Themed Collections - choosing thematic subjects
Building on yesterday’s post about themed collections, it’s important to choose strong themes that you know you believe in, that are broad enough to write several songs about, and that are powerful enough to stand the test of time and be interesting and important for listeners. You can do political albums, or albums that attack a particular set of world issues - environmental ones perhaps? Or if you prefer something a little lighter, and agree with me that love albums are overdone and overrated, how about something on the importance of family? There are so many angles to draw on using that theme that you could write several albums on it - family from the child’s point of view, the marital point of view, broken families, whole families, families under stress and tension, families being pushed to the edge of destruction thanks to the fading values of the society we live in…
Choose a powerful theme that you can believe in. Even if it seems a bit narrow at first, it’s not hard to take different angles and viewpoints on it to come up with more material. You can throw in a few songs with related but not quite on-topic themes too, just to keep things interesting and shaken up. The danger of this method of working is falling into repetitive habits, essentially re-writing the same song over and over again.
So long as you stay away from that habit, the effort is worth it for the end result.
November 27th, 2007 at 2:47 pm
There’s a great reference on http:// http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concept_album/ at Wikipedia.
Got some good history with some examples of concept albums since the Sixties. It’s definitely been a successful format and it seems Smashing Pumpkins did a great job of packaging the theme across several media, and according to the article NIN have also done this and used the concept successfully to build buzz and excitement, including the theme as part of the marketing mix.
It makes sense to do this economically as it will keep costs down, and I think it provides focus for passion also, adding value to the whole mix that you just don’t get with a lightweight look at any particular theme through the lens of one or two songs–which doesn’t really give one the opportunity to explore more than one viewpoint.
I also think that when a band is addressing social, political, ecological and other civilized issues that it has the potential to really get people thinking, about the state of our culture and civilization, while entertaining them at the same time, and when this is important to songwriters and bands, then the results can be pretty amazing.
I’d only recommend that one have sincere passion for the issues of the theme, and don’t develop thematic material if your heart isn’t really in it, and it’s more of a ‘follow-the-leader’ thing.
The great thing about themed material is also that there is so much going on in the world that there are plenty of situations to draw upon, and so many are unaddressed, untouched, virgin subjects crying out for a voice to articulate them.
Of course there are liabilities to this too. One could end up becoming too focussed, and then need to open to criticism as just being political, or social, and therefore lose the element of good musicianship, and being entertaining. And music must above all stir the soul and provide entertainment on a personal level too.
Lots of issues here and a meaty subject to consider.
But it seems to me that when songwriters and bands have a social justice component and the musicianship and talent to go with it, that the result could be extremely powerful, and at a time that people are looking for solutions to the massive number of issues which confront mankind and the entire future of the race and even Life on the planet…that this would be a cool way not to waste the attention great musicians and songwriters can sincerely address and gain some traction on.
Carefully considered, the concept of concept and thematic albums is pretty cool.
December 20th, 2007 at 1:59 am
I would like to see a continuation of the topic