta’s\u00a0When Love Takes Over<\/em> (featuring Kelly Rowland), and Rihanna’s We Found Love<\/em>, I’m struck by poetic lyrics such as:<\/p>\n

I only miss you when I’m breathin’<\/em>
\n I only need you when my heart is beatin’<\/em>
\n You are the colour that I’m bleedin’<\/em>
\n I only miss you when I’m breathin’<\/em><\/p>\n

Jason Der\u00fclo, Breathing<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Yellow diamonds in the light<\/em>
\n Now we’re standing side by side<\/em>
\n As your shadow crosses mine<\/em>
\n What it takes to come alive<\/em><\/p>\n

Rihanna (ft Calvin Harris), We Found Love<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

And such lyrics blur the distinctions I once made.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Jason Der\u00fclo writes from his heart, inspires others through his lyrics \u2013 so he’s a poet, right?<\/p><\/div>\n

Perhaps dance music has become more complex since the single-line anthems of Felix’s Don’t You Want Me<\/em><\/a>, Donna Summer’s 1995 remix of I Feel Love<\/em><\/a>, Moby’s Go<\/em><\/a> and (a personal favourite) Josh Wink’s Higher State of Consciousness<\/em><\/a>? Even the lyrics of Luciana’s I’m Still Hot<\/em><\/a> is saturated with such hyperbole as to reveal a truer feeling.<\/p>\n

Yes, I enjoy being swept up by the kicking beat and uplift. But to me poetry is any selection of carefully chosen words strung together such that their collective order evokes more than their literal meaning. So the creator of any lyric that inspires in me poignancy, reflection or emotion, must be a poet at heart. Since I find inspiration in most types of music (I love music!), most songwriters must therefore be poets \u2013 at least to me.<\/p>\n

What about you? Will the poets among us reject any comparison with songwriters? Perhaps songwriters will resist being grouped with composers of dance music, whereas dance music composers will reject that resistance? We all have different tastes in music, but I have a challenge for you…<\/p>\n

Find a song released in the last twelve months that doesn’t have poetic merit.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Knowing how tenacious you are, I expect that you’ll find one. But I also reckon it’ll take you a while \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve been listening to Adele a lot recently (getting into character for a writing project), and her lyrical songwriting reminded me of school \u2013 but not because of any teenage heartbreak. I was sweet sixteen \u2013 into poetry, candles and boys \u2013 and my school had no writing club (shock,\u2026<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7],"tags":[19,25,88,93,95,154,168,185,248,256,258,268,272,287,304,326,345,358,392,427,458,487,488,489,501,515,521,571,583,584,616,640,691,695],"class_list":["post-3551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writer-advice","tag-3am-eternal","tag-adele","tag-bohemian-rhapsody","tag-bournemouth-grammar-school-for-girls","tag-breathing","tag-david-guetta","tag-deee-lite","tag-donna-summer","tag-go","tag-grove-is-in-the-heart","tag-gunsnroses","tag-higher-state-of-consciousness","tag-i-feel-love","tag-inxs","tag-jason-derulo","tag-josh-wink","tag-kelly-rowland","tag-klf","tag-madonna","tag-moby","tag-november-rain","tag-poem","tag-poetry","tag-poets","tag-queen","tag-rem","tag-rihanna","tag-simon-and-garfunkel","tag-song","tag-songwriters","tag-sweet-child-omine","tag-the-sound-of-silence","tag-we-found-love","tag-when-love-takes-over"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3551"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3551\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14252,"href":"https:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3551\/revisions\/14252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}