Damon Albarn, the lead singer of Blur and Gorillaz, has recently been criticised for his “outdated” views of modern songwriting. In an interview with the LA Times, Albarn explained that US singer-songwriter Taylor Swift’s “co-writing” approach was at odds with his “traditionalist” view of writing songs. He went on to say that co-writing “doesn’t count” as songwriting.
Calling out fellow songwriters for not writing their own material is bad form for musicians, particularly so given that the definition of songwriting has become ever more fluid over time, and depends greatly on the genre of music. Pop music is often written collaboratively, and these teams are becoming larger. Indeed, 2017 analysis by Music Week magazine shows it now takes an average of four and a half writers to create a hit single.
The process of creating songs has both integrated itself within and kicked against the industrialisation of the music industry. And it has developed hand in hand with technological changes both in “manufacture” and distribution.
