How is a song made?

['Dre]

I've always been curious. Pop, country, whatever. I assume its easier for a rap song to be made because the producer can just lay down a beat the the rapper can write lyrics...

But a pop song has to have melody.

So in a pop song, such as those made by the Backstreet Boys, is there a basic background "beat" laid out in the beginning, then the artists write the lyrics? Or do the lyrics come first, and the producer makes the beat to match the lyrics.

I point out the Backstreet Boys because there are always certain stages in their songs where they drift from the main melody. I'm sure this is common with most pop songs, but the Backstreet Boys are what I remember the best.

I've always been confused because if you write lyrics first... then it wouldnt make sense (I know why in my head, I just can't explain it). But if you do the beat first, in referencing the above where they drift from the main melody... why would they do that if they didnt need to?

[Civil Disobedient]

First off, if you're under the impression that "artists" like the Backstreet Boys write any lyrics then I'm afraid you're either deluded or misinformed. Pop songs in this vein are written by people (or sometimes writing "teams") for record companies who then decide which of their "artists" best suits the song. There's usually a chain of preference on who gets to sing which song; sometimes the big artists will refuse a song that will be a hit for someone else. It's only once the "artist" gets big headed enough to demand creative input that they get some writing credits.

Lyrics are rarely written first. In pop music they are the least important element, often being either nonsensical drivel, lacking substance or deliberately controversial.

[The_virus]

Hey now, "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)" was really a metaphor about challenging the Mugabe reign, and questioning it's legitimacy in the face of human rights violations. Ah stuff it...

The classical band "creative process" is quite varied. In some cases individual band members will work on parts for their own instrument, then write parts for the other members. This works especially well when some members are more creative than others.

Ex: The bass player works out a riff, breakdown, and solo he likes. He then writes a lead guitar/vocal/drum part to compliment his piece.

In other cases band members collaborate from the start, bouncing ideas, riffs, rolls, and lyrics off each other. The song is made sometimes piecemeal and out of order, then reorganized. There is a Smashing Pumpkins track composed entirely of unused riffs and melodic ideas...all mashed together. Think of it as a sound effects archive.

In the case of the musical venture Probot, Dave Grohl recorded all the instrument parts himself. He then mailed the demos to some metal vocalists he admired or was inspired by during his career. The included instructions were to the effect of "Send back with vocals". So sometimes a band or artist will be handed a part of a song and told to work around it as a framework.

There's no set formula, except when it comes to music groups that have no creative input. Writing teams use the "creative process" then hand usually a full arrangement to the group, sometimes down to choreography for the video. In this case the music group are more like actors in a play, they use whatever talent they have to play the material assigned to them.

Singer/songwriters are of course, the exact opposite. They, by definition, write all their own material, and perform it. This means they may need to make use of "session musicians" who are simply there to play instruments because the S/S cannot play everything at once, and wants to save on recording room time, or cannot play a certain instrument up to the level they want. Session musicians are sometimes some of the most talented in the industry. The nature of their job denies them much credit though, as they are essentially mercenary instruments for hire.

[Pontus]

My band's songs start out with a guitar part. Then, we all get together and write the remaining parts out. After finishing the instrumental version we get a melody down that is catchy and goes well with the music. That part is really just humming and using random words to see what sounds good with what we have. Then from there we work lyrics around our music and melody. We're all really good up to that point but lyrics have been a huge weak point for us and are the main reason why we have so many unfinished songs.

[Flip-Hkd]

There is the Metallica way, where they construct the whole song, and no lyrics but how they will sound is made. Then the lyrics come.

[Spiner202]

There is the Metallica way, where they construct the whole song, and no lyrics but how they will sound is made. Then the lyrics come.

This is the reason I find Metallica to have the best and most consistent vocal/lyrical parts. If you listen to the songs the vocal melodies match up perfectly with what everything else is doing (Fight Fire With Fire, for example), whereas in some songs (by other bands), the vocal melodies aren't really important.

Both ways work I guess, but I find from a listening standpoint, I like the way Metallica does it best.

['Dre]

Ok, so most of you agree that lyrics come last. But as I said before, what is the point of the drift from the main melody? Is it to add some flavor? Because... those are usually the parts that turn me off from a song the most (am I the only one that gets annoyed when Lady GaGa goes into her "Half Psychotic, Sick Hypnotic" part?).

[Flip-Hkd]

Do you mean on the album, or live? If you're talking about live then it's most likely done just to mix it up, do something different, make the performance a bit more memorable.

[lk6.200]

Well CD is basically correct. Almost all of the mainstream/pop "musicians" out there basically are just a good voice for an actual songwriter who was paid by the record company they're on to come up with lyrics to sell an image. Most of the time the lyrics aren't even that good anyway. All the boy bands, from New Kids (thank god Wahlberg went with acting as his career choice) up to the current generation like the (blech) jonas brothers are basically just pretty faces hired by a huge record company to sell a product.

For anyone who actually writes their own stuff, it can be done a number of different ways. Lyrics can come first or the music can, but I don't really know how other bands do it so I'll elaborate on how my drummer and I go through the process of writing a song (we just do the music because we both suck at coming up with lyrics).

Basically what we do is we listen to all kinds of different artists and listen for riffs/beats we like. We then try to play them on our instruments and take the core structure and different parts of the song and base our own riffs/beats off of them even if it's just a few notes, then we'll go off in our own little tangent so that it's basically completely different from what we were influenced by. Other times just random rhythyms will pop into our heads out of nowhere and we'll try to put it down on our instruments and come up with something from there.

Also, when one of us comes up with something the other likes during practice, we'll come up with something to compliment it on the spot (this happens more often than not) and we'll go from there. It really is a helluva lot easier to come up with something when you've got someone else to work with. The riffs and beats just flow out of us like an open wound when we get together and just sit down and get to it.

[feelDAbass]

all songs are created differently, dont you think? some can come from a medley, some from lyrics, etc. It's art! there's no wrong or right way