Many students had similar questions in the songwriting course when assigned the  following problem – write a bad song.

“What’s that?

“You tell me”

“Is it suppose to be out of tune?”

“Sure, that would be bad.”

Is it bad rhythmically?”

“Sure. that could be bad.”

“But for who?”

“You mean for who is it bad?”

“Yes”

“That’s it, isn’t it?”

“We can do like anything?”

“Just make it really bad, don’t let me hear anything good.”

“Why are we doing this?”

“Because I’m in charge.”

“Obviously, but what’s the point of writing a bad song?”

“How could we be certain you wrote a good song if the assignment was reversed?”

“For one thing it would groove.”

“I don’t like the Macarena but it grooves. Why can’t I call it bad?”

“What’s the Macarena?”

“Am I that old?”

“Yes.”

“So what’s the point of writing a good song?”

“We’re studying music not so we can be bad at doing it.”

“Good point. The thing is what one person calls good another calls bad. We could also call the assignment write a good song, same problems.”

“So it’s a test.”

“Maybe, maybe not, I thought there would be less baggage if we started with what’s “bad” we can discuss later as a class. It’s like eating celery, trust me this is good for you.”

(here’s a sample from Erin Horan & MinY Lee, who both passed with flying colours)