A great song doesn’t attempt to be anything — it just is.
When you hear a great song, you can think of where you were when you first heard it, the sounds, the smells. It takes the emotions of a moment and holds it for years to come. It transcends time. A great song has all the key elements — melody; emotion; a strong statement that becomes part of the lexicon; and great production. Think of “Bohemian Rhapsody,” by Queen. That song had everything — different melodies, opera, R&B, rock — and it explored all of those different genres in an authentic way, where it felt natural.
Written as an intro to Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. And I believe it’s been out for awhile, but I’m just now reading it myself. So in case you’re like me, hit the jump for the rest.
When I’m writing a song that I know is going to work, it’s a feeling of euphoria. It’s how a basketball player must feel when he starts hitting every shot, when you’re in that zone. As soon as you start, you get that magic feeling, an extra feeling. Songs like that come out in five minutes; if I work on them more than, say, 20 minutes, they’re probably not going to work.
When I was starting out, I was just trying to tell stories. I wasn’t thinking about melodies. Then I started to marry storytelling with everything I was learning from all these other great records: the great writers like Babyface and Lionel Richie; Rakim’s technique and syncopation; Dre’s whole package on the Chronic albums; Quincy Jones, the greatest producer of all time; Rick Rubin, who’s not too far behind because of all his genre-jumping.
Technology has caused the songwriting process to lose some of the magic. A lot of times now, people working on a song aren’t in the same room. Imagine if Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones hadn’t been in the same room! Those records would have been totally different. I’ve had times when I changed one word because of something that somebody said in the studio, and it changed the whole song. It’s so important to have other people in the room, vibing, saying, “No, this part is good, put that there.”
I spend a lot of time fighting myself to stay out of the way of a great song. It’s hard for me to leave a song alone, in its natural state. I want it to have that mass appeal, but once I start trying to push it too far, you can feel that something isn’t right. When you can hear what a writer is trying to do, it’s like watching a dancer and seeing him counting his steps. Music is emotional — if you’re singing that you’re in love with somebody but it doesn’t really feel like you are, people can tell.
Some of my best songs aren’t the biggest ones. A song like “Can I Live” is so full of emotion to me — it was better than “Hard Knock Life” or “Empire State of Mind,” but it lacked that accessibility. Michael Jackson’s Off the Wall album may not have been bigger than Thriller, but the songs had better melodies.
But when a phrase gets stuck in your head like a great melody and becomes part of everyday culture, that’s when it can become something great. When your music signifies a time in the culture or continues on in everyday life, like “Say It Loud — I’m Black and I’m Proud” or “A Change Is Gonna Come.” Or when something like “Bling Bling” even makes it into the dictionary. Then you know you’ve done your job.
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MOTHAFUCK Queen and Bohemian Rhapsody. Stupid ass song, niggas always mentionin it. Fuck that shit yo
SOMEONE SEND THIS TO DJ KHALED
im no were near making a classic, YET. but peep my shit let me know wat u think feelme im just tryna grow while im still here. http://www.soundcloud.com/ep559
This article is a better read if you start from the bottom and work your way back up.
Fuck a classic song, I just made a classic tape spittin classic bars to classic beats. JUST BIZARRE – #LEGENDARY http://www.zshare.net/download/908555157d539a6a/ Download and share.
perfect–>SOMEONE SEND THIS TO DJ KHALED
So Icy Boi! said this on June 1st, 2011 at 2:07 pm
Someone send this to Lil Wayne…and Rick Ross… and Wiz Khalifa… and Gucci Mane… and Waka Flocka… and the rest of the clowns… and DJ Khaled? That lame doesn’t even deserved to be mentioned. He’s not even an artist! smh… a disgrace to hip hop… ALL OF THEM.
*Follow @ ma_THT
You gotta remember that Khaled is a DJ , thats his purpose in the music business. As for Ross hes ok but sometimes he do make some shit thats incredible. The title song on Self Made is dope and the song with Jeremih is dope. I think a great song has no formula but its musically put together well. Its those songs that arent about nothing specific but about everything at the same time. They dont sound forced or difficult to do , they just flow smoothly. They can be simple and complex at the same time and the beat usually comes with a familiar feeling or sound that brings back memories of when you was a kid. A good song is like that feeling you get when you make eye contact with a girl for the first time and you just know that yall gon be fuckin that night or sometime in the near future. Its like when a good song comes on you just know its something special. You ever see a group of people talking and then a song comes on and they just stop talking for a moment to listen? Thats a good song , Can I Live was a good example.
Umm…are you actually defending DJ Khaled and Rick Ross…
…I’m done.
To the idiot who said send this to lil wayne: you do realize the “bling bling” reference was a shoutout to lil wayne, right? Ok.
this soft ass nigga. talking about making a great song. who r u boy? making a classic like looking ur mama in the eye? stfu dumb nigga
^^^ SMH and LOL , this guy never had the experience I was referring to in my comment so hes just venting his frustration.
@Uhuh… Idiot, “Bling Bling” was a B.G. song and featured like the whole Cash Money. The term was branded by Cash Money as a whole. Lil’ Wayne just happened to be apart of it. And Lil’ Wayne makes music about nothing, never mind it being classical smh fool
*Follow @ ma_THT
@TrueHopTunes yea you are right about the song bling bling, but the fact is that wayne made the phrase bling bling and then they made a song about it eventually
Jay-z’s best song is Blueprint 2. It has so much emotion, and the melody is insane. Not to mention if it was marketed like Takeover it would have enlightened people more on the whole Nas vs Jay-z beef.
OVERdose UP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCTXYH7yBOs&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL
“When I was starting out, I was just trying to tell stories. I wasn’t thinking about melodies.”
Wasn’t it the other way? In the beginning when Jay had those crazy fast flows, he’s said before he was thinking of himself more like an instrument, and then it evolved…
^^prob means reasonable doubt..meh..
Jay-Z is one of the greatest of all times; the guy is a genius and a great entrepreneur in the music world.
His book Decoded talked on topics and ideas that can help open up your eyes to different aspects of songs and created the music alike.
Now for the 5 minute song part, that’s a little too crazy. I know the feeling of having the thoughts just rush out and writing 30+ bars in 20-30 mins, but 5?..
best song would be you must love me then.
Did nigga jus say fuck Bohemian Rhapsody? wtf?