An Eternal Question

There are many unanswered questions in the world. Why did the chicken cross the road? Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Well, in the music industry, there is one glaring question. It starts more arguments than the 'Prince or Michael Jackson' question. The question is what's more important, the singer or the songwriter?

The singer and songwriter both are important. This has been evident since the beginning of time. But who's more important. The songwriter has the arduous task of thinking up melodies and lyrics. It's a visceral thing to do. To sit there and pull something out of thin air. Writing anything, let alone, a song forces the songwriter to deal with feelings and emotions most of us don't want to deal with. For example, "Coming From Where I'm From" is written by Anthony Hamilton. In it he discusses being scared of fatherhood because his father wasn't a good one to him. To get the emotion in his lyrics, he had to tear himself wide open and examine himself from a third party perspective. Would you be able to do that? Can most singers do that?

Most singers can't examine themselves like that because they aren't fully prepared to do so. But what singers can do is interpret the words on the paper. Whitney Houston is one of the greatest singers of all time. Yet she couldn't write a song, if that was the only way she could convince the world she isn't on crack anymore. Her biggest hit is "I Will Always Love You" and that's written by Dolly Parton. While Dolly Parton's version is the original, Houston's is way more remembered. It's because of her interpretation. Everyone and their grandmother knows every single riff Whitney did. For the guys reading this, do not try to deny this fact because you're probably singing right now. But I digress.

When it comes down to it, the most important person in this conversation is the singer/songwriter. No, I'm not copping out and saying that they are of equal importance. I'm talking about people like Neyo. He writes his own songs and sings the hell out of them. From a business perspective he makes the most money too. Every single time a song he writes is played, he gets paid. So when 'Unfaithful' by Rihanna plays, he gets money. When 'Miss Independent' plays, he gets a check. So whitney Houston and singers in that vein can interpret the hell out of some of our favorite songs, but they can be replaced and interchanged. A songwriter can go through all the soul searching he wants to find that perfect. Song, but if the singer doesn't sing it correctly, the song is lost on the listener. So it is the singer/songwriter who is the most vital to the music industry. He knows how to write the song and sing it to its full potential.