Songwriting, creativity and the music industry

Songwriting is at the very heart of the contemporary music industry. Songs are written, performed, recorded, listened to, bought, downloaded, and litigated over. They can make and break artists' careers. For example, the Gerry Goffin and Carole King classic "The Locomotion" was the song that not only launched Little Eva in the fifties but also Kylie Minogue in the eighties. It demonstrates "the power of a strong commercial song to shoot a newcomer to stardom," and that power extends to maintaining artists at the peak of their game. That power is the essential element that greases the wheels of the music industry's fortunes. As Jimmy Webb asserts, "songs are the raw material that power the reactor of a large part of the entertainment business. In fact, without these potent symbol systems, there would be no music industry at all. From the early days of the industry when the focus was centered on the publishing houses right through to the later establishment of the recording industry as the dominant industry player, the rights of ownership attached to songs have remained paramount. It is the buying and selling of these rights that has ensured that songs remain central to the industry's processes. This centrality continues to be crucial even as the music industry now appears to be going through another of its periodic upheavals as the digital age works its magic