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you can be a Great Artist and not write songs?

mistermaxxx

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i mean we all like or respect or think highly of artists who weren't songwriters. I mean whoever said you had to write songs to be considered a Great Artist anyway? name artists you dig and think are great who aren't writers?? Speak on it.
 
I think what they mean is that a Great Artist is one that creates music at all levels -writing, producing and singing or playing...It's kinda like Karaoke. Anyone can sing or play someone else's music. but when you create something of your very own AND perform it..you are truly a Great Artist..
 
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I have a huge lack of respect for singers/musicians who don't write their own music. It just seems to me that they don't have the ability to express themselves, which is what being a great artist is really about. They didn't earn their place in music history, they're just karaoke singers in a way.

Now, if they write some of their own music and leave other songwriters to compose the rest, that's fine with me. Michael is a fantastic songwriter, but even he relies on other songwriters to balance things out.
 
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I mean, I love Beyonce, until I found out she has ghost writers....it irks me that people still think she writes her own stufff...unless she does? Anyone know for sure?
 
Whitney Houston is a great artist. She may not write the material but the emotion that she can portray with that magnificent voice is art to me. Aaliyah is another great example. Her music was so rich and diverse and she really added something wonderful to everything she touched.
 
with the exception of Michael i've never paid attention to who wrote the song or not. the expression and interpretation a singer pours into the music is art itself. so i can't really speak on singers who dont write cause i dont know. i just listen and love it or dont
 
It's not about giving people who don't write their own music less respect; it's about giving people who do write their own songs more respect. Although you have to put it into perspective too. Elvis is still better than, say, Ne-Yo, but the fact that Michael Jackson writes the majority of his material easily gives him the boost as being the superior talent to Presley.
 
Would you call a singer an artist? Isn't art expressing yourself, not having others express yourself for you. I call non writers performers. Cause thats what they are... not really artists (if we are going by the dictionary definition of an artist)
 
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Being a great vocalist is an art form in itself. If you have the ability to emote and have brilliant control and style, and quality, then you're an artist. It's not like being a karaoke singer when you are born with a real gift. Not just anyone can get up there and sing like Dionne Warwick or Celine Dion, both of whom don't write their own music, but are amazing vocalists. Or someone like Barbra Streisand or Billie Holiday, they don't write their own music, but it doesn't take away from their brilliance as vocalists. Or great classical singers like Andrea Bocellli or Pavoratti. Technical brillaince as a vocalist is rare, it is. An American Idol could never compare to a world class singer like Whitney Housten. Anyway though, obviously, if you are a brilliant vocalist and songwriter, like Michael, you're more talented then someone who is just a brilliant vocalist. But if you're an average singer and songwriter, like Ne-Yo, someone who is a brilliant vocalist is more talented then you. It's all about quality over quantity. If a singer makes you feel, it doesn't matter if they wrote the words or no, they've created emotion, which is the goal of any artist. It's rare to have world class talent in any area, it's even more rare to have world class talent in more then one area, and if you're like Michael, who has world class talent in 4 or so areas, then you're just a freak, lol.
 
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Thats true. I guess how the singer delivers the song is the most important thing for someone who doesn't write. I love Aaliyah but most of the artists I love write their own stuff, she on the other hand didn't. She spoke to her writers and delivered the song how she felt it should be delivered. That in a sense is art too. Expressing through vocals, words that weren't written by you... but you are telling the story.

Aaliyahs always said she was the interpreter. And I guess thats what non writers are.
 
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shipoffools said:
I have a huge lack of respect for singers/musicians who don't write their own music. It just seems to me that they don't have the ability to express themselves, which is what being a great artist is really about. They didn't earn their place in music history, they're just karaoke singers in a way.

Now, if they write some of their own music and leave other songwriters to compose the rest, that's fine with me. Michael is a fantastic songwriter, but even he relies on other songwriters to balance things out.
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Well you must not like anything before 1965, because very few acts before then wrote songs. You also can't like much from Motown (and a lot of soul music), because a lot of their stuff was from staff writers, especially the material from the 1960s. What about people who just wrote stuff for other people like Gamble & Huff, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, Burt Bacharach, etc? Just because someone writes their own material doesn't mean they're expressing themselves. Little Richard wrote his songs, but a lot of them weren't saying anything. Does "She Loves You" or "Wake Me Up Before You Go Go" or "Disco Duck" have any meaning? They were written by the performer. What about classical musicians/opera singers? They're pretty much performing stuff by people who's been dead for hundreds of years. Elvis wrote nothing and he's the "King".
 
