John Mayer’s “Tom and Jerry” is about wanting somebody who never seems quite ready to choose you. The relationship exists in an uncomfortable space. There’s attraction. There’s possibility. But the person Mayer is singing about…
Tag: song
Artists face a difficult question when deciding where to spend their limited time and money. Should you make and promote another single? Or should you put that budget behind an older track that is already…
The song playing during the famous vampire baseball scene in Twilight is “Supermassive Black Hole” by Muse. The British rock band released it in 2006. Two years later, it became part of one of the…
“Ameno” is a song that sounds like it is being sung in Latin. But the words are largely invented. They aren’t a conventional religious prayer. They don’t contain a hidden ancient message. And many of…
You write a song with someone overseas. You live in the UK and belong to PRS. Your collaborator lives in the US and belongs to ASCAP or BMI. Can you register the composition correctly? Yes.…
You search for your track and it is gone. No clear email. No obvious explanation. No warning. That is stressful, especially if the release had been live for months or years. The first rule is…
“Asha” is Asha Bhosle. The legendary Indian playback singer. And the “45” is a 45 RPM record. So “Brimful of Asha on the 45” is essentially an image of a record overflowing with the music,…
Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used to Know”, featuring Kimbra, samples “Seville” by Brazilian guitarist Luiz Bonfá. The borrowed element is a nylon-string guitar passage, which became part of the repeating foundation beneath Gotye’s breakup song.…
Taylor Swift’s “Patient Zero” is about something surprisingly specific: the new girlfriend of an ex contacting you because she has started experiencing the same troubling behaviour you experienced. Instead of treating the new woman as…
“Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene.” Four repetitions of a name created one of the most recognisable openings in music history. But was Jolene a real person? The answer is both yes and no. Dolly Parton’s famous…
