Ne-Yo - Great Songwriter
 

Excluding his own material after reading on Spotify I have just discovered these other tracks he has written, which over the years have all caught my ear without me knowing who was behind them.

Mario - Let me love you
Beyonce - Irreplaceable (my personal favourite)
Rihanna - Unfaithful & Take a bow
Jennifer Hudson - Spotlight

Definitely a big talent & over here in the UK I would definitely say underrated. I'm guessing he is huge in the States? I am very interested in hearing his Libra Scale album (not on Spotify unfortunately) , any thoughts?


Mario - Let Me Love You (Official Video) [Lyrics In Description Box] - YouTube


Beyoncé - Irreplaceable - YouTube


Rihanna - Unfaithful - YouTube


Rihanna - Take A Bow - YouTube


Jennifer Hudson - Spotlight - YouTube

Do you think that being a good songwriter means the ability to write catchy pop songs? One thing is to get someone hooked on the song, but surely there's the question of expression, too?

Not necessarily catchy songs, but good songs. I think they stand alone as being good tracks.

What do you mean by "expression"?

This for instance:


Rihanna - Take A Bow - YouTube

Appears to me as being less about expressing her feelings through her music as much as getting people's attention with something entertaining and catchy.

Whats wrong with that?

Nothing, I was just wondering if that is your definition of "good songwriting".

If it is, then should music that isn't catchy, such as Swans or post-rock in general, be considered bad songwriting?

Just put Swans on Youtube now, no that stuff is good also. Obviously its a different type of sound, but still good stuff.



Swans: Blind - YouTube

Well anyway, since I'm English, I have no idea how big Ne-Yo has got in the States. Although I get easily irritated by "Beautiful monster".

I'd pick Swans any day!

I love his "Beautiful monster" song.

I don't see why good songwriting can't include concise catchy songs as well as longer more 'rock' orientated stuff. Pop songs tend to have the catchiness even more in the vocal line perhaps, that's where the expression tends to be more as well. So catchy songs can definitely have expression to me. And catchiness in general I think is prevalent throughout people's enjoyment of all kinds of music anyway, if the musical material isn't memorable then normally people don't like it much. In more 'rock' stuff the catchiness may be more drawn out or more fleeting than in many pop songs but it can still be there. The craft of songwriting surely includes any ability to invent within a particular structure whether that be rock or pop.