[principessa]

I can only name one Amy Macdonald

Maybe I'm wrong but did The Who co-write ,The Beatles , Queen etc . I don't think so.

Of our modern day artistes
Adele , Emeli Sande , Jessie J - all co - writers

[Hav_mor91]

Originally Posted by principessa

I can only name one Amy Macdonald

Maybe I'm wrong but did The Who co-write ,The Beatles , Queen etc . I don't think so.

Of our modern day artistes
Adele , Emeli Sande , Jessie J - all co - writers

Lenon And McCartney one of the most famous musical partnerships in history

[HandsClean]

Alanis Morissette & Mcfly are the only mainstream pop/rock acts that I can think of that pretty much write and produce everything the release.

It's a sad truth but pretty much every singer needs help these days.

[Poison_Ivan]

Madonna!

[sjp07]

Originally Posted by HandsClean

Alanis Morissette & Mcfly are the only mainstream pop/rock acts that I can think of that pretty much write and produce everything the release.

It's a sad truth but pretty much every singer needs help these days.

These days? It's ALWAYS been this way. Also, Alanis Morissette only wrote her fifth and sixth albums by herself. All the others were co-written with one or two other people.

[boddism]

Originally Posted by Poison_Ivan

Madonna!

Im not convinced. I think she always has co-writers. Not a bad thing per se.

[mgvsmith]

Originally Posted by Hav_mor91

Lenon And McCartney one of the most famous musical partnerships in history

Lennon and McCartney stopped writing together about 1962, so most of their work was written separately..which in no way lessens any of it.

[boddism]

TYler James writes most of his own songs.

He wrote his last 2 singles, although he does have co-writers, many of whom he has worked with for years.

[mgvsmith]

Originally Posted by principessa

I can only name one Amy Macdonald

Maybe I'm wrong but did The Who co-write ,The Beatles , Queen etc . I don't think so.

Of our modern day artistes
Adele , Emeli Sande , Jessie J - all co - writers

Tin Pan Alley songwriters who have written songs for others to perform have always been around (from the 19th century anyways).

The great thing about pop music from about the early 1960s was that artists like The Beatles and Bob Dylan wrote and performed their own music. The beauty of this being that the artist who had something personal to say could say it and not just be interpreting someone else's ideas. This creative impulse has been diluted a great deal in modern pop music, partly because of the dominance of technological and celebrity driven music forms.

Despite this modern notion of co-writing where presumably artists are not trusted to be able to express themselves, some artists like Adele or Amy Winehouse do shine through and have something personal to express in their own words.

[ashtray88]

So now co-writing is being looked down on?? It's not like artists like Adele and Emeli Sande can't write a song on their own. It's just that getting input from somebody else helps polish the song. They only want to give their fans the very best. I do think Amy McDonald is very good but most of the very best songs are co-written.

[Smudged]

Most artists do write all their own songs but I guess this is another thread only interested in popular/top 40 chart music.

[tracystapes]

Lady Gaga

Adele writes all her own doesn't she? Well she certainly wrote most of the '21' album if I was wrong on the first part.

[Steve35]

Originally Posted by principessa

I can only name one Amy Macdonald

Maybe I'm wrong but did The Who co-write ,The Beatles , Queen etc . I don't think so.

Of our modern day artistes
Adele , Emeli Sande , Jessie J - all co - writers

Slash, Eddie Vedder(Pearl Jam),there's loads who do.

[Steve35]

Originally Posted by Smudged

Most artists do write all their own songs but I guess this is another thread only interested in popular/top 40 chart music.

Exactly this. Shame really, music outside the charts is so much better!

[Smudged]

Originally Posted by Steve35

Exactly this. Shame really, music outside the charts is so much better!

Discussing the most popular stuff is fair enough I suppose. What's weird to me is how some people seem to think it's representative of the way music is made in general.

[Fast Fuse]

Originally Posted by boddism

Im not convinced. I think she always has co-writers. Not a bad thing per se.

