Pop Gets In Your Head Part 2
there's a reason good pop songs are catchy - songwriters made good use of musical conventions, and they provoke certain reactions in the listener. the sound of a familiar chord progression is like any other sensory memory. like the smell of matzoh ball soup being made, or your grandmother's perfume somewhere she's not. even if you've never heard a song before, the fact that it relies upon the same tropes and/or actual harmonic structure you've heard a million times makes it feel, if not exactly familiar, at least as if it is pulling at something internal.
I think the fact that you can hear something brand new and it can create a physical memory sensation in your gut is fucking insane. Writing good songs, for me, isn't about defying established tropes, but about using them responsibly and carefully. Like love, or anything with a magical air to it - it's not actually magic. But you can do something kind of magical with it if you work on it consciously.
(more after processing contracts.)
I think the fact that you can hear something brand new and it can create a physical memory sensation in your gut is fucking insane. Writing good songs, for me, isn't about defying established tropes, but about using them responsibly and carefully. Like love, or anything with a magical air to it - it's not actually magic. But you can do something kind of magical with it if you work on it consciously.
(more after processing contracts.)