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Are “Universal” Songs Meant for Nobody in Particular?

masks by al-janabi

This is a transcript of podcast #002–“On Writing Universal Songs.”

Quoth Pamela Phillips Oland, in her book “The Art of Writing Great Lyrics”:

…why use an ordinary adjective when you can find a more colorful, original one? What will set you apart as a special lyricist is your ability to conjure up interesting word pictures for your listeners. The more evocative adjectives you can come up with, the more vivid the picture you will paint for your listeners.
In lyric writing, this can create a dichotomy because, while you want to project clear mental images, you also want listeners to be able to fill in their own blanks. For instance, if you’re writing a song about a blue-eyed blonde, your listener may not be able to relate if his girlfriend has dark hair and brown eyes… consider using adjectives that are universal, such as “sensual,” “beautiful,” or “dynamite.”

Here’s my response:

Expanding on that last point: if we’re so afraid of lyrics that aren’t perfectly universal, why don’t we just stop writing love songs, to make sure we don’t alienate all the bitter singles out there?

If the song’s well-written, there’s no reason to water down the language out of fear that it is “too specific.”

Oland’s suggested approach neuters a person’s descriptions, reducing them to the lowest common denominator. Are we to write a song called “I Love You, Carbon-Based Woman”? Or is woman too specific?

Most people will not feel strongly enough about hair color to dismiss a song that glorifies a color they don’t prefer. If you’re bored with pointless physical details, a better solution could be to focus upon this woman’s personality, quirks, movements, responses to situations, and overall human warmth rather than her physical details.

People relate to one another in complex ways, and most listeners are flexible—they’ll accommodate differences in detail by responding to emotional cues and core themes and relating it all to their own experiences. Having heard a vivid and poignant song about a funeral, nobody is going to say “I just can’t connect to that song you wrote about losing your best friend to cancer. I haven’t had any similar experiences at all—MY friend died in a car crash.” Specific sensory details don’t usually carry enough weight to cut off a listener’s emotional connection to the core theme, like loss. They’ll identify with the overall feeling, or even with isolated phrases in your song that are more general or abstract.

A Striking Example: “Gentle on my Mind”

I once sang “Gentle on my Mind” for friends, and one said afterward: “That song really strikes a special chord with me, because my brother loved Glen Campbell (the performer).” The verses of the song tell a story about a man and a woman who love one another—often from a great distance.

My friend had lost his brother years ago, so the chorus lyrics seemed especially poignant:

“You’re moving on the back roads by the rivers of my memory,
And for hours you’re just gentle on my mind.”
-Written by John Hartford, performed by Glen Campbell).

As I mentioned, the song’s verses actually tell a story of distant lovers—and even though my friend had his loving wife right beside him, of course he could still relate to missing somebody dear to him. Who can’t relate to having somebody on their mind?

Conclusions

If the piece is written with enough detail to be emotionally resonant, and to create a powerful scene in your audience’s hearts and minds, you don’t need to worry about small details turning them off.

Write what comes naturally to mind about the topic, write descriptively, and your audience will respond, each in his or her own way.

There’s no reason to reduce your song to the lowest common denominator. If you write the song about nobody in particular, that’s exactly who’s going to listen to it.

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Comments

  1. Eric

    I sometimes exhibit emotions
    Toward life forms and inanimate objects
    And other times
    Thoughts enter my mind
    That make me experience
    Neurochemical events

    Chorus:
    And it may or may not be about you
    Whoever you are
    But if it is
    I just want you to know
    Whatever it is
    Or something

    • Nicholas Tozier

      Eric,

      Wow. Wow. I feel like I am the lyrics to this song.

      I too sometimes exhibit emotions and–though it’s rare–if I am very quiet and still, sometimes a thought will enter my mind. Usually this thought is about a thing. Other times? The thought is about stuff.

      Thank you so much for this neurochemical event.

  3. Eric

    Haha, thanks guys– I was slightly bored at work. I guess I ought to see about making that into the first draft of something.

  4. Ruth

    Yeah.

    And Songwriter Rule #1 (or it should be): When audience members come up to you afterward all misty-eyed, and tell you that your song meant so much to them, and their reason is based on totally misinterpreting your song, you THINK, “How could they have gotten that out of what I sang???!!!” but you SAY, “Thank you. That means so much to me.”

    Let them have their moment. Your song has been universal, even if you didn’t intend for it to be!

    • Nicholas Tozier

      I’ve had that happen also. Some people don’t just bring their own experience to a piece, but seem to actually superimpose theirs on top of it. Yow.