ICMP Songwriting Tutors | BBC 6 Music | Musicology | Part 6

ICMP's Songwriting team joined DJ and broadcaster Huw Stephens' new BBC Radio 6 Music show as Musicologists earlier in the year. 

Since January 2024, members of the Songwriting faculty have been interviewed by Huw each week to discuss different aspects of the songwriting process. 

The slot has seen Professor Sophie Daniels, Daniel Green, Head of Academic Development, and Tutor Anjali Perinparaja explore song structures, techniques and analyse contemporary tracks to learn more about how they are written and put together. 

You can check out the first, second, third, fourth and fifth blogs - and find out more about their latest insights with Huw below...

Dan Green | Musicology of Oasis 

To celebrate BBC Sounds' documentary on 'The Rise and Fall of Oasis', this show celebrated their b-sides, many of which rivalled the a-sides in popularity among the band's fans. 

Oasis | 'Talk Tonight'

This song gives an indication of the quality of some of the b-sides that Oasis were producing in the nineties. Their single, 'Some Might Say' featured the brilliant b-sides 'Talk Tonight' and 'Acquiesce'. 

Oasis | 'Acquiesce' 

Oasis were also one of the first brit pop bands in the nineties to have their own dedicated B-sides compilation, 'The Masterplan', which was released in 1998. 

Oasis | 'Headshrinker' 

'Headshrinker' was much under-appreciated and a barnstorming track. 

Why was the b-side so important for Oasis? 

They were an era-defining chart-topping band, album band. They had 23 top ten hits including eight number ones in the UK - 'Wonderwall', 'Don't Look Back in Anger' - and many more.

They had huge crossover appeal and as the b-sides were so good, many fans would go out and buy the singles as well as the albums too. The b-sides were gems for fans to explore and ultimately, it's what made the fans feel so connected with the band. 

How do bands decide on the b-sides? 

It really depends on what happens in the studio. On recording an album, they might leave a song out if it doesn't flow well with the other tunes on there. It might be a song that requires more work, it might be under-developed. Sometimes, a b-side might be a good place to experiment. 

B-sides are recorded in different ways, sometimes quickly or often as part of the recording sessions. 

You can listen to 'Talk Tonight' and view it as something written and recorded quickly due to the way it sounds very live. There's not much other instrumentation, but many of Oasis' b-sides could have easily appeared on their albums. 

There are plenty of other brilliant b-sides from artists out there. 

'Silver Springs' by Fleetwood Mac was recorded during the sessions for their classic album 'Rumours' and was originally intended to be on there but didn’t quite fit with the other tracks. So it ended up being the b-side to their hit 'Go Your Own Way'. 

Fleetwood Mac | 'Silver Springs' 

Tupac | 'Hit Em Up'

This is a classic Tupac tune but most fans can't believe it's a b-side to Tupac's hit, 'How You Want It'. 

On a b-side, no one has to worry about whether it's a commercial hit and sometimes, b-sides make their way into the public consciousness by accident. For example, a DJ might play the b-side and like it more than the a-side, play it more and it could become popular that way. 

With streaming so prevalent, it could be argued that the concept is less prominent than before. Of course, seven inches and CDs still exist but now, many of us focus more on the individual track than anything else. For it to endure, artists need to release singles as tapes and physical products although it's still a great tradition to explore. 

One of the best b-sides is Oasis' 'Half the World Away'. Most people who have a passing knowledge of the band can't believe that it was a b-side to 'Whatever', the band's single from 1994. 

Anjali Perinparaja | Dance Music 

Dance music is a massive umbrella term that encompasses an array of styles, subgenres and sounds. 

The general definition is of music that is created specifically for dancing, where the music has the intention of getting us moving. 

In modern day dance music, there is a lot of psychology in how a track works, from the initial beats to the anthemic choruses. Certain tracks can feel like a rollercoaster with drops and huge beats to create this collective feeling of euphoria. 

All these elements feed into contemporary dance music and much of the groundwork for this was laid in the eighties. 

Dance music in the eighties

The eighties was a real melting pot where producers and artists built on the influence and innovation of the sixties and seventies but also took advantage of the tech innovation of the time, with electronic and artificial sound-making elements such as synths. Break beats and hip hop sounds were being made for the first time too. 

The whole decade was an incubation of styles and techniques that really fed into the rave scene of the eighties and nineties. 

Breakdancing and hip hop had a huge impact in the eighties. It gave a platform for youth culture in under-represented African/American communities in New York and beyond. Grandmaster Flash was a real innovator and icon in the use of the record player as a musical instrument. He popularised techniques like vinyl scratching, back spinning, and cutting tracks to produce these longer beats for rappers to rhyme over. 

Tracks like 'The Message' from 1982 match the breakdancing style and robotic dance moves associated with boom boxes and floor spins of the time.

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five | 'The Message'

Hip hop was so fresh and cool, many people wanted to be associated with it and borrow ideas from it too. A year later ‘Last Night a DJ Saved My Life’ was released. It shows the marriage of disco and funk with hip hop. 

Indeep | 'Last Night a DJ Saved My Life'

You can really hear the hip hop influence with the soul too. Other dance styles in the eighties came through sequencers and synths with many tracks built using beats and loops. 

