Artists as Songwriters

Hidden among all the news and jawing about how the music industry has been changed in the last few years is this: More and more artists are co-writing the songs they record. Everybody wants to be a "singer/songwriter". It makes good business sense for them, and eases the pain of revenue lost from other sources. Some artists are under a lot of pressure to write their own songs, from publishers, managers, producers, and others. The problem with the trend is that not all artists are good writers. And it shows in the music they are producing.

It was refreshing to read an article about Jake Owen in the Tennessean on 9/10/11. Jake describes his songwriting experience this way: "He had a hand in writing the bulk of material on his past two albums, and his new album was headed in this direction - until he and his band didn't like any of his ideas." He went on to say that he realized he not only could he find better songs with other writers, he could also build a stronger support network by recording their songs.

The result of his search is that he only co-wrote one of the 11 songs on his new album. Whit Jeffords, Creative Director at Amylase Entertainment is quoted in the article, saying "...most artists could benefit from recording outside songs and the trick is knowing which of their own material is worthy and when someone else might be able to write it a little bit better."

There are some awesome and highly successful singer/songwriters, such as Alan Jackson, who are very good at both writing and performing. But for every one like him there are many, many others who simply don't have the talent and skill. Hopefully they will begin to realize that there is more to creating great songs than simply sticking an artist's name in the credits.