A big movement in the music industry in recent years is a genre called Bedroom Pop. These are songs written by small artists in their bedrooms with little to no professional music recording equipment. Some of these artists go on to become bigger names in the industry and have access to better equipment. However, all of them came from humble origins. This includes artists on Youtube such as Dodie, Cavetown, Conan Gray, and mxmtoon. In this activity, you will be writing a “Bedroom Pop” style song of your own!
Here are several examples of people putting their music on Youtube (with varying levels of editing and music writing experience!):
Dear Happy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQVXm-imzoA
The Other Side: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFNEtO7fO9M
I Miss You: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElheW-g5MIE
Now, it’s time to write your own song!
Steps:
1. Think about a theme or idea. What would you like to sing about? As you might have seen with the examples above, there is a lot of variation in song themes. “I Miss You” was a sad love song, but “My Face” was meant to be funny.
2. Write a list of lyric ideas you’d like to use in your song. Look back at these when you write the actual lyrics!
3. Now, it’s time to write lyrics.
4. The most common structure for songs is Verse 1, Chorus, Verse 2, Chorus, Bridge, Chorus. This video explains what these words mean: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hE_qOY5GkH0.
5. Remember that list of ideas you made? Write the different lyrics you’d like to use on a piece of paper and cut them out. Move the sections around, trying different orders for them. Discard the ideas that don’t work and add on to the lines that do!
6. Start with writing the chorus. The chorus should function as summing up the main idea of the song.
7. After you’ve written the chorus, base the 2 verses around it.
8. Finally, write the bridge.
9. Create a beat to put the song to. Do you have any musical instruments that you know how to use? Try using those! If you don’t have any musical instruments, find objects around your house that you can use to make noise. Examples include tapping your hands on a table to create drum-like sound, clinking a spoon against a glass, and putting dry beans in a water bottle and using it as a maraca. (Here’s an example of a song created with unconventional musical instruments: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUyaSpLO3wU)
12. Write a beat for the chorus, a beat that will be used for the two verses, and a beat for the bridge.
13. Record yourself playing the song. You can either sing and play the beat at the same time, or record both parts and overlay the beat on top of the singing. Upload your video to Youtube if you’d like to share it with others!
Resources:
More about Bedroom Pop:
A more in-depth guide to song structure:
Tips for writing lyrics:
By Lauren Clevenger
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