A lot of popular songs these days are written by many different people we hardly know about famous singers who write their own songs. Look at the credits and for some songs, there can be as many as 10 or more people who are credited with having contributed towards the songwriting. A lot of the time, the singer themselves has chipped in, but sometimes the singer’s name is nowhere to be found in the credits. A question that
Yes – it shows they’re getting involved
Many music fans will agree that it looks better if a singer has been involved with the creation of the songs they sing. Even working with a large team and having a minimal amount of songwriting input is better than not having any creditable input at all. If a singer hasn’t been involved with the songwriting process, people often accuse the singer of being manufactured and just getting handed songs to sing. Songs may be written especially for the singer in question, but still some don’t think it looks good if the singer’s name isn’t listed among the songwriting credits. There are obviously those who have an ear for music and can write songs better than others, though it wouldn’t hurt for those performing songs to have a bit of a role in their creation. It would make people respect them more as well.
No – not everyone’s a songwriter
Some of the biggest singers ever – Elvis, Frank Sinatra, Whitney Houston – didn’t write their own songs, or did the occasional bit of songwriting with help from others. Just because someone can sing, perform and entertain, doesn’t necessarily they can sit down and compose a song. There are plenty of singers who don’t write songs, so they work with songwriters who don’t sing. This kind of partnership is commonplace and works very well, benefitting both parties. The singer gets to perform a song and the songwriter gets to have their song released and performed for the general public.
What do you think?
Should all singers have input in the creation of their songs, or should they leave it to the professionals? Does it really matter if a singer has no songwriting credits on their singles or albums? Many of the biggest, most commercially (and often critically) successful songs and albums aren’t written by the performer – for many songwriting credits are important, but do they really matter that much?
