Your First Song: From Idea to Production

It’s always exciting to hit upon a song idea which can be the next big sensation. But translating that idea into a song or an album can be a daunting task, especially if music production is new for you. In this article we will demystify the process of creating songs from scratch.

A song starts with either a catchy melody or a set of powerful lyrics. Then music is added to the song, the song is given a structure and then it is recorded and goes for final post production. Let us look at each of these processes in detail.

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Justin Bieber, Mr Blobby and David Hasselhoff head the list of least favourite Christmas songs. We’d rather hear Slade, Wham or Paul McCartney

Britain’s shoppers feel they are being bombarded by the same Christmas music again and again on the High Street.  This comes as a study reveals the songs people most and least want to hear while out buying Christmas presents.  

Immedia Plc, which provides music solutions to retailers, carried out research among UK consumers to find out what they liked listening to the most and the least at Christmas. 

The results show that the festive classic ‘Merry Christmas Everybody’ by Slade remains the favourite song to put Britain’s shoppers in the holiday spirit.    Meanwhile, Mr Blobby’s Christmas in Blobbyland is the one song that people don’t want to hear, with Justin Bieber’s ‘Mistletoe’ and David Hasselhoff’s ‘Stille Nacht’ not far behind.  

Crucially however, while shoppers enjoy hearing ‘Merry Christmas Everybody’, they don’t want to hear it over and over again as they go from store to store.  Over two-thirds (68%) of shoppers polled by Immedia felt that the music they hear in shops over Christmas is too repetitive.  

According to Immedia’s survey, the list of favourite Christmas tunes is dominated by songs from previous decades.  The top ten includes:

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How Important is a Lyric Anyway?!

I am about to propose that lyrics are perhaps less important than one may first think. I’ll admit, I am playing devils advocate a little because we all know that lyrics are very important, but stick with me, I may have a point and it may throw up a nice debate!

The overwhelming majority of people will say that the lyrics are the most important part of a song. They’ll claim that the lyrics are the thing they like most about a given song, especially a ballad.

This afternoon I played devils advocate with my girlfriend who told me how she loves Stevie Wonders’ “Over Joyed”. I agree with her that the song is awesome, but I wanted to know why she likes the song so much. She told me that the lyrics are beautiful and explained that the lyrics are the primary reason she loves listening to the song.

I proposed that the lyrics play a tiny role in why she likes the song. I explained that if we took the lyrics and sung them in a grungy, upbeat punk way (which I know she dislikes) then the lyrics would carry no meaning and she would avoid listening to the song!

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