Planning and choosing topics

First I looked at all the potential topics I could write a song about, as well as listening to music I like and looking at their themes. The commonly used themes were -

• The environment - Like the song 'Wonderful World' I wanted a slightly broader topic.
• Love, break-ups, falling in love : I decided that this topic was too embarrassing and also I wouldn't be able to pull it off realistically.
• Partying - A dance song such as in the genre 'dubstep' would have a lot of technology involved which isn't my strength and also it  wouldn't include vocals and wouldn't spread an important message which is what I wanted to achieve with my song writing.
• Humour - To write a humorous song you actually have to be funny and people wouldn't take you seriously, the joke songs I  listen to also wouldn't be appropriate for a school audience.
• A festival/season - Christmas, Easter and other religious festivals have many songs written for them except we're not in the correct season right now for any of these (the performance is in June) and this would limit my audience.

Other inspiration also came from quotes (Quotes) although some were too old fashioned, they made me think about how to use rhyme and word choice in order to create something meaningful and beautiful.


 wanted something which would spread a message rather than simply being a dance song like dubstep which also doesn't include many vocals.


I made a list of different topics which I had an interest in:


Song ideas- My favourite films, going home, a historical event, friendship, love, war, trust, Unoriginality


Paintings, books, traffic, dreams, Life on Mars, ideas worth spreading - which is the TED slogan.

I thought about basic structure of a song:

• Verse 1

• Verse 2

• Chorus - with a hook (quotes?)

• 3rd verse

• Bridge - consider you story from a different perspective, maybe looking at it from the past or the future.

• Chorus

• Fade out

I wanted to follow this basic format with the same tune being used for the verses and chorus, the bridge would also make the song more interesting.

I wanted to write about the past and peace keeping which would also be the message of the UN and our school. I researched them (Major) and found out about different events such as sending peacekeepers so Somalia however these were then really hard to write about.

Artists who had a message similar to mine included -

 Michael Jackson - We are the world originally by Michael Jackson but used to gain support for Haiti. This song is sung by a chorus of people (a choir) and I loved the harmony of the different sounds (tenor, alto, bass and soprano).

John Lennon - Imagine, this song inspires and uplifts those who listen, as he sings about solving problems, the lyrics here are far more important than the tune.

Both of these two songs focused on the strength, purity and voice quality of the singer which is also something which I wanted to improve. I also realized that my lyrics must be poetic and have meaning if the song was to be slow.

Works Cited:

“Major Events in the History of the UN.” CFIF. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2012. <http://www.cfif.org/‌htdocs/‌freedomline/‌un_monitor/‌background/‌events_in_un_history.htm>.

“Quotes about Life.” Brainyquote. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2012. <http://www.brainyquote.com/‌quotes/‌topics/‌topic_motivational2.html>.