I remember hearing songwriter/music publisher Eric Beall talk a few years ago about the value of uptempo songs, particularly in live performance.
He pointed out (I’m paraphrasing) that an artist can have a lot of slow- or mid-tempo songs on a recording but that even artists who are known for ballads can only do so many in their live set without putting people to sleep (there are exceptions, but not many).
As I recall, he directed his points mostly to songwriters who are specifically trying to write for artists other than themselves. But almost everyone needs uptempo songs – he’s a music publisher as well as a songwriter, so he knows..
What I took away was basically that, all other things being equal, an uptempo song had more value in the marketplace than a ballad… and also that, to most writers, slower songs seem to come more naturally than faster songs… so writing uptempo songs may require more off a conscious effort. In the last few years I’ve seen the truth of that in my own writing and performances.
In mid-2010 I started a new band to perform my songs. We’ve been performing in NYC clubs about every 6-8 weeks since then. I write pretty steadily, and I always do newly written songs at every gig, so we’ve probably got over 50 of my songs in our ‘book’.
In a vacuum, all the songs are created equal… but when I’m putting together our set lists, I’d say an uptempo song is worth at least twice as much to me as a ballad or midtempo song (not intrinsically but in its utility in the set), as well as having that much better chance of remaining in the set and not being replaced by a newer song.
As a result, now when I write, I’m all over something that is potentially rousing; I’ll give it a higher ‘finishing’ priority – I need the energy in the set, I need the contrast.
Of course a song can be extremely rousing without being fast… but I do think our bodies respond to tempos and without variety in that area (just like with key signatures) listeners tend to become complacent.
To come full circle, this makes me like many/most other artists, the ones Eric was talking about – more in need of untempo songs than midtempos or ballads.
As long as we’re discussing tempos, one other point. I, and I think most writers, have a few ‘comfort zone’ tempos. Speaking in Beats Per Minute (bpm), I naturally write a lot in the mid-90s bpm. My faster songs tend to gravitate to around 140-150 bpm. I’ve noticed and dealt with this kind of thing (though with different tempo comfort zones) with a lot of writers I’ve produced, coached, and played with over the years.
It’s something I’m now very conscious of in my own writing; I try to be aware of the big picture – Am I writing another song at a tempo and groove where I’ve already got a bunch of songs? If so, that doesn’t stop me from writing the song if I think it’s worthwhile. I just try to stay aware of not repeating myself too much, of finding feels and tempos that I haven’t already explored extensively.
One way I’ve found to break out of the comfort zones is to pattern a new song after a song that I really like (by another artist) and that is NOT in one of my comfort zones tempos/feels. It’s fun too!