Slight Slate piece that can’t decide which way it’s jumping on the question of whether pop stars write their own songs. If they don’t really – as the writer implies – then surely it’s not their fault that the songs are sucky – as the writer also implies. The piece also doesn’t touch on the bigger question of what exactly ‘songwriting’ means in Now Pop – Justin and JC probably do have some creative input into their records but nobody is sitting down and writing these things on a battered acoustic any more.
Do I care if pop artists write their own tunes? Not in the slightest. I am generally in favour of them writing lyrics though. Having been sorting out the CDs for Club Popular (12th May, only number ones, Chapel Bar in Islington, be there) I’m once again struck by nostalgia for the oddness of pop lyric writing in the pre-house era. McFly’s tribute to an “As If” actress and Busted’s knockabout dram-coms are steps in the right direction but the glory days of “The Reflex” style nonsense are still a way off. Nobody really cares about lyrics these days anyway so there’s nothing to lose by encouraging the stars to give it a shot – with certain obvious provisos viz. no writing about dolphins.