Todd Rundgren
The style of music may change, but the role of the songwriter is always to encapsulate an idea in either intellectual or emotional terms or both. Essentially what a songwriter is doing is packaging. They’re taking the things that people are talking about and the musical wallpaper, if you will, to life and integrating them into a product, something that is consumable.
Of course, there’s always the songwriter who writes only for himself. To be honest, when I actually get down to the process, there’s a huge element of that in there for me as well, in that I’m often looking to create something that I don’t hear elsewhere. And it’s not simply to be different but for my own satisfaction.
As far as songwriters are concerned, as long as there is something recognizable as a music market—in other words, if music doesn’t suddenly become a free commodity; as long as it’s a consumer item—songwriters are always going to have to be aware of consumer tastes. And that’s something that recording and duplication have done to the craft of songwriting.
From Performing Songwriter Issue 31, July/Aug 1998
Category: In Their Own Words
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