Shaun Groves
Back in January I declared 2007 the Year of Country Music. The goal? To write country songs and get them recorded and, as a result, make a lot of money. Why? One top 40 country “hit” is worth approximately six years of number one songs on Adult Christian radio and that kind of cash would allow me to give my own music away and play concerts for free easily…quite easily.
I have a couple friends who’ve made it big in the country writing scene and they’ve offered to co-write with me so, here we go.
I sit down to write a song every day. Not an entire song, actually, but some piece of one at least. And lately what’s been coming out quite easily is country pop, which, as it turns out, sounds a lot like 4Him in the early nineties. Go figure. It’s an easy sound to channel lately. So I’m going with it.
Soon I’ll sit in a room with country lyricists and melodists and we’ll work on one or all of these snippets I’ve coughed up recently and, hopefully, one of them will become a big fat hairy hit.
The thing is, some musicians consider this selling out, sacrificing art for wealth. Well, yea. My question? Why is that a moral no no? Why is it wrong, to some, to use talent in a way that draws a large crowd, that sells out: sells out theatres, stadiums, etc? Why, especially when the resulting plunder is used for good, is this morally repulsive to some more “artful” musicians? What if “art” were suddenly more popular than country top 40? Would it be “selling out” to make it then?
While we ponder these and other not-so-important questions, here’s today’s snippet of sell-out goodness, sans lyrics.
Grovesfan says:
Some would say that the end doesn’t justify the means, but that wouldn’t be me. I guess you could debate this all day long and still not make any headway. Ask yourself some questions: Why am I really doing this? What do I hope to accomplish? Will I be compromising my ethics, values, or beliefs in anyway? Am I struggling to convince myself that this avenue is one I should travel? Have I prayed it through? If you are satisfied with the answers to these questions then don’t worry about the validation of others.
Beth
Shaun Groves says:
Great questions, Beth. Well said.
Michael Anthony Curan says:
just because its mainstream top 40 doesn’t mean it doesnt have any art in it.
i mean if you can write a good country song that you believe in your heart and that people can still relate,then i don’t think its a bad idea. after all writing is all about connecting.
and its good if you give your demos to good country artists who doesnt write their own songs like faith hill,tim mcgraw,or maybe lonestar…
or even to jack ingram and brad paisley whom even if they write their own songs,they’re still(or rather their a&r,hell i dont know bout music biz)accepting songs from professional writers
Chris Morris says:
The artist should seek to serve the listener, but not to the detriment of the listener. If it really is bad art, art that’s deceptive, or communicates lies, or is somehow generally harmful to those who consume it, even if they think they like it – the end is irrelevant.
Try to earn a living, no matter what the work, by helping others.
shaunfan says:
Shaun, I agree with your reasons for doing this. A songwriter I respect is Matthew West and I love the song “The Day Before You”. I don’t know the numbers exactly, but I’m guessing his recording of the song sold less than half a million CD’s and I’m pretty sure the Rascal Flatts recording of the same song sold oh maybe 10-20 times more copies (5-10 million CD’s). So, as Beth said, if your motivations are pure and you don’t compromise your values in the song writing, I in no way consider it “selling out”.
Either way, please let us know if someone records one of your songs so that we can support you.
Stephen @ Rebelling Against Indifference says:
Shaunfan,
Just a note about your numbers. Matthew has had a lot more success as a songwriter than as an artist, and has had cuts in several genres. I don’t know what his solo albums sell, but I’d be really surprised if his recording of “The Day Before You” sold 50,000. That Rascal Flatts CD is 4x Platinum, meaning that if he wrote the song by himself and owns his own publishing, he did quite well with it (maybe a couple hundered grand).
Shaun Groves says:
And a number one country song will make you a minimum of 250K – a rich writer friend of mine swears.
Stephen @ Rebelling Against Indifference says:
Right. And that’s on top of the album sales.
Stephen @ Rebelling Against Indifference says:
BTW, Shaun, did you get my e-mail last week?
Shaun Groves says:
No. If I did it got lost in a pile of them. But, no, I don’t see it. Not searching by your name anyway.
shaunfan says:
Stephen, thanks for your points, I’d love to know some of the other songs Matthew West has written for other artists as well. This topic naturally ties in to Shaun’s post on Shlog about selling out for children as Matthew West also had the number 1 Christian song of 2004 with “More” which is the style of song I could totally hear coming from Shaun on his next CD. I’m all about supporting talented singer-songwriters, especially people like Shaun, Matthew West, Aaron Shust, etc.
Brenda says:
Chances are, no one would even know you wrote the songs. Most folks (I know, it’s hard to believe) don’t really pay attention to the names of the songwriters. Take Wayne Kirkpatrick, for instance. He’s had his name all over Christian music songs for all kinds of artists. But he also has written and produced for lots of country artists. His work for Little Big Town probably made him a pretty nickel or two. Anyway, all that to say….do it. If you’re not the singer, no one will even notice anyway. And if they do, big whoop!
Tony G says:
Music is a fuel that feeds the sould. Music is a Passion written from the spirit.
Which, doesn’t God always want us to be happy
If you write in country music, you choose to take these gifts that God has given you and make money with them… i say that loosely… then go for it… You’re a well known Christian artist… ok so some of your stuff hasn’t crossed over and made you this huge million that Amy Grant or Mercy Me got but they didn’t sell themselves out either, it just happened. if you choose to go the writing route and write for country. Go for it. It is still music, it is still love, it is still passion. Just now your making more money
I think i said this right, but if i offened you haha then i didn’t.
Cali Amy says:
Ugh. I don’t like country music. But I get why you’re doing it. Country music is hot right now. maybe you can get Carrie Underwood to record one of your songs? Girl is on fire.
Dixie Redmond says:
Hmmmmm. Very interesting. I’m gonna be honest. I’m a 45 year old worship leader who had heard your name, but not a lot of your music. Tonight one of the guys on our worship team asked me to sing back-up to his lead on your song “Your Renown”. I love the song, btw. I love singing it. I love singing backup. So here I am searching your site out.
Anyway, I’m an artist in another venue – I make folk art. I spent years not making art because it had to be the “right kind” of art. Serious. Deep. I went to art school to learn this. Long, long story, but life got in the way of making “serious art.” Last year I started making folk art dolls and painting portraits of tomato people and actually selling them and making money for my family. I’m sure my art teachers would drink their turpentine if they saw what I’m doing. But I’m having a lot of fun, I’m learning a lot about art-making.
Go figure. And it helps me to continue being able to be a worship leader at my church.
Dixie aka Northdixie Designs