People act like if you play an instrument, you're technically an artist and I don't think that's entirely true. Back in like decades before the Beatles, if you can sing a song with a great vocal style and technique, you were considered a talent and an artist, I'm sure playing instruments add to it but yeah I feel you can be a great artist and not necessarily be a songwriter or musician. Sure it wouldn't hurt to do so but to think that you'll be an artist just because you write songs is only part of the puzzle, really.
 
I think you can still be a great artist if you don't write your own lyrics/music.

Being a great vocalist etc is still an art form in my book :yes: so yeah there are great artists who haven;t written their own pieces. They still have to be able to interpret the work in order for it to work well.


After all, most of our favourite actors aren't script writers... yet we consider them great actors when they are able to interpret the script and make us believe :yes:
 
Does Madonna writtes her own music ? i ask because as she is not a great vocalist i would like to know if she writte some of her music ?
 
serena williams said:
Does Madonna writtes her own music ? i ask because as she is not a great vocalist i would like to know if she writte some of her music ?
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She writes all of her lyrics, except for remakes and the 1st couple of albums. I don't know how much participation she has in the music portion. Usually it's one of her partners like Steven Bray, etc. Bob Dylan isn't a great vocalist, but is considered a great songwriter.
 
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I don't think non writers should be denied their talent. Afterall look at actors, they act the script they are given. They bring it to life. Its kind of like working together. The writers telling the singer how they want their song to be heard to the world, and the singer projecting it through vocals.

Thats the art of vocal ability and talent. But an artist is often associated with creating, and therefore thats why non writers are seen as performers rather than artists. Because they don't create their songs, they perform it.


I think this thread is confusing because an artist today is anyone who is signed to a label, they are referred to as an 'artist' on a label. And some are talking about the real definition of an artist. A creator.
 
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Catherine.. said:
I don't think non writers should be denied their talent. Afterall look at actors, they act the script they are given. They bring it to life. Its kind of like working together. The writers telling the singer how they want their song to be heard to the world, and the singer projecting it through vocals.

Thats the art of vocal ability and talent. But an artist is often associated with creating, and therefore thats why non writers are seen as performers rather than artists. Because they don't create their songs, they perform it.


I think this thread is confusing because an artist today is anyone who is signed to a label, they are referred to as an 'artist' on a label. And some are talking about the real definition of an artist. A creator.
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i think everybody likes the term 'artist' to be applied to them...there is culinary arts...liberal arts....etc. etc..

now..although i'd love to create a whole thread on this...this wouldn't be necessary..i'd like to take the oppportunuity to say that a singer who doesn't write should be considered a true performing artist. a songwriter who cannot perform should be respected also..and be considered a composing artist...and the ones who do both can be considered a true artist as well. all three categories should be considered true artists. none of the three truly work alone. everybody collaborates to some extent. even the ones such as Prince need an ENGINEER...who i also consider to be a scientific artist. all of them should be respected as having talent. so many threads can be made from this thread. if TPain never used his technical equipment to 'sing'...he'd probably be much more respected as a songwriter who does NOT perform, like most songwriters who do not perform...so..that's why i respect TPain..and do not take away from him, cus he knows how to use techno equipment. he just managed to add an extra wrinkle to what he does. but, getting back on topic..rather, concluding, on topic from everything i just said....none of this should be looked at as a 'quantity' thing. it should be looked at as a Quality thing.
 
T-Pain isn't any good. Roger Troutman, Stevie Wonder, & Peter Frampton are way better at using the talkbox. Or old funk groups like Midnight Star with the vocoder.
 
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shipoffools said:
I have a huge lack of respect for singers/musicians who don't write their own music. It just seems to me that they don't have the ability to express themselves, which is what being a great artist is really about. They didn't earn their place in music history, they're just karaoke singers in a way.

Now, if they write some of their own music and leave other songwriters to compose the rest, that's fine with me. Michael is a fantastic songwriter, but even he relies on other songwriters to balance things out.
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Completly agree BUT you can still be a great artist and not write your own songs. There have been plently of old school acts that didn't write their own music but they broke barriers for the music industry in other areas. Then of course you have some that either. Take Elvis for example, he didnt write any of his music AND mostly everything he did was stolen and was not innovative anyway. He lacked in two main areas, overrated. I think the main problem with that issue is well for me anyway is really towards the music out now. Even artists who don't write their own music (now) are still not really great artists. They are just mediocre at best. I honestly really wouldn't call them true artists,just singers. The problem with them is the media overrates them to the point that it seems like they write their own music when in reality they dont. They have folks writing their music for them and even the people behind the scenes that do, the lyrical content is horrible so it really doesn't matter both ways. The singers out now to me are just lacking real talent. They have to be overhype to have attention drawn to them, its not about the talent anymore.
 
