Tag Archives: Carrie Underwood

C4X, Write Like A Pro

A pro songwriter’s job is NOT “to write songs.”

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When I signed my first staff songwriting deal, I thought it was so cool to “have a job writing songs.”  But I was wrong.  Writing songs was NOT my job.

Wait.  What?  As a staff songwriter in a publishing deal, isn’t “writing songs” exactly what they pay you for?

No.  They aren’t paying you to write songs.  Want to know what they are really paying you for?  Read on.

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A pro songwriter’s job is NOT just to write songs.

I was signed to Major Bob Music for 3 years.  During that time, I turned in about 250 songs.  That’s an average of about 83 songs per year.  Yeah, I was writing a LOT.

Of those 250 songs, about 70 are demoed and 60 have a guitar/vocal recording.  So a little over half of my Major Bob songs are in a form suitable for pitching to an artist or label.

And during those years, I had a bunch of holds ranging from Brad Paisley, Carrie Underwood, George Strait, Lee Ann Womack, and more.  So I was getting some holds.

And some artists recorded my songs, too.  These included a great signer named John Pierce on RCA who cut my song, “Ring On The Bar.”  The legendary Randy Travis recorded my song “Every Head Bowed.”  And a new act called Lady Antebellum recorded two of my songs, “A Woman Scorned” and “Last Night Last” for their debut album.

250 songs, 130 demos or guitar/vocals, many holds, and a few cuts.  And I lost my publishing deal.

I lost my publishing deal because I didn’t do my job.

So what the heck was my job if it wasn’t writing songs, making demos, getting holds and getting cuts????

A pro songwriter’s job is writing songs… that make MONEY.

Those 250 songs I wrote?  Most of them never made a dime for Major Bob.  (That’s the case for 99.9% of songs written for publishers, by the way.)  The demos?  The ones that didn’t get cut by a fairly big artist actually cost Major Bob money.  They had to pay the musicians, studio, etc.

So what about my cuts?

The John Pierce record never came out.  The Randy Travis record didn’t come out until about a year after my Major Bob deal was over. And the Lady Antebellum songs were cut the week My deal ended, so it was too little too late.  (They went on to become bonus tracks that have made a little money, but nothing life-changing.)

Bottom line:  my catalog didn’t make enough money to keep my gig at the publishing company.

Now, I’m not sharing this to complain.  I’ve been blessed to have some songs that have done quite well.  And I’ve had several songs that have brought in a little cash here and there.  I went on to have other publishing deals.

I’m sharing this because you need to know the truth about being a professional songwriter.

If you want to be a pro songwriter, simply writing songs is NOT enough.  Heck, even writing really good songs is not enough.  Your songs have to make money if you want to do this for a living or even as a good side gig.

I had a blast writing songs at Major Bob.  I keep in touch with the folks there, and I appreciate the investment they made in me and my career.  If I could go back and change anything, I would’ve focused less on “writing songs” and focused more on “writing songs that make money.”

I would’ve paid a lot more attention to the business parts of writing: writing market-smart, pitching my own songs, building a stronger team of cowriters, building a stronger business network, and making decisions in my songs that made them more commercially relevant.

I learned an invaluable lesson in a painful way.  And I want to help YOU avoid that same pain.

Knowing what a pro songwriter’s real job is- and writing like it- can make a big difference in YOUR songwriting.  Applying “cut/able” techniques will help you write market-smart songs: songs that have a competitive advantage in the market.  

If you want to dive into songwriting craft; if you want learn how to write songs that will get you noticed in the music business, I have a great opportunity for you.

Every Monday night in October, I’m hosting The C4 Experience.  It’s an exclusive, live online event where I help 10 writers like YOU create explosive growth in your commercial songwriting.  I want you to win, and I’m going to help you write songs that artists want to sing, radio wants to play and fans want to hear.

CLICK HERE TO GET ALL THE DETAILS AND RESERVE YOUR SPOT IN THIS EXCLUSIVE EVENT!

God Bless and Enjoy the Journey,

Brent

Brent Baxter is a hit songwriter with cuts by Alan Jackson, Randy Travis, Lady Antebellum, Joe Nichols, Gord Bamford, Ruthie Collins, Ray Stevens and more. He’s written a top 5 hit in the US, a #1 in Canada, and a top 10 in Texas.  His songs appear on 5 industry-certified gold & platinum albums & singles… so far.  He also hosts a top-rated songwriting and music business podcast called, “The C.L.I.M.B.” which can be found on iTunes or your favorite podcast app.SWP 4

Cut Study, Write Like A Pro

Bad Cheating, Great Songwriting. Carrie Underwood and “Dirty Laundry”

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Apparently, Carrie Underwood hates cheaters and loves great imagery.

