Songwriters on Songwriter

Earlier this year, the New York Times resurrected the Measure for Measure blog, which had been dormant for several years. As they describe it, "How to write a song and other mysteries. Songwriters pull back the curtain on their creative process and on the pleasures and pains of being a musician." Chris Collingwood, one of Fountains of Wayne's two songwriters, observed in a recent column entitled "The Warm Thrill of Confusion,"

Anyway, who can call the Beatles or the Rolling Stones or Paul Simon or Pink Floyd an influence? That’s like saying you like the alphabet.

You'll find insight on the songwriting process in that blog, but you'll find more methodical help in the library's songwriting research guide. As with our other research guides, you'll discover introductory materials from our collection on the topic. This one dips into aspects such as arranging and composing as well as business concerns. While the listening examples do include the Beatles and Paul Simon, they also stretch to Stephen Foster and De La Soul.