Season premier next week:
Sounds worth taking a peek! 
Anyone watching?
Ya, me. Ollie preferred by the producers. But boy, are they skilled
Me! Loved it.
I watched. I didn’t enjoy the show.
meh
I found it interesting. I have to believe the celebrity critiques are not as spontaneous as they appear. A little preparation, before the show airs, perhaps?
I liked it, but didn’t like 2 of John Legend’s top choices (German guy and cheery woman). It was surprising how much the songs changed through the course of the show.
I also thought it was surprising how much they changed the songs. Does the writer still take full credit for the song even though it was changed significantly by someone else? It reminds me of someone saying, “I made your cookie recipe but I used this instead of that, and added this, and doubled the amount of that, and left out (main ingredient) because my kids don’t like it.” So basically you didn’t make my cookie recipe at all.
musicmom1215, LOL^
To my surprise, I was bored. I think you need to know at least a little about music composition to appreciate the show, and I know nothing. Insofar as how much the songs got changed through the process, if you look at the provenance of any popular song today, it’s likely the result of a collaboration by several people. I’m sure no single individual’s initial effort survives that process unscathed. There aren’t many Elton Johns or Billy Joels around anymore, and if there were, I think their work would be heavily massaged by the hit making industry. In any event, I didn’t enjoy seeing the sausage get made. It was a little sad seeing these hopeful folks come in with their best work, only to be told it was lacking in so many ways.
I did not see this show and so can’t comment on it. Just responding to post #11…
Perhaps that is true of hit songs, but I don’t know if it is true for all songwriters. One facet of my D’s career is as a singer/songwriter. She is not a star or with a “hit” song. She does have albums out of all original songs, and performs in concert all original material (3 sold out shows in NYC this week, for example). I’d say that 95% or more of her songs have no collaboration and are a single individual’s effort at music composition and lyrics. Only a handful of songs are collaborations more for the fun of collaborating with a friend/artist. I realize she is not at the level of well known artists. When she signs with a major record label, not sure that will change any aspect of her songwriting.
Love them both. Incredible talents! However, I don’t think Elton John is a good example of your point of a single individual’s effort in music composition and lyrics. Elton has never written his own lyrics! Actually, that is still true of him today and my kid just collaborated with him on 16 songs for a project.
If you look at the provenance of most popular songs in the past, they were likely the result of a collaboration by several people. Studio recording was an extremely technical and expensive process, as was album manufacture and distribution. Artists like Elton John and Billy Joel relied heavily on professional producers and studio musicians to flesh out their work, and managers and label A&R staff often had meaningful input into what and how things got recorded and released. And those were strong artists who quickly developed a lot of leverage. Artists who were released by Motown, for example, were often recording songs that had been picked for them by other people, and the music on a record might have little or nothing to do with the people who performed live as a particular band, other than the lead singer.
Today, the state of digital recording lets all sorts of artists create fully-produced material in their bedrooms (or more likely rudimentary home studios), and distribute it online, giving them control over everything. Promoting it effectively still takes big bucks, of course, and in order to get some of those bucks they may have to let a lot of other cooks into the kitchen. But there’s no dearth of quality self-produced material, if you can fight through the sheer mass of it to find what you like.
@soozievt - Can’t wait to hear those songs!
^^I can’t wait too as I haven’t heard any of these songs yet, but will in a month at a workshop.
I watched for the first time tonight. I really enjoyed watching the collaborative process that was aired. I like will.i.am and it was interesting to see how he reacted when he heard the songs and had immediate ideas for each one. I’ll probably watch again. I’ve always loved music and have been in awe of people who can come up with music and lyrics. What talent.
psychomomma, Will try and catch up this week!
I liked the “Boxes” song the best. The songwriters are interesting. There were some young ones on that last show. Most of the song themes are so upbeat, some maybe a little too much so.
I really liked Be Nice. For me though, I almost liked it better before it got reworked to fit what The Black Eyed Peas do. I thought Invincible was one of those songs that sounded way too familiar— almost a lawsuit waiting to happen!
I like the show better now, knowing there’s a different featured artist each week who picks a song for themselves and/or their band.