Imo, a singer is an artist because singing is interpreting and making music, and music is one of the arts....

Yes, imo, one can be a great artist and not write music.

Some great artists who don't write, off the top of my head-

Maria Callas
Placido Domingo
Luciano Pavarotti
Ben Hepner
Céline Dion
Elvis Presley
Frank Sinatra
Bing Crosby

Singers create and weave an interpretation of the notes through techniques; phrasing, articulation etc.. Some songwriters can't sing, so they need to have someone, an artist, to create an interpretation of their work. Otherwise, it's just notes on a page, or in someone's head.

The emphasis on singers who also write is a relatively recent phenomenon. Of course it's great if one can do both, but not obligatory.

To believe that only singers that write are artists is absurd to me.
 
When a truly great vocalist sings, they are creating. The sole purpose of art is to bring out the truth, to make apparent the truth. When someone is a great vocalist, they are able to create emotion in their voice and give that feeling to the listener, make them aware of a feeling, and if they are truly great, the vocalist will make the listener feel that emotion in the purist sense. Joy, sadness, anger, fear, etc... A great vocalist breaths life in to a song and makes it real, makes it true. You ever hear that term "Were they the singer or the song?" You ask that when a singer is able to make a song so intense and real that you aren't able to tell if they are just singing the song or if they actually lived the song.
 
serena williams said:
Does Madonna writtes her own music ? i ask because as she is not a great vocalist i would like to know if she writte some of her music ?
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Madonna writes or co-writes all of her songs. She is also ALWAYS a part of the music production.
 
I think the average music listener doesn't care about who writes songs.
 
If there is one thing that erks me, it's not so much the idea that "songwriters" should be or are more respected then singers/performers, but the idea that an artist who plays instruments is considered to be more of a "real" or "true" artist then those that don't .That is a pile of BS if you ask me and I don't have "more" repsect for one that does then I would for one that doesn't. At the end of the day (and I don't mean to offend anyone), an instrument is a piece of equipment that can be learned (and that is fact) but knowing how to emot and Interprate a song to the point where the listner is either crying or laughing along with you can't be.
 
As long as they have a good voice I don't care. And I don't pay attention to who writes and who does'nt write they as long as the song has a great beat. I ain't that much of a music snob.

And there are some singer-songwriters who have crappy stuff too. ( I hate to say this about Taylor Swift because I do like her as a person, but I just think her stuff is a little basic.)
 
I really don't think it makes a difference. If the artist has a gift, he/she should utilize it to the best. So they can't write, so what? MJ's version of butterflies is far superior to the original song. The beat is the same, everything is the same. But MJ knew how to handle the song better.

I really don't think it's THAT important for artists to write their songs. Sure, it's nice, and it's a plus. But it's not a must IMO.
 
babykinsilk05 said:
At the end of the day (and I don't mean to offend anyone), an instrument is a piece of equipment that can be learned (and that is fact)
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Not really. Algebra, driving, flying a plane, dancing, or anything else can be taught, but it doesn't mean that anybody can learn to do it. There is a difference in Jimi Hendrix playing a guitar and Madonna doing the same thing.
 
DuranDuran said:
Not really. Algebra, driving, flying a plane, dancing, or anything else can be taught, but it doesn't mean that anybody can learn to do it. There is a difference in Jimi Hendrix playing a guitar and Madonna doing the same thing.
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Yes it does. ANYBODY can learn to play an instrument just as anybody can learn to do all of those other things you mentioned. It depends on the PERSON who is being taught, how well they take to what they are learning, and how discplined and determined they are about learning it. And the only "difference" between Madonna playing Guitar and Jimi Hendrix playing it is that one is obviously better at it then the other. Though thats not saying that Madonna can't one day decide that she wants to become just as good as Jimi and begin to take the steps she needs in order to accomplish that. The point is: Jimi didn't just come out the womb playing the guitar...he was taught how to, wether by a teacher, or by himself through watching or listening to others. It was TAUGHT to him, it was not a natural gift.
 
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