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I wrote this song for you
Madonna |
There's a song swap going on in pop right now that's about to get out of hand. This
week Atomic Kitten released their second album, Feels So Good, with a title track
co-written by Kylie. In turn, Kylie's new single, Come Into My World, due out in
November, could have a B-side called Alone Again penned specially for her by Madonna.
Meanwhile, Madge's next hit was supposed to have come courtesy of Daniel Bedingfield,
but - possibly having heard his album - she ditched the idea, and he is at work instead
on a comeback track for Mariah Carey. Bedingfield said recently that he would like
to work with Darius, although the Popstars reject is already hawking some of his own
songs around.
"I see myself as much a writer as a singer," says Bedingfield. "I have lots of tracks
that didn't go on my album because they were too diverse. I made a list of artists I'd
like to write for, including Barry White, Sting and Ms Dynamite."
When pop began its comeback in the mid-Nineties, there was a division between songwriters
and singers. All it took to have a big hit was a Svengali manager to put the two together.
By far the most successful songwriting/production team was Stargate, a trio of Norwegians
who had Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, N*Sync and Backstreet Boys on their books. But
last year Stargate decided that they were sick of production-line pop and wanted to be
seen as serious songwriters. So they turned themselves into a band (with the addition of
a couple of singers).
Thanks partly to Popstars and Pop Idol, singers suddenly want more respect, too. Now that
the process of having a hit has been made public, even kids know that there's nothing
that special about pop stars; they've just got a good team behind them. Co-writing your
own songs won't cut it, however. Fans don't believe that bands ever do more than change
a few words. Look at A1. No one cared that they wrote a handful of No 1 hits, but when
the boys were asked to send some songs to Michael Jackson, it made them look like a proper
group.
There's something about writing for other artists that gives even the flimsiest pop star
some gravitas. For a start, it suggests the star has a brain and that he understands
music, which most of them don't. It also says that he doesn't spend all his spare time
at parties and premieres, trying to get his picture in the papers. In Bedingfield's case,
writing for Mariah Carey means tapping into other markets, especially as he's hoping to
record his song with her as a duet. Bedingfield has already had a US hit with Gotta Get
Thru This; now he needs to prove he's a singer with staying power.
There's the money too - writing a song earns you a lot more than singing it. Madonna, of
course, doesn't need the dosh, but she could do with a bit of Kylie's street cred. What's
more, with Kylie being touted as her successor in the States, Madonna is smart to keep
her rival close at hand. Were Madonna not so wealthy, her gift of a song might be seen
as sign of an impending end to her singing career. Lots of pop stars keep the cash rolling
in long after they have stopped recording by writing for other artists.
Cathy Dennis will probably be remembered as much for co-writing Kylie's multi-award-winning
Can't Get You Out of My Head as for her own chart career, even though she was the
top-selling British artist in the US at the start of the Nineties. Dennis was discovered
in the mid-Eighties by Popstars creator Simon Fuller, for whom she now works full-time,
writing tracks for the likes of Hear'Say and S Club 7. But if Dennis can knock off songs
like Can't Get You Out of My Head - which she claims took only an hour to write - why
didn't she come up with some killer hits for herself? Sometimes, it seems, being an artist
and a songwriter at the same time is tricky.
The much-touted Stargate band is a good example. Having reeled off dozens of global No
1s for other artists, the Norwegians didn't even make the UK Top 30 with their own debut,
Easier Said Than Done, released last month. Similarly, when the Atlanta-based producers
the Neptunes - who have written hits for Britney, P Diddy, Busta Rhymes and Mary J.
Blige - released their own album under the monicker NERD, they scraped into the charts.
The most surprising ex-pop star-turned-songwriter of the year so far must be Linda Perry,
formerly the screechy singer in the US rock group 4 Non Blondes. When it was revealed that
Pink had asked Perry to write and produce her second album, M!ssundaztood, most people
thought it was a mistake. But Perry turned Pink from an R&B babe into a pop-rock chick,
and sent her career soaring. So well has M!ssundaztood sold that both Courtney Love and
Christina Aguilera have now hired Perry to work on their next records.
We'll have to wait and see if Mariah records Bedingfield's song and if Madonna bows out
of the pop game with grace by becoming a full-time writer. Meanwhile, they might want
to stick to what they're best at.
(Times Online)
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