It's Okay to be Average

I entered a lyric contest.

About a year ago, when I fell into the trap of entering writing competitions, I spied a blurb about The Great American Song Contest. The entry fee was negligible, $20.00 if I remember correctly, and since I was having no luck with literary contests, I wanted to soothe my battered self-esteem. 

I've written songs since somewhere around the year 2000, and while at first most of them weren't good, somewhere along the line things began to click and I managed to push out a few decent ones. I know that lyrics without an accompanying melody are a hard sell, because a song needs both in order to convey a mood. Many, many poorly-written lyrics have been turned into hit songs with the right melody. But with the song I chose for my entry, I felt the lyrics stood on their own. (My pet peeve about poets is that they're confident their poems can be made into songs, but poetry and lyric writing are vastly different. Dumbasses.)

The Great American Song Contest is sponsored by something called Songwriters Resource Network, whatever that is, and the judges are all industry professionals. I won't bore you with their names, but a few might ring a bell with some people. The results took almost a year to be announced, and by then I'd forgotten about the whole thing. I do remember being added to American Songwriter Magazine's email list without my consent, and that part annoyed me to no end. They were relentless in their constant spamming, but at first I was hesitant to unsubscribe, worried that I might miss receiving the actual contest results. Finally, though, I had to give in.

Well, the results are finally in, and I'm...average. 

According to the letter attached to the results, more than 1,800 songs (lyrics) were entered, from 38 countries. (Wait---they said it was the Great American Song Contest!) So, looking at it in the best possible light, 900 songwriters (lyric writers) are worse than me! I rock!

The areas in which my song excelled were "title/hook" (oh, yay), "imagery/poetics" (I'll take it), and "aptness of melody". In fact, that last one is where I scored highest. Now, I can only assume the judges made up a melody in their heads, because this was a lyric contest. I didn't submit the recorded song, nor was I supposed to. I will say that their imaginations were on target, because the actual song does have a good melody.

In fact, my lyrics received scores in four separate music categories: melody, structure, prosody (rhythm, stress, and intonation), and aptness of melody. I'll have you know, the song is way above average in all four of these. This may point to my problem with my creative pursuits: I can apparently be more successful by doing nothing. Food for thought...

My big downfall? Clarity/Theme Progression. The notes read:

This original theme is uniquely defined by the intriguing “ghost town”
inspired poetics; and the laid back Americana musical motif
impressively elevates the idea. However, the storyline dynamic stays
within the same space without a clear narrative progression. It’s as if it
starts at point A and finishes in the same place. Most listeners want to
be led somewhere, inspired and surprised while being transported
from point A to point B and then to a significant conclusion.
Notwithstanding, this demonstrates your talent and potential as a
songwriter. Keep writing, learning and following your muse!  

Do the judges know how Americana music goes? It's sad, it's despondent; it's mournful. I don't know where exactly Ghost Town could have gone---I suppose the singer could have killed herself. Would that be a "progression"? This might sound like sour grapes, but only one of the judges is a songwriter, and he writes pop (Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, etc.). Pop and Americana are as different as lyrics and poems.

Hey, I could feel bad, but I looked at the winning song (lyrics) and it has no progression, either. As far as I can tell, it's a guy sitting in a cafe and commenting on the smells and sights and sounds. No fights break out or anything! Where's the progression, man? It seems this guy has won or placed eighteen or nineteen times, so I guess he's a sentimental favorite, but geez...not good. (Sorry.)

Look, call me defensive if you want, but please compare the winning lyrics to this (yes, this was before I learned how to make proper videos):

Anyway, there were 900 song lyrics better than mine, but as I noted, 900 were worse. I was never a C student, except in algebra and/or geometry (too long ago to remember which), and I always prided myself in being above average---a mostly A student, in fact. But I worked for those A's, just like I worked on and honed this lyric. I didn't just dash it off.

Still, I'm coming around to the belief that average is okay. Some people think my novels sound dull as dirt; some people really like them. In all creative fields, quality is subjective. How could it ever be objective? Based on what criteria? Given the wide range of tastes, being average is actually good. One should embrace it.

 

I think I'll add this to my author site! That's publicity, baby! And it didn't even cost me twenty bucks!