Tag: songwriting

Writing With Images: John Mayer
& Sara Bareilles

Learn how pro songwriters use imagery in their lyrics.

Using images in your lyrics  is a quick and powerful way to connect with listeners. Let’s take a look at a couple of strong image-based song lyrics. To find them, we need look no further than today’s successful singer-songwriters. This style relies heavily on the use of images to express personal experiences and emotions.

Song #1 “Slow Dancing in a Burning Room
Writer: John Mayer

Read the lyric here.

Watch on YouTube.

Images in the song

THE TITLE IMAGE: The title of this song is an intensely powerful visual image. Who can resist picturing this couple and the destruction happening around them?

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& Sara Bareilles

Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You) – Kelly Clarkson

This is just the kind of song that every American Idol finalist and semi-finalist hungers for—and so do record labels and publishers. The melody has a huge range, which works well for singers with big voices, and there’s plenty of passion and excitement in the lyrics. If you’re interested in today’s melodic Pop/Rock genre, this is a song that’s worth studying. It offers a master class in contemporary melody and lyric craft.

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Songs for TV Commercials with Cathy Heller

Cathy Heller is a go-to artist when it comes to licensing music to TV commercials. Her songs have been featured in major ad campaigns for McDonalds, Walmart, Petco, Quaker, KFC, and many others. For years, Cathy has been successfully pitching her own music and helping other artists do the same. In this podcast I ask her how she does it.

Listen to the podcast

Table of Contents” for the podcast.

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Hit Songwriting: Beautiful Day by Joshua Radin

Songwriter Joshua Radin

I usually feature a hit song from the music charts in this section, but this time I want to take a look at an artist who has built an extremely successful career on Film & TV placements, Joshua Radin. More than 40 of Radin’s songs have appeared in top TV series, including Bones, Parenthood, Grey’s Anatomy, Beauty and the Beast, Chicago Med, 90210, and the list goes on. You won’t find his songs on the mainstream music charts, nevertheless, he has sold millions of downloads and singles.

Radin’s songs are atmospheric, mood-based, and emotionally evocative rather than attention grabbing radio hits. They tend to feature one- or two-line refrains instead of big, over-the-top choruses, as radio singles do. The production is simple but carefully thought out, with chiseled performances that lock into a groove.

Every song is filled with insight, fresh twists, and beautiful payoff lines that are perfect for film and TV uses. If you’re a singer-songwriter looking at the Film & TV market, here’s an artist who is worth studying.

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All My Days – Alexi Murdoch

Here’s a successful Singer-Songwriter song with simple production and an honest, emotionally moving lyric. Alexi Murdoch has sold over 50,000 CDs through CD Baby making him one of their biggest sellers of all time. He self-releases his music and has turned down several offers from major labels. Most of his sales came as a result of the film & TV uses of his songs.

You’ve probably heard the song “All My Days” without realizing it. It’s featured in a commercial for Sprint and has also been used in several TV series, including CSI, Scrubs, and The OC. Let’s take a look at why this simple, acoustic song is so successful.

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