Yep, Madonna collaborates.

One of her biggest strengths is that she is able to pick DJs and Producers which are very current to that particular time.

(Like William Orbit on Ray Of Light - Genius!)

[Fast Fuse]

There are plenty of young bands producing fantastic new music.

Biffy Clyro
You Me At Six
Young Guns
Twin Atlantic
Bring Me The Horizon

Etc.

[Jane_Brown1]

To be fair, the Beatles had four people to co-write their songs. That's not really comparable to a solo artist.

On topic, Amy Winehouse wrote quite a few of her songs alone, notably Love is a Losing Game. A lot of the co-writes on her music were as a result of production, and I think this is quite often the case with modern artists.

[sjp07]

Originally Posted by Jane_Brown1

To be fair, the Beatles had four people to co-write their songs. That's not really comparable to a solo artist.

On topic, Amy Winehouse wrote quite a few of her songs alone, notably Love is a Losing Game. A lot of the co-writes on her music were as a result of production, and I think this is quite often the case with modern artists.

This. People see another name or two on their and automatically assume it was a completely collaborative effort. This is a terrible song to reference because it's cheesy as he'll, but whatever. Party In The USA was written by Jessie J, but Claude and Luke came in and changed Essex to Nashville, Changed the second song from Jay-Z again to Britney, Changed tea to dream, fame and sex to fame excess, some weird line about Macy's to everybody seems so famous. All because the song was too British to be given to Miley. Anybody with half a brain could have made those changes and people do on YouTube everyday with every song.

I don't think it's bad to have a collaborator, like Jessie is working with CK again for a lot of her new album, Adele has a collaborator. The only thing I don't like is when they claim the music is their own or act like it's their own feelings poured into the song. Much like Beyonce does. And people who don't write their music at all or very little trying to pass as super talented even if the singing isnt great. No one cared that Whitney and most of the Motown crew didn't write because the songs were great and the voices were amazing.

[Alex_Duffy]

She's not a massive artist or anything, but Nadia Ali wrote every track on her album Embers alone except for Promises, which was written for her. She also co-produced every track.

[toanythingtaboo]

Originally Posted by Jane_Brown1

To be fair, the Beatles had four people to co-write their songs. That's not really comparable to a solo artist.

On topic, Amy Winehouse wrote quite a few of her songs alone, notably Love is a Losing Game. A lot of the co-writes on her music were as a result of production, and I think this is quite often the case with modern artists.

Exactly. Unless a songwriter is also a producer, and/or their music has minimal production, they're more than likely going to have co-writing credits.

Co-writing snobbery is peculiar. That term covers two extremes; people who contribute nothing substantial and people who create essentially everything, so you have to engage a bit of common sense and look at the bigger picture when judging someones songwriting ability. Not just dismiss them because there are two or more names in the credits.

The way I look at it is; has this artist ever written a song on their own or could they realistically do so? Furthermore, what is their credit history? Are we talking a couple of co-writing credits in a sea of blatant songwriting camps?

[CLL Dodge]

Most rock bands write their own material. Hard to think of any that don't. Sometimes the lead songwriter will bring home demos to rehearsals to be fleshed out, othertimes songs come together by jamming.

[SweetHeartHolly]

My most favorite singer James Otto has written most of his music.

God bless you and him always!!!

Holly

P.S. A lot of his self written music was written with a co-writer, but go here for a song that James needed no help in writing.

[Smudged]

Originally Posted by toanythingtaboo

Exactly. Unless a songwriter is also a producer, and/or their music has minimal production, they're more than likely going to have co-writing credits.

Not at all. Songwriting and producing are two different things. Perhaps the line is blurred with alot of pop music these days because the producer's role is greater than usual but for most artists the producer doesn't get a writing credit. I remember having to point this out to someone in another thread when they were querying whether PJ Harvey wrote her own songs because she didn't do all the production herself .

[Sex]

Lana del Rey....