Where do songs come from?

Pop songs – the good ones, anyway – are written by gifted outsiders: the rebellious ones, the skint, the stoned, the social misfits. If this describes maybe one or two students in the past few decades, then that might explain why so many brilliant bands have come out of Britain’s universities and art colleges.

David Bowie in 1967: but can studying great music make you a songwriter?

So what would happen if writing songs, rather than being the thing you do instead of your coursework, was the coursework – the thing you were supposed to be doing. Would songs written with the express encouragement of your tutor be any good, or would this sudden loss of friction make for bland, or pretentious songwriting? We may be about to find out.

Bangor University has announced a new degree which will take its first students in autumn 2008: BA English with songwriting. Tutors believe that this is the only UK degree course that includes all aspects of songwriting – from the composition of words and music, the theory and the history to recording technology and business skills.

According to Bangor’s press release the degree: “offers both rigorous academic education and practical work; a third of the course will be spent writing and analysing songs, and two thirds following a traditional literary course covering texts from 1066 to 2008”.

So, while you’ll still have to write an essay on Chaucer somewhere down the line, the engagement with songwriting is a serious one. In the first place, the degree wants to give pop songs the respect they deserve – as the course leaders point out, popular music is, along with cinema, the 20th century’s unique contribution to cultural history.

The course offers a whistlestop tour of pop music history, with modules on key figures such as David Bowie, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell and the Beatles, and more recent pop icons – Radiohead, REM, Coldplay and the like. Students will also have the chance to explore genres including punk, hip hop, indie and dance music.

There has been no better time to study songs and their backgrounds, and become inspired to write some ourselves.
Pwyll ap Sion

While students are pulling apart the great songs from the past to see how they work, they’ll also be scribbling down their own dazzling creations. Year one and two cover the basic techniques of songwriting, editing and recording, and practical seminars on melody, rhythm and harmony. In the final year, the students will showcase what they’ve learnt by recording and producing a CD of perhaps seven to eight of their own songs – non-performers and lyrics-only types will be partnered up suitably with other students.

The course is led by the poet, critic and lecturer Ian Gregson, of the School of English, and the composer Pwyll ap Sion, of Bangor’s School of Music. Between them, they will push for songs that are strong both musically and lyrically.

Ian Gregson said: “I’m very keen to encourage literate songwriting and would love it if we could help towards stamping out the lazy and sometimes offensive lyric writing which often seems to dominate.”

Pwyll ap Sion added: “Songs have formed the inner soundtrack to so many people’s lives. We can all relate to songs because they richly represent the changing face of our own culture, and other people’s. The proliferation of forms and styles in the late twentieth century means there has been no better time to study songs and their backgrounds, and become inspired to write some ourselves.”

Bangor as a 21st century Tin Pan Alley? Sure, why not? – good music pops up in all kinds of places, and not usually with this much encouragement. We look forward to their first volume of greatest hits, sometime around 2011.