BBC Learnings · Section 1

Songwriting

What's that song you're singing, Neil? Is it the Rolling Stones?

Level: B1 · 103 sentences

Transcript

  1. What's that song you're singing, Neil?
  2. Is it the Rolling Stones?
  3. Well, I've had this song stuck in my head all day.
  4. It's a real earworm you know,
  5. a song you keep hearing over and over again in your head.
  6. Well, the Rolling Stones, for example, are famous for their catchy songs.
  7. But writing a memorable song isn't easy.
  8. Not only do you have to write a good tune,
  9. you also need to match it to the lyrics
  10. the words of the song.
  11. In this programme, we'll be discussing the art of songwriting
  12. combining lyrics and music to make a hit song.
  13. And of course, we'll be learning some new vocabulary as well.
  14. But first, I have a question for you, Neil.
  15. Every week from 1964 until it ended in 2006,
  16. the BBC television programme Top of the Pops
  17. had a countdown of the most popular songs in the British music charts,
  18. from number 40 up to number 1.
  19. So, who's had the most number one hit songs
  20. in the UK over the years?
  21. Is it a the Rolling Stones,
  22. b the Beatles, or c Elvis Presley?
  23. Oh, you're showing your age there, Sam.
  24. Those musicians were famous decades ago.
  25. I'm going to go for c the king of rock
  26. and roll, Elvis Presley.
  27. OK, Neil. I'll reveal the answer later in the programme.
  28. Professor Adam Bradley is the author of The Book of Rhymes,
  29. a study into the lyrics of hip-hop music.
  30. He knows a lot about how words
  31. and music combine to make hit songs.
  32. When he spoke to BBC Radio 4 programme Word of Mouth,
  33. the presenter Michael Rosen asked Adam what music he was listening to at the moment.
  34. These days I have a little bit of a nostalgic streak,
  35. so I go back to some of the earliest music that mattered to me
  36. as a young person, music that my mother played for me,
  37. things like Crosby, Stills Nash, Judy Blue Eyes,
  38. things like the earliest music that I discovered as an independent
  39. tastemaker for myself, things like De La Soul,
  40. and A Tribe Called Quest.
  41. Adam says he's currently listening to the music his mother played him
  42. when he was young because he has a nostalgic streak,
  43. an affectionate feeling for a happy time in the past.
  44. His mum liked 1960s American singer-songwriters like Crosby, Stills and Nash.
  45. Adam is also listening to hip-hop groups like De La Soul,
  46. the music he chose
  47. when he started finding his own taste in music,
  48. becoming a tastemaker for himself.
  49. A tastemaker is someone
  50. who influences what is considered fashionable or popular at the moment.
  51. As well as hip-hop, Adam also loves rock and roll music and,
  52. like me, is a big fan of the Rolling Stones,
  53. whose singer Mick Jagger and guitar player Keith Richards
  54. are two of the most successful songwriters ever.
  55. Here Adam tells BBC Radio 4's Word of Mouth
  56. how the rock stars worked together to write
  57. some of the best-known songs in rock and roll history.
  58. Often, Keith Richards would go on one of his historic benders
  59. and wake up with a recording
  60. device next to him in the morning
  61. where he had put the melody down for a song
  62. and had the chord structure and everything in place.
  63. And he might take that to Mick
  64. and Mick would listen through and he would write lyrics.
  65. And in Mick's mind, as he said in an interview once,
  66. he would impose his melodies as a singer on Keith's chord structures.
  67. So there would be this give and take, this tension.
  68. Keith Richards is famous for going on benders,
  69. a period of time spent in heavy alcohol drinking and nonstop partying.
  70. During these, he often thought up the chord structure for a song.
  71. A chord is three or more musical notes played together,
  72. so a chord structure is a sequence of chords played one
  73. after the other.
  74. Later, Mick Jagger would listen to the music Keith had thought up
  75. and write lyrics to match.
  76. Adam describes this relationship as give and take
  77. a compromise where you're willing to accept suggestions from another person
  78. and give up some ideas of your own.
  79. Mick and Keith's legendary friendship has certainly been up
  80. and down over the years,
  81. and there's no doubt they've written some of the best rock songs ever.
  82. But have they been top when it comes to number one hits?
  83. It's time to reveal the answer to my question.
  84. Yes. You asked who's had the most number one hits
  85. in the UK music charts.
  86. And I said it was Elvis Presley.
  87. Which was the correct answer, Neil, with 21 number one hits.
  88. Elvis, the king of rock and roll,
  89. is the most successful chart topper,
  90. followed by the Beatles with 17 number ones
  91. and further down the list, the Rolling Stones with eight.
  92. OK, let's recap the vocabulary we've learned, starting with earworm.
  93. A song that you can't stop hearing
  94. over and over in your head.
  95. A nostalgic streak is an affectionate
  96. or bittersweet feeling you have for a happy time in the past.
  97. A tastemaker is a person that influences what people think is popular
  98. or fashionable at the moment.
  99. If you go on a bender, you spend time drinking alcohol heavily.
  100. A chord structure is a sequence of musical chords.
  101. And finally, give and take between two people is a compromise
  102. in which they are willing to accept suggestions from each other
  103. and give up some of their own ideas.