Many students had similar questions in the\u00a0songwriting course when assigned the \u00a0following problem – write a bad song.<\/p>\n
“What’s that?<\/p>\n
“You tell me”<\/p>\n
“Is it suppose to be out of tune?”<\/p>\n
“Sure, that would be bad.”<\/p>\n
Is it bad rhythmically?”<\/p>\n
“Sure. that could be bad.”<\/p>\n
“But for who?”<\/p>\n
“You mean for who is it bad?”<\/p>\n
“Yes”<\/p>\n
“That’s it, isn’t it?”<\/p>\n
“We can do like anything?”<\/p>\n
“Just make it really bad, don’t let me hear anything\u00a0good.”<\/p>\n
“Why are we doing this?”<\/p>\n
“Because I’m in charge.”<\/p>\n
“Obviously, but what’s the point of writing a bad song?”<\/p>\n
“How could we be certain\u00a0you wrote a good song if the assignment was reversed?”<\/p>\n
“For one thing it would groove.”<\/p>\n
“I don’t like the Macarena but it grooves. Why can’t I call it bad?”<\/p>\n
“What’s the Macarena?”<\/p>\n
“Am I that old?”<\/p>\n
“Yes.”<\/p>\n
“So what’s the point of writing a good song?”<\/p>\n
“We’re studying music not so we can be bad at doing it.”<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
“So it’s a test.”<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
(here’s a sample from Erin Horan & MinY Lee, who both passed with flying colours)<\/p>\n\n