Robin Frederick, Author at Songwriting Craft & Inspiration

What Is the Singer-Songwriter Genre?

You can draw a straight line from Joni Mitchell’s Blue album, the intimate vocals of Tim Hardin, and the floating melodies of Nick Drake to the compelling sound of today’s Singer-Songwriter genre.

Indeed, the Singer-Songwriter genre has been around for decades, yet no one seems able to describe exactly what it is. We might agree that Dermot Kennedy, Sheryl Crow, Novo Amor, and Ingrid Michaelson are all singer-songwriters, but they all sound very different. What does the Singer-Songwriter genre sound like? And how do you know if you’re in it? Why is that important?

Song Guide: “Leave the Door Open” by Silk Sonic

This Song Guide is dedicated to all you guys and gals who lived, loved, and danced to the great R&B/Soul hits of the ’60s and ’70s. If you remember Rose Royce, The O’Jays, The Delfonics, and Teddy Pendergrass… you’re gonna love this song.

“Leave the Door Open” has an authentic vintage Soul sound that makes me wanna teeter around the dance floor on platform shoes so tall they give me a nose bleed. At the same time, it has the luscious lyric imagery, cascading rhymes, and rhythmical melody twists that my 2020-era self finds totally satisfying.

It’s a perfect example of a successful blend of styles—old and new—in a mash-up that drove this song to platinum sales and the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2021.

Song Guide: “Before You Go” by Lewis Capaldi

Why This song?

For a while now, I’ve been wanting to do a Song Guide on a Lewis Capaldi song. I first heard “Grace” on Grey’s Anatomy and I was struck by its rhythmical melody and simple, powerful hook. Next thing I knew, Capaldi had a radio hit and Grammy nomination for “Someone You Loved,” a piano/vocal song with a lyric that evokes the Titanic of relationship disasters. Capaldi’s current single, “Before You Go,” is well on its way to a billion listens on Spotify. So I start wondering who is this guy?

Well, it turns out, Lewis Capaldi the artist currently consists of himself and a production/songwriting team called TMS (Tommy Barnes, Benjamin Kohn, and Peter Kelleher). You can find out more about their collaboration in this interview.

Their cowrite with Capaldi,”Before You Go,” seems an unlikely hit in these days of unrelenting dance beats. Its dark, confessional Singer-Songwriter lyric and huge, emotional chorus, set it apart from most commercial radio hits. So I want to take a deeper look to find out what makes it work.

Write a song like “Driver’s License” – Olivia Rodrigo

WHY THIS SONG?
“Driver’s License” is the debut single by Olivia Rodrigo. It got a lot of attention for the way it raced up the music charts and piled up millions of listens on stream-on-demand sites like Spotify and Apple Music. It quickly rose to #1 on the Pop music charts in the U.S and U.K with double platinum sales.

Rodrigo already had a throng of fans from her roles in successful Disney TV series like High School Musical, and there was a strong marketing push for the song from the record label as well (which is one reason artists still sign record deals).

But all of that does not take away from the fact that the song has a ton of appeal and is extremely well crafted. So, let’s pull it apart to see what makes it work and get some ideas for songs of your own.

Learn From a Country Hit : “Gone” by Dierks Bentley

Why this song?

Most songwriters know that the Contemporary Country genre pumps out some of the most well crafted songs in the business. What you might not know is that these songs can provide a gold mine of song crafting techniques you can use to add appeal to your own songs, no matter what genre you’re writing in.

Sure, Country has its own distinctive musical twang but many of the lyric and melody skills are universal. Read on and I’ll show you a few. I’ll use Dierks Bentley’s recent Country hit “Gone” as an example.

Author: Robin Frederick