This morning on the today program I heard an interview with Nick Troop, a songwriter who claimed to be doing a psychological study of songwriting to investigate psychological health or… something.
A brief investigation took me to Nick’s websites, and the first thing to point out, as Nick does, is that his analysis is not supposed to be scientific, and not supposed to be taken to seriously. It’s a bit of fun, although I’m sure it would be interesting to genuinely investigate the interaction between psychological health and songwriting.
His website ‘The Gospel According to David Bowie‘ analyses Bowie’s songs from a number of different angles. Unfortunately where I think he misses a trick is that he’s only analysing the lyrics. He even talks about the difficulty of analysing Low because it has so few words.
When I was still studying I wrote a dissertation on genre in heavy metal, which brought me into contact with a lot of pop music analysis. Almost all of it is useless, for the simple reason that it refuses to engage with the actual music. Sociology related to pop music seemed to have similarities (though I read far less of that), and I can’t comment about psychological work related to pop music, except to point out that lyrics are a small part of popular music, and most certainly not the primary conveyors of meaning.
I’m a little dissapointed that Nick hasn’t teamed up with a musicologist to properly analyse Bowie’s music.
Bowie, as far as I am aware, has written only one song that is directly about his personal life (the excellent Jump, They Say). His lyrics have always been distant, and he has rarely worn his heart on his sleeve. The whole point of Bowie’s music has been to explore the interplay of character, theatre, artifice. He has also often written for other people, with all the implications that might have for self expression, and made use of various word randomising techniques which suggest a minimal regard at times for the literal meaning of the words. He has also referred to his deliberately commercial 80s albums as his ‘pension plan’ and written accordingly. I’m not sure how one could ever tell which of Bowie’s lyrics literally reflect his emotional state, and which are pastiche or parody, or simply far less to do with his own psychology.
And more importantly, lyric writing is not songwriting. If you want to analyse Bowie’s music, and you’re not going to talk about the gospel chord changes in Word on a Wing or Space Oddity, the use of improvisation and the use of the studio as a tool, his showcasing of excellent soloists, the riffs of Carlos Alomar, the tension between Bowie’s and Eno’s approach to arrangement… then really you’ve missed so much I wonder what the point is.
I know, I know, Nick Troop is only having fun and I’m not saying his articles aren’t interesting. I just think Bowie’s songwriting has always been about much more than his lyrics.
PS. Nick Troop is also a pretty good songwriter in his own right. Have a listen to the tracks on nicktroop.com
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Wow! You make a good point. I only ever write for others. But I must say that there are always elements of the writer in the song, although I have no idea about how you would go about finding them. It would probably require a biographer and musicologist at the same time. Maybe even a metal detector.
But then I have to ask: so what? Edith Piaf used outside writers extensively and that in no way affects their impact on the listener – and this is what it’s all about. I don’t consider songwriting about me, it’s largely about the listener.
I definitely agree with you there, Michael. What matters is that the listener is entertained.
Hmmm I think I’m contradicting myself there, as I’ve also written previously that a good songwriter has to write for themselves. So a better way to put it is that a good songwriter never ignores the audience. You’ll put elements of yourself in there, whether you want to or not.
Anyway, my main point, and what I don’t think can be said too often, is that lyrics, while important, are not the whole of songwriting.
As you say a song is made up of many interplaying parts – the two main parts being the words and the tune. I think it is quite possible to have an amazing song with truly awful lyrics, but not the other way around – which suggests that the tune may be more important than the lyrics.
A number of my own songs have very depressing lyrics but are twinned with boppy tunes deliberately as they are meant to be ironic or comic in effect. The lyrics are the superficial part of the song while the music is the mood, emotion and subliminal suggestor which sneaks under the skin of the listener to either undermine or reinforce the lyrics, depending on what the intention is.
Determining the psychology of a writer from their written work is tricky. Again you draw attention to the very real possibility that in the hands of a seasoned manipulator the words and the music may not be representative of the actual mental state of the writer at all. They may simply be exploring concepts in the same way that a novelist is not necessarily an axe murderer because he chooses to write horror novels.
But in extremely detailed analyses of a number of works from the same pen it may be possible to spot recurring threads and tell tales of the psyche – but it would take a lot of material to be able to make any sensible conclusions.
Thank you for a very stimulating article. I enjoyed reading it.
Hi Michelle, thanks for commenting,
You’re right, plenty of lyrics aren’t meant to be taken literally at all. I’m both a big Bowie fan and a heavy metal fan, which means I hear lots of lyrics which are supposed to be ironic. The method of analysis that Nick Troop is using sounds as if it was originally meant to measure writing that is specifically about oneself, which song lyrics often are not.
Personally I think the music is far more important than the lyric. I’d put lyrics on a par with specific aspects of the music, melody, harmony, pace and groove.
Funny actually, lyrics vs melody something that I don’t think about too much. But I’m spoilt as I work with really bright composers, so they come up with memorable melodies and I just stick the right words on. I’m being a bit facetious, but it works like that. Deep down, I don’t underestimate either side of the equation – I could personally never do what they do. But it’s the sum result that counts.
Michelle, one thing that has often amused me is seeing large crowds of people bopping along to REM’s “Losing my Religion” as if it was a Smurf song. There’s such a disconnect there, it still amazes me.
You think it’s incongruous to see people dancing to ‘Losing my Religion’? I disagree. It has a danceable beat, so is clearly meant to be danced to. The lyrics evoke emotions that, though very personal, are also universal. So it works as a personal listening experience, but also works as a shared listening experience. The lyrics might be deep and none too chirpy, but they’re also cathartic and in that sense uplifting.