Description
Michael Koppy Words and Music Into the Future A Songwriting Treatise and Manifesto by Michael Koppy
Literary criticism, songwriting analysis, and cultural commentary, Words and Music Into the Future is an uncompromising examination of the current state of popular songs and songwriting in the English-speaking world. Devoid of hero worship and celebrity gossip, using mostly well-known songs from recent decades as examples, Michael Koppy presents a compelling case that we listeners have been force-fed a steady diet of industrial illiteracy, and that the timer has come for songwriting and song criticism to riser to greater heights.Whether you agree or disagree with the challenging, even heretical ideas presented in Words and Music Into the Future, it will forever change how you think about and hear popular music.Sample chapters: 1. No, Don, the Levee Wasn't Dry--And No One Was Drinking Whiskey and Rye2. There Goes The Robert E. Lee?3. To What End?4. A Personal Remembrance5. A Later Kick in the Pants6. Don't Shoot, Dammit! I'm Just the Messenger!7. Politics? Religion? How About SONGS?!?8. Ground Rule Number One9. I'm Your Fan! You're My Hero!10. Herds of Wildebeests Stampeding Across the Veldt!11. Why Peeing Your Pants Beats the Hell Out Of Nostalgia12. Madonna, Kanye, Coldplay, Bieber, U2, One Direction--Effluvia, Ephemera, Etcetera, Etcetera13. See You at the Grammys!--A Note on Industrial Smarm Festivals14. Ethics? In Popular Music...?!?15. Dunno Much 'Bout Art, But I Know What I Like16. Ever Notice the Worst Writing in an Insightful Pop Music Review--Even a Rave--Usually Shows Up When the Critic Quotes the Band's Lyrics?17. Those Pesky, Over-Idealized Nineteen-Sixties18. So Where Are We?19. "Yeah, But You Really Hafta See 'Em Live!"20. Over the Top? Ya Think?21. Yes, We Too Are All So Very Sorry You Weren't Born on a Mississippi Cotton Plantation22. Art School Confidential23. Dance? Okay, Fine. Dance! Now Go Away.24. It's All Greek--French, Swahili, Latin, Klingon--To Me.25. Country Music is "Three Chords and the Truth" Computerized Drums, a Catering Truck, and a Smirk26. Country's Brainier Half-Sibling: Americana27. Tradition and Illusions of Same28. The Disarmingly Enabling Inscience of Rap and Hip-Hop29. Come to the Cabaret, Old Chum30. Under a Stack of Marshall Amplifiers31. Ethics? In SONGWRITING ITSELF...?!?32. The Twentieth Century Ended Two Decades Ago33. The Insolvency of 'Po-Mo'34. Song Lyrics vs. Poems35. "But It's Poetry!"--Refuge for the Inarticulate36. Sincerity Ain't Depth37. The Kids Are Alright!38. La-Da-Da / Sha-La-Ti-Da39. Is 'The Folk Process' an Expired Merchanism?40. Lessons from Browne's "These Days" and Kristofferson's "Bobby McGee"41. How About That! Some Country Music Is...42. Get Me Rewrite!43. Bob Dylan: Bad Writer, Bad Influence44. Shallowness, Thy Name is Bob45. Dying is Easy, Comedy is Hard46. If Ya Wanna Send a Message...47. McCartney's Song Writing Lesson48. Steve Sondheim Desperately Wishes He Were Right49. Didn't I Just Hear That Song in a Commercial for Paper Towels? Insurance? Gum?50. Should We Use A Number 37-A?51. On Brightly Wrapped Packages52. On Gilded Frames53. Making Sausages54. Making Music55. Sure 'Authenticity' is Great--But It Doesn't Guarantee Good Work56. Form Follows Function57. Words Seek Music. Object: Matrimony.58. Rules Were Made to be Broken. However--59. Swan Song