Today I read a tweet: “songwriting is no job, no they shouldn’t get paid.” Resisting the urge to call him a bad name like some other people did, I checked out his twitter page and there was a picture of a teenager playing his guitar in his parents’ house. Sure, songwriting is not a job to him, because he has no bills. Thank goodness copyright protection for writers has been part of the United States constitution since 1787. (Article 1, Section 8, Clause 8) Moreover, the United Nations, as well as many countries, have laws that acknowledge art is valuable to society and artists should get paid.
Can you imagine a world without music, where Jimi Hendrix, Nina Simone, John Coltrane, Rodgers & Hammerstein, John Lennon, Miles Davis, Billie Holiday never existed? It would be like losing the ability to see color; all of a sudden everything is black and white.
As a songwriter, I have personal knowledge of the work involved in writing a song; rehearsing, having it come to life when I sing it and musicians play it and fans hear it. Yes, songwriting is a job, but it’s a labor of love.
One love,
Aria