The urge to express yourself is one reason why many songwriters start writing in the first place. And if you can also touch other people’s emotions by writing about a personal experience that they can relate to in their own lives, then it’s usually the sign of a good song.
Katy Perry has revealed that she takes this a stage further by pouring out her darkest secrets and concealing them in her songs. Many of her songs actually contain cryptic truths about her life and relationships, she says.
“They all stem from the truth inside me,” the 28-year-old singer and songwriter recently told OK! magazine. “Maybe I’m not so specific with names, but that’s my lockbox, where all my secrets go.”
Katy also revealed that she initially struggled with songwriting because of her conservative Pentecostal upbringing. In fact, having had very little exposure to mainstream pop music in her strict childhood, she started out pursuing a career in gospel music as a teenager. She didn’t start to open up as a writer, she said, until she met Glen Ballard, her mentor and producer.
“I was at that point in life where I was scared to write about certain subjects because I was still virginal,” she said. “I remember I wrote a song called ‘Nothing Like the First Time’ and I was really scared to present it because it had some risqué lyrics.”
She added: “Glen was like, ‘You can write about anything, anything you feel, just write them.’ I was so free by him allowing me to do that.”
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“How [Not] To Write A Hit Song! – 101 Common Mistakes To Avoid If You Want Songwriting Success” is available from Amazon as a paperback, or as an eBook from Amazon’s Kindle Store, Apple’s iTunes Store (Books/Arts & Entertainment/Music) and Barnes & Noble’s Nook store.
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SONGWRITING: THE HIT FORMULA 