Historical Composition Technique

[Inventor]

I think this is nothing new, but it is new to me and I thought it would be worth some discussion. I recently poured out my emotions into composing an album of songs that chronicles a significant period of difficulty in my life. Having gotten all my emotions out that way was very healthy and quite a relief, however I am left with the question: "what next?".

I thought about it off and on for days and came up with the following formula for generating songs based on history. Here is what I wrote about it

[Uncle Krunkus]

As usual Les, you've opened another very interesting and inspiring can of worms!
I don't think it's necessarily a "formula for success", but it's a potentially very useful inspirational tool. There is the chance that listeners might feel they are being lectured to, which doesn't happen as much when you write a song based on your own history, as listeners assume that no-one knows your history like you do. This hasn't stopped many successful artists from writing about situations they weren't a part of. Most political bands, (Midnight Oil comes to mind) have done very well by re-telling important sociological commentaries to music. I think a "political" phase of song writing happens to most artists sooner or later, depending largely on how comfortable or interested they are in speaking only about themselves.

[Inventor]

I guess there's nothing new under the sun, eh? Still, it's good to hear that it's a viable technique. I may give it a try once my creative energies rest up a bit.

[Acoustic Interloper]

From a review of Bob Dylan's Chronicles, Vol. 1,