SongSpot Song Academy Young Songwriter blogs

With the Song Academy Young Songwriter (SAYS) 2013 underway, I’ve been looking into what inspires songwriters to write what they do. After watching countless interviews with Adele, James Morrison, Fleetwood Mac, a theme which runs throughout all these hugely talented artists, is one of feeling. What they are feeling is paramount to what they write about. The most successful songs to date, and the ones that last, are written in moments of passion, fear, anger, anxiety – and after reading some of the entries of this year’s SAYS competition, it seems as if young people today are aware of that.

What has truly astounded me when looking at the competition entries is the high standard of lyrical ideas and melodic maturity of the songs already entered – who knew children aged between 6-18 years old were so advanced for their years, writing songs about being ‘rich’ in life, not in terms of being wealthy, but in being fulfilled with what you have around you? I’m assuming that most people think kids these days are too busy playing videos games, listening to iPods and beating you every time at Fruit Ninja on the iPad to put feelings into songs – but think again.

Children aged between 6-18 years old from all over the UK have been entering songs about trying to cope with their friends self harming, how to cope with bullying, how to deal with friendship breakups and wondering which their lives will take. It has highlighted to me how therapeutic songwriting can be, and the way in which a melody and lyrics can make sense of a once senseless problem. Look at Adele’s Someone Like You or Tom Odell’s Another Love – yes they are about love, but they are more than that; they are about understanding how you can cope with hurt, and articulate feelings of loss or fear of the unknown.

Sometimes songs are less literal in their explanation of feelings; take Bastille’s Pompeii – one interpretation of the track is that the band has used the destruction of the ancient city of Pompeii as a metaphor to explain how to rebuild your life after it has collapsed into ruins.

So why not try and put your feelings into a song? And better still, if you are between 6-18, enter it into Song Academy’s Young Songwriter 2013 competition, which is giving UK children an opportunity to develop their musical talents and put their emotions into songwriting. Go to www.songacademy.co.uk for more information.