Much like her mega-hit “Before He Cheats” (which you can read about HERE), Carrie finds herself betrayed by a no-good boy.  And, again, she ain’t putting up with that mess.

“Dirty Laundry” has a lot of great things about it- strong production, powerful vocals, a catchy melody and an empowering lyric.  But for now, I want to focus on the songwriters’ use of imagery.  Writers Hillary Lindsey, Zach Crowell and Ashley Gorley know what they’re doing, ya’ll.

Right off the bat, the songwriters hit us with images…

“That lipstick on your collar, well, it ain’t my shade of pink
And I can tell by the smell of that perfume, it’s like forty dollars too cheap
And there’s a little wine stain on the pocket of your white cotton thread
Well, you drink beer and whiskey, boy, and you know I don’t drink red”

This verse does a few important things – and it does them well.

The images show us the situation- they don’t just tell it.  Showing is so much more powerful than telling.  The writers could’ve just said, “I caught you cheating on me.”  And while we’d understand the information, it’s not emotionally engaging or particularly entertaining.

Instead, the writers bring us alongside Carrie as she discovers the clues to his infidelity.  We see the pink lipstick, smell the cheap perfume, see the wine stain, etc.

Showing us the clues involves us as listeners.

We discover the clues at the same time Carrie does, and we come to the same conclusion.  Don’t believe me?  Listen again and tell me when Carrie says the word “cheat” or “cheated.”  She doesn’t.  She doesn’t have to.  The pictures are the proof.  We don’t have to wonder how she knows he cheated or even if she’s mistaken.  Nope.  We’ve seen the evidence and can pronounce him guilty.

Also, the imagery tells you more about the characters than just “he’s a cheater.”

You learn that he drinks beer and whiskey, but not wine.  We learn that Carrie’s character wears pink lipstick, likes quality (at least fairly expensive) perfume and drinks white wine- but not red.

I already feel like I’m getting to know these characters- and we’re just a few lines into the song!  And we know them not because the songwriters TOLD us about them, but because they SHOWED us about them.

That’s some strong songwriting.

(Side Note: Normally if a man does Carrie wrong, she resorts to either property damage or murder.  This dude definitely gets off easy!)

Strong imagery like we find in “Dirty Laundry” can really make a song stand out.  If you want to build YOUR imagery skill so that YOUR songs stand out, I have a great opportunity for you.  In Songwriting Pro’s upcoming live online workshop, I’ll reveal several techniques that I and other pro songwriters use to create killer imagery.

CLICK HERE IF YOU WANT YOUR SONGS TO STAND OUT.

God Bless and Enjoy the Journey,

Brent

Brent Baxter is a hit songwriter with cuts by Alan Jackson, Randy Travis, Lady Antebellum, Joe Nichols, Gord Bamford, Ruthie Collins, Ray Stevens, and more. He’s written a top 5 hit in the US and a #1 in Canada… so far.

SWP 4

Craft

Songwriters, Take Your Listeners To The Movies

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Man vs Row

Brent is a hit songwriter with cuts by Alan Jackson, Randy Travis, Lady Antebellum, Joe Nichols, Gord Bamford, Ray Stevens, and more.  He’s written a top 5 hit in the US and a #1 in Canada… so far.

Imagine yourself in a darkened movie theater. The movie starts to play, but there is just sound… no picture. You’d be upset, right? Well, then, why do we sometimes write songs that way?

I think the movie analogy is an appropriate one for songwriting.

After all, don’t we basically write 3-minute movies?

Our job is to entertain, to move, or to make the listener think. Just like a movie. But because songs are an audio format, we sometimes forget about the pictures. But they are terribly important!

