A brand new old trick: the Song Generator

admin — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 16:27:42 +0000

Shake for lyrics

I just came across a little gizmo called Song Generator that is available as an iPhone application. The idea is that songwriters that are stuck for lyrics can turn the application on. When they shake their phone, three random phrases pop up. This is supposed to spark your imagination. As an example, you can play around with “Yeah \ take a piece of \ your mouth.” If you like any of the three, you can “lock” them, shake the phone and try again. Sounds fun, but…

…it also sounds like a technique used by surrealists (and reportedly David Bowie) who used to cut up sentences, throw them on the table and work from that. At the end of the day, whatever gets those songwriting juices going is fine by me. If I was in a philosophical mood, I’d write a piece about it being a bit disappointing that people prefer to shake a phone on their own rather than sit down and write something memorable with another songwriter, or ring up a colleague and bounce ideas around. Luckily I’m in a good mood. Besides, the result couldn’t be much different from some Duran Duran lyrics I’ve read.

Having said that, I still use a pencil and paper to write lyrics, at least in the early stages. But if you’re interested, check the Song Generator. Let me know what you think if you try it.

A-Lyric.com » David Bowie

A brand new old trick: the Song Generator