Words and Music Into the Future
A Songwriting Treatise and Manifesto
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Literary criticism, songwriting analysis, and cultural commentary, Words and Music Into the Future is an uncompromising examination of the current state of popular songs and songwriting in the English-speaking world. Devoid of hero worship and celebrity gossip, using mostly well-known songs from recent decades as examples, Michael Koppy presents a compelling case that we listeners have been force-fed a steady diet of industrial illiteracy, and that the timer has come for songwriting and song criticism to riser to greater heights. Whether you agree or disagree with the challenging, even heretic...
Literary criticism, songwriting analysis, and cultural commentary, Words and Music Into the Future is an uncompromising examination of the current state of popular songs and songwriting in the English-speaking world. Devoid of hero worship and celebrity gossip, using mostly well-known songs from recent decades as examples, Michael Koppy presents a compelling case that we listeners have been force-fed a steady diet of industrial illiteracy, and that the timer has come for songwriting and song criticism to riser to greater heights. Whether you agree or disagree with the challenging, even heretical ideas presented in Words and Music Into the Future, it will forever change how you think about and hear popular music. Sample chapters: 1. No, Don, the Levee Wasn’t Dry—And No One Was Drinking Whiskey and Rye 2. There Goes The Robert E. Lee? 3. To What End? 4. A Personal Remembrance 5. A Later Kick in the Pants 6. Don’t Shoot, Dammit! I’m Just the Messenger! 7. Politics? Religion? How About SONGS?!? 8. Ground Rule Number One 9. I’m Your Fan! You’re My Hero! 10. Herds of Wildebeests Stampeding Across the Veldt! 11. Why Peeing Your Pants Beats the Hell Out Of Nostalgia 12. Madonna, Kanye, Coldplay, Bieber, U2, One Direction—Effluvia, Ephemera, Etcetera, Etcetera 13. See You at the Grammys!—A Note on Industrial Smarm Festivals 14. Ethics? In Popular Music...?!? 15. Dunno Much ’Bout Art, But I Know What I Like 16. Ever Notice the Worst Writing in an Insightful Pop Music Review—Even a Rave—Usually Shows Up When the Critic Quotes the Band’s Lyrics? 17. Those Pesky, Over-Idealized Nineteen-Sixties 18. So Where Are We? 19. "Yeah, But You Really Hafta See ’Em Live!" 20. Over the Top? Ya Think? 21. Yes, We Too Are All So Very Sorry You Weren’t Born on a Mississippi Cotton Plantation 22. Art School Confidential 23. Dance? Okay, Fine. Dance! Now Go Away. 24. It’s All Greek—French, Swahili, Latin, Klingon—To Me. 25. Country Music is "Three Chords and the Truth" Computerized Drums, a Catering Truck, and a Smirk 26. Country’s Brainier Half-Sibling: Americana 27. Tradition and Illusions of Same 28. The Disarmingly Enabling Inscience of Rap and Hip-Hop 29. Come to the Cabaret, Old Chum 30. Under a Stack of Marshall Amplifiers 31. Ethics? In SONGWRITING ITSELF…?!? 32. The Twentieth Century Ended Two Decades Ago 33. The Insolvency of 'Po-Mo' 34. Song Lyrics vs. Poems 35. "But It’s Poetry!"—Refuge for the Inarticulate 36. Sincerity Ain’t Depth 37. The Kids Are Alright! 38. La-Da-Da / Sha-La-Ti-Da 39. Is 'The Folk Process' an Expired Merchanism? 40. Lessons from Browne's "These Days" and Kristofferson's "Bobby McGee" 41. How About That! Some Country Music Is... 42. Get Me Rewrite! 43. Bob Dylan: Bad Writer, Bad Influence 44. Shallowness, Thy Name is Bob 45. Dying is Easy, Comedy is Hard 46. If Ya Wanna Send a Message… 47. McCartney's Song Writing Lesson 48. Steve Sondheim Desperately Wishes He Were Right 49. Didn’t I Just Hear That Song in a Commercial for Paper Towels? Insurance? Gum? 50. Should We Use A Number 37-A? 51. On Brightly Wrapped Packages 52. On Gilded Frames 53. Making Sausages 54. Making Music 55. Sure ‘Authenticity’ is Great—But It Doesn’t Guarantee Good Work 56. Form Follows Function 57. Words Seek Music. Object: Matrimony. 58. Rules Were Made to be Broken. However— 59. Swan Song