[critique] Re: New Song: Yonder comes a Filker

["Rob 'Autographed Cat' Wynne" <doc@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 02:24 PM 2/13/01, Sean Cleary wrote:

>Yes critique the songs not the critic. If someone does not 'get' the
>song, what can one do to reach that person? Or can you ignore that part
>of the audience that feels similar?

For what it's worth, I wasn't critiquing you, Sean.  My question was a 
honest and direct, if blunt, attempt to try and figure out how you were 
approaching the song, because it was obviously from a completely different 
vector than mine.

Not every song /can/ reach every person.  For a song to get an emotional 
response, (whether it's laughter, wistfulness, melancholy, regret, 
catharsis, or whatever), the audience member must have the proper 
experiences to construct a frame of reference to the subject of the 
song.  For instance, "When I Was A Boy" is achingly funny to people who 
have been working with or around computers for a long time.  To a 
non-computer literate person, or possibly a very recently computer-aware 
person, it may well be less so.  The comic strip "Dilbert" is rather lost 
on people who've never worked in the corporate cubicle jungle.

>Maybe not every song needs to be great? But then what is a critique list
>for?

Well, "great" is not an objective measure.  There /are/ objective things we 
can discuss in a song, such as scansion and rhyme and so forth, and we can 
make specific suggestions for improvement.  I made a few such to Maya in 
person, before it was posted to this list, and Lee made some as well.

A good critique is going to contain one of the following elements:

1) /Why/ you did or didn't like it.  Saying: "I liked that" or "I didn't 
care for that" isn't helpful to the author.  The /reason/ you felt that way is.

or

2) What you would do to improve it, make it better, make it flow more 
smoothly, etc.

That's what a critique list is for.  Helping us all improve as songwriters, 
by sharing our experience and wisdom, such as it may be, and helping lend 
other viewpoints.

You've lent your viewpoint.  I, for one, appreciate it.  I don't actually 
yet *understand* it, because you've been rather vague and nonspecific.  My 
question, in reaction to your post is, "Feeling as you do about this song, 
how would you improve it?"

Rob




-- 
Rob Wynne / The Autographed Cat / doc@america.net
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