Delivering Important & Powerful Messages Part 1
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WRITING
Mosi Dorbayani , aka MD , is an experienced executive , management / leadership / HR coach and consultant , strategist , diplomatic advisor , author , lyricist , human rights educator , and philanthropist .
He has co-written and collaborated with many vocalists and composers from around the globe . www . mosidorbayani . com
By Mosi Dorbayani
Delivering Important & Powerful Messages Part 1
Writing message songs is a highly sensitive and delicate matter . If not well thought , it might directly influence the fans ’ reactions , cause disappointment , and even create unwanted media frenzy .
Before we go any further , please kindly note that when we discuss delivering “ important ” and “ powerful ” messages through music and lyrics , we are not considering a personal message of an artist to their partner as the result of their break up or divorce ; we are trying to look at it in a wider but deeper spectrum and over the subjects that can be genuinely called “ a cause .”
To begin with , let us answer the following questions in turn : 1 . What is “ important ” and “ powerful ?” 2 . What is a “ message song ?” 3 . How do we “ deliver ” it ?
It ’ s simply true that perhaps what is “ important ” to me or close to my heart , may not be necessarily “ important ” to you or close to your heart ; therefore , the key here is to identify : 1 . As important as it seems to me , is this equally important to my target audience ? 2 . If this subject matter is close to my heart , and I see it necessary to address it through my music , how can I make it much closer to my audience ’ s heart , so that it can have a significant impact ? To identify the above , I suggest songwriters carefully study several angles of their cause :
• What is the shared vision ?
• Which angle of the subject matter has more common sense ?
• What can I say about it differently ? Is there any aspect of this that has not been touched before ?
Most probably , once you identified the above , you would find the answer to whether your cause is just as “ important ” for others or not . This mini study will assist you and perhaps your sponsor , producer , or fellow writers to save time and money before you get yourself engaged with the production of a message song .
Now , as for what ’ s “ powerful ,” let us briefly consider the word “ power .” Well , defining power in terms of mechanics and electronics is pretty straightforward . We learned in school that it is the rate of doing work or equivalent to an amount of energy consumed per unit time . In terms of social and political sciences , though , it is the ability to influence or control the behavior of people . It is often associated with authority legitimated by the social structure .
But in musical terms and musical literature , the word “ power ” begs for different measures and definition .
In mechanical and social applications and norms , eventually power ends . But in reality , the true “ power ” never breaks , dies , nor ends . In fact , in the context of music and music literature , we are ALL looking for this truly everlasting power to apply in our music . That is , making music so powerful that it hopefully never dies !
When we call a song “ powerful ,” it usually means that it has an influence . But if the influence fades away , especially within a short amount of time , then the power of the song is close to the one defined in social science , i . e . it had the ability to influence and even affect the behaviour of the listeners but it was eventually short lived .
So how to compose and write a powerful song to stand the test of time ? We ’ ll look at that in part two next issue …
58 • CANADIAN MUSICIAN