Take, for instance, “The Thunder Rolls” written by Garth Brooks and Pat Alger. Yes, it’s an oldie, but it’s a classic. This lyric is a movie all by itself. Let’s look at the first verse:

3:30 in the morning / not a soul in sight / the city’s looking like a ghost town / on a moonless summer night / raindrops on the windshield / there’s a storm moving in / he’s heading back from somewhere / that he never should have been / and the thunder rolls

You can SEE that verse. The ghost town, the dark night, the raindrops. Not only that, but you can HEAR it. The thunder rolls. While this lesson will focus on visuals, don’t forget that you have FIVE senses, and you should use as many of them in a song as possible. Let’s look at the second verse:

Every light is burning / in a house across town / she’s pacing by the telephone / in her faded flannel gown / askin’ for a miracle / hopin’ she’s not right / praying it’s the weather / that’s kept him out all night / and the thunder rolls

Again, you can SEE and HEAR that verse. Lights burning, pacing by the phone, the faded flannel gown, the thunder rolls. And the third verse is just as visual as the first two.

It is no accident that some writers refer to sensory details as “furniture.” An empty room is not very inviting. It doesn’t hold your attention very long. However, a room with a great big couch and great art on the walls INVITES you in for a while. It gives you something to look at.

I got this feedback from an old publisher when I didn’t have strong visuals in a song. He said it left him, as he called it, “floating around in space with nothing to hang on to. You’re just telling me how you FEEL.”

There’s a songwriting adage that says, “Don’t TELL me, SHOW me.” Visuals give you something to latch on to. A strong visual or other sensory image at the front end of a song really draws a listener in. It gives you a picture right off the bat.

Take these following first lines from some recent hit songs:

Doublewide Quick Stop midnight T-top Jack in her Cherry Coke town – “American Kids” sung by Kenny Chesney

Quarter in the payphone, clothes drying on the line – “Automatic” sung by Miranda Lambert

Those high heels with that sun dress, turquoise heart hanging ‘round your neck – “My Eyes” sung by Blake Shelton

Summer comin’ through a rolled down window, tearin’ down an almost two lane back road – “We Are Tonight” sung by Billy Currington

And now a few hits that are a couple years back…

Sun shines, clouds rain, train whistles blow and guitars play – “It Just Comes Natural” sung by George Strait

I’ve packed a cooler and a change of clothes – “Want To” by Sugarland

Driving through town, just my boy and me. With a happy meal on his booster seat– “Watching You” by Rodney Atkins

I can take the rain on the roof of this empty house– “What Hurts The Most” Rascal Flatts

She’s a yellow pair of running shoes, a holey pair of jeans– “She’s Everything” Brad Paisley

I could do this for days. Now, I know there are examples out there of purely emotional songs that do well. But if you look at the songs that are not written by the artist or by the producer or by an established hit songwriter, I think you’ll see a trend.

So good luck with your songwriting. Use lots of visuals, and keep at it.

What about you?  Do you tend to write with or without a lot of imagery?  Are there lines from some other songs you think have great imagery that you’d like to share?  I’d love to hear from you!

God Bless,

Brent

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Craft, Cut Study, Write Like A Pro

Pictures As Proof: Carrie Underwood & “Before He Cheats”

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There are a lot of great things about “Before He Cheats” by Carrie Underwood (written by Josh Kear and Chris Tompkins).

But today I want to focus on one.  The writers never call the cheating boyfriend a name.  They never call him a jerk, a loser, etc.  Instead, they use the lyrics to paint a picture of this guy that leaves the listener thinking, “Man, what a loser!”

If Carrie just called the guy a jerk, I might believe her.  Or I might just think she’s a bitter, psycho ex-girlfriend.  But the pictures are the proof.  The writers prove to us that this guy is a jerk- we’ve seen him in action (up behind the girl showing her how to shoot a combo, buying her drinks, and dabbing on $3 worth of that bathroom Polo, etc).  Therefore, when Carrie takes it out on his truck, you at least agree that he was due some payback.

The lesson for me is: If you want the listener to think someone is a jerk, a hero, a great lover, whatever- don’t just tell the listener so.  Use pictures as proof.

Strong imagery like we find in “Before He Cheats” can really make a song stand out. If you want to build YOUR imagery skill so that YOUR songs stand out, I have a great opportunity for you. In Songwriting Pro’s upcoming live online workshop, I’ll reveal several techniques that I and other pro songwriters use to create killer imagery.

CLICK HERE IF YOU WANT YOUR SONGS TO STAND OUT.

God Bless,

Brent

Anything you’d like to add or ask?  Leave a comment!  Also, are there any topics  you’d like to see addressed in a future MvR post?  Thanks!

Brent is a hit songwriter with cuts by Alan Jackson, Randy Travis, Lady Antebellum, Joe Nichols, Gord Bamford, Ray Stevens, and more.  He’s written a top 5 hit in the US and a #1 in Canada… so far.