'Smalltown Boy' by Bronski Beat, which was released in 1984, and went on to become an iconic gay anthem, also showcased so much of the electro pop which then fed into the nineties dance scene. The production paired with Jimmy Sommerville's haunting falsetto vocal created a unique sonic identity you can hear in trance and techno club sounds you heard in the nineties onwards. 

Bronski Beat | 'Smalltown Boy'

That electronic dance flavour entered the mainstream at the time too. Prince created his own genre by fusing psych rock, gospel, blues and funk with electro pop production, creating massive dance floor hits. 'Let's Go Crazy' mashes up so many different styles to get you dancing. 

Prince | 'Let's Go Crazy'

In dance music, the speed of a track is important to making people dance. The BPMs are important in all forms of music in terms of setting the mood and engaging the listener. In dance music it will determine how you feel the music and move to it. 

For example, a house track will be a slower bpm to drum and bass. Keeping the same bpm for similar styles of music has been important in dance music as it allows DJs to mix between records to keep people dancing for longer periods.

When the mix goes awry, it interrupts the dancefloor and flow of people's movement. This is something to avoid as a DJ if possible - instead, you want to keep things going. 

Sampling 

Sampling made a big difference during the eighties. It became an artform that has influenced an array of different types of music, sometimes in very subtle ways. 

It can be like delving into a treasure trove for producers, artists and songwriters, allowing them to create in new ways. A big sample track from the time that includes many different samples is S'Express' 'Theme from S'Express'. 

S'Express' | 'Theme from S'Express'

This last track is a classic, a gateway track passing dance music from the eighties into the techno of the nineties

Technotronic | 'Pump Up the Jam'

Dan Green | Silence in Music 

Silence in music can be used very creatively to shape the character of a song - it can make a real impact - there are many different ways to use it. 

Billie Eilish | 'Bad Guy'

The pause is used to help shape the song but also creates a lot of character in it too - it makes the listener focus on the end and the lyrics of that last line. 

John Cage | '4'33'

It's a fantastic piece of music. Many of us know this piece of music despite not necessarily being into experimental music. It's testament to how influential this piece of music or conceptual art is. It transcends its own genre and tradition which is why it's been so impactful. 

Silence can be used to set the structural boundaries in a song. So for example, having a pause between a verse and a chorus can be a palette cleaner between different sections of a song. This is a great example from the Beach Boys. 

The Beach Boys | 'Surf's Up'

Honeyglaze | 'Don't'

The space in this one brings in plenty of attitude and anger to the song. 

An a Cappella moment in a song is when we have singing without any musical accompaniment or instrumentation. It's easy to achieve silence with an a cappella - as once the singing stops, it means there is total silence. There's no other instrumentation to fill it. 

Suzanne Vega | 'Tom's Diner' (A Cappella)

It's as if Suzanne is listening to the music in headphones and we're hearing the vocals. It works because it makes you totally focus on the vocal and its textures.

My favourite kind of silence is when there is a complete break in the flow of sound. It can often happen in the middle of a section and sound a bit random. 

Flying Lotus | 'Do the Astral Plane'

Dan Green | Autotune

Autotune is one the most debated and polarising production processes. Cher's 'Believe' is a brilliant example of what it sounds like:

Cher | 'Believe'

When this record came out, the technique hadn't been heard in a commercial record before. Also the fact it was Cher - who had already enjoyed a music career for 35+ years - was coming out with this cutting edge, retro-house dance pop made it really intriguing and contributed to its success. 

The word 'autotune' is almost a verb referring to any pitch correction or anything amended but it originally pertains to Autotune software released to market in 1997. The software works by identifying parts of a waveform that are out of tune, then shifts them to match the nearest musical note - you can apply this to any vocal or human speech. 

You can correct it, drag the pitch and wave forms so it sounds robotic. 

At the back end of the nineties and early 2000s, since Autotune could correct out of tune vocals, it led to claims of diminishing standards of musicianship within singers. It was also a cheap way of making singers sound good where producers didn't have to spend hours and hours in a studio trying to get the perfect vocal take. The tech back then wasn't as advanced as it is now so many of the tracks that used this sounded a little robotic. 

Maroon 5 | 'She Will Be Loved'

In the latter half of the pre-chorus, the lyrics about 'pouring rain' are really obviously autotuned. 

In Cher's track, Autotune was used as a compositional tool to enhance the hook of the song. By the time you got to the mid 2000s, more artists were using Autotune as a creative tool. Some good examples include: 

T-Pain | 'I'm Sprung'

Amaria BB | 'Coco Butta'

A lot of records use this technique, it's certainly more widespread and newer technology can correct vocals in a far more subtle way. Autotune doesn't grate in the same way that it used to do when compared with the Maroon 5 track. 

An artist who is a great example of using Autotune in their vocals as a creative enhancer is Charli XCX. She can sing live but uses it to aid her process, time efficient and it adds to her aesthetic as an artist. 

Charli XCX | '360'

Bon Iver is a real pioneer of using this technology and this is a brilliant example of how it can be used creatively to enhance a piece of music. 

James Blake | Bon Iver | 'Fall Creek Boys Choir'