In one of my last blogs, I wrote about songs with a twist at the end. In writing it, I had to distinguish between twists and natural story progressions, and therefore had to cut out a song that I had initially envisioned for that blog. It reappears in this blog about childhood nostalgia, but (spoiler alert!) has somewhat of an unhappy ending. But upon doing further research, nostalgia can be positive or negative, so in this blog, we will look at childhood memories in songs, and how they can either be happy or sad. I encourage you to revisit those memories yourselves, no matter which category they fall into. Those memories can lead to some fabulous songs!

In an earlier blog, I talked about songs named after roads, highways, and interstates. And in another, I talked about mentioning states and cities in songs and/or song titles. These are among my favorite things to write about, as they give a specific emotional connection, while still maintaining reliability. Now we are going to shift our focus from the road to our mode of transport.

Background: Instead of counting sheep, I have developed a habit of thinking of music trivia while trying to doze off.  Recently, I started thinking about songs named after women, but to challenge myself, I added in that it had to be something or someone belonging to the woman in the song, and before too long, I was down the current rabbit hole of songs about things belonging to other people, regardless of gender.

Background: The beginning of a relationship can be tricky to navigate. It’s exciting hanging out with someone new, but you don’t want to come off as clingy or possessive. Sometimes you don’t mean to, and you just can’t help it. And while this can be a bad thing, both relationship-wise and mental health-wise, it has become one of my favorite things to explore in song form. I have been on both sides of the codependency, and it’s fascinating to see it when someone else acts that way toward you, because you can’t always see it in yourself. So the songs we are going to look at in this blog explore that theme. With this coming out right around Valentine’s, I hope this helps you feel a little less alone, and helps inspire your own writing about this topic, even if it might be painful. Also, as always, since it’s an interesting topic to explore, maybe you’ll create a character who’s codependent, if it doesn’t apply to your own life!

You have probably heard it said that you should never judge a book by its cover. Sometimes, though, judging a song by its title can lead to some great songwriting. Jason Aldean has a song called “I Break Everything I Touch,” which I knew was either lamenting how he ruins relationships or about him being a whirling dervish, who makes no apologies. It turned out to be the latter. Jake Owen’s “Startin’ With Me,” I thought was going to be about how the party doesn’t start without him, but it turned out to be all the things that needed to change in his life, “Startin’ with me.” There are many ways to put twists into your songs, so the viewer’s ears perk up upon realizing the song isn’t going where we thought it would. For the purposes of this blog, we will take a look at songs that add a twist at the end, and how they transform the songs from okay to great.

Background: The publishing date for this blog is right around New Year’s Day. In honor of that, I thought I’d do a blog with songs that focus on the calendar. Obviously we want our songs to stand the test of time, so if we do use these dates in our lyrics, we must do them strategically. All of the songs we’ll look at do just that, and I hope they inspire you to do the same!

Background: In previous blogs, I have alluded to “Story Songs” and “Example Songs”, and every time I tell someone about this concept, they always bring up a third type of song, which is a little bit of both. To me, story songs tell a somewhat linear story: “Tangled Up in Blue” begins with someone wondering what ever happened to his ex, and then recounts their rise and fall, as well as times after the fall when they ran into each other. It skips time frames, but concludes with him moving on, so we still get some closure, like a good story usually provides us with. But we also have example songs, which don’t necessarily tell a story, but instead give an example of a concept, usually detailed in the chorus. Finally, you have what I call “Hybrid Songs,” which tell a story while using examples of a concept. We will look at all three in this blog, which means you’ll get six songs analyzed instead of the normal four.

Background: After writing my first album of breakup songs in 2010, I told myself I did not want to be known for that (which didn’t take). After writing that batch of tunes, my next project was called Wild Wild West – an album split into two five part sagas, one about a woman in a saloon convincing me to go rob a bunch of banks and the other being a True Grit-inspired story about getting revenge for the man who (fictitiously) killed my father. Though few things in the songs were based on actual events, they did provide me with a valuable lesson in character development, in the tradition of many country stars before me. And while two blogs have focused on making up characters and the details surrounding them, I was inspired to focus a whole blog on outlaw songs, after talking about “Copperhead Road” in a different context in a previous blog.

Background: Sometimes the lyrics we hear in a song are a little predictable or formulaic.  Since many songs are about emotions or people, we can kind of predict which words are going to rhyme with each other to further the song.  Since we know how the world works, we can do the same for storylines within our songs.  But what if the lyrics conveyed the opposite of what you thought when you turned on the song for the first time?  In this blog, we will focus on the use of oxymorons in songs, or phrases that contradict one another, but still are able to tell a good story.

Background: In modern day pop music, it has become somewhat of a trend for producers to be listed as co-writers on various tracks. Sometimes this is because a producer comes up with a line, other times, like in the case of Max Martin and Benny Blanco, it is because the sound is so unique to that producer.

Background: Around 2009, when the show Glee was gaining popularity, we also saw a rise in popularity of the mash up. These were songs that got mashed together, usually due to a common theme. In Glee, the cast did a mash up of “I Will Survive” by Gloria Gaynor and “Survivor” by Destiny’s Child, with the common theme being the word “survive” and empowerment of women. They also did a mash up of Journey songs. But a medley, which we will be focusing on in this blog, is unique in the sense that it’s two complete songs mushed together.

The subjunctive tense is one of my favorite things to teach in the Spanish language.  It expresses something that’s unsure to happen, and therefore causes some sort of tension within the unknown.  In addition to talking about something with an unknown outcome, there is also a subject change – with what the second person does being a potential outcome.  In song form, this is a great way to hook the listener.  Some songs have a resolution by the last verse.  But not knowing whether they will or not is great for the listener.  We will look at four examples of songs that use the subjunctive tense and why they work.

Background: The country duo Big & Rich sat at a songwriting workshop early in their career. As each person at the table introduced themselves, Kenny and John started taking notes on where everyone was from. This exercise would later become the title track to their second album, Comin’ To Your City. While this makes for a great story, writing about a city or state has proven successful for many artists: Johnny Cash (“I’ve Been Everywhere”), The King Cole Trio “(Get Your Kicks On) Route 66”, Gladys Knight and the Pips (“Midnight Train to Georgia”), the mention of “South Detroit” in “Don’t Stop Believin’” and countless others. In this blog, we are going to talk about using cities and states in song titles, or at least in significant lines within the song. As an added bonus, all of these songs were written by people I’ve discovered and associated with while living in Memphis, and 3 out of 4 of the artists are from the area.