One thing that makes copyright protection easier and harder at the same time is the fact that registration is not required. As soon as a creative work is materialized in the world, it is already copyrighted. While this is reassuring, it also means your work is vulnerable as it might be harder to prove ownership if your copyright is ever infringed.

Depending on which system your country adopts (for example, the United States uses the copyright system, while France and Brazil use droit d’auteur), a copyright registration certificate may hold bigger or smaller force in a lawsuit.

However, not many…

Art can be a medium for self-expression and a powerful way to connect with others through sharing your feelings — it can even be a way for healing through that.

However, it is also true that art is a powerful tool to build universes and stories.

Although fiction is mostly related to literature and dramatic arts, it can be present in music too. Even when the topic of your lyrics is yourself.

After all, no one is entitled to the artist’s feelings, not even in their own art; and vulnerability, honesty, and emotion are not songwriting techniques — they can…

In 2017, I wrote in this blog about pre-choruses and bridges losing space in songwriting, and outlets like The Guardian published analysis of how streaming might have been responsible for how the “intro” section has disappeared from pop songs as well.

Now, it seems like people might be starting to miss the “old” songwriting framework.

In the last week of January 2021, the hashtag #TakeItToTheBridgeThread brought music fans on Twitter to celebrate songs from past years that featured remarkable bridges. …

From books about music and musicians to songs inspired by books, music and literature have never been strangers to one another.

But, as Intellectual Property becomes one of the most valued and wanted assets, and as labels and music management companies look for more diversification, the music & literature dialogue is being pushed even further.

More than just publishing books about music, the crossover is getting more intense, as the literary works and the music are supplementing each other.

Music & books crossovers in 2020

The year 2020 ended with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation announcing a literary venture together with Random House: Roc Lit 101, intended to…

Storytelling is as important for songwriting as it is for movies. And, especially in the 2020s, as so many K-pop groups started the decade getting deeper and deeper into conceptual, intellectual frameworks for their music, videos, and performances, there’s no need to say how much storytelling is important for K-pop too.

Yet sometimes you hear K-pop songs that dare to play with storytelling formulas in ways that almost tricks you into thinking it’s the same old “rising action-climax-falling action-resolution” when they’re actually a little bit more chaotic mix of these concepts. It’s the case of ATEEZ’s “Answer”.

K-pop is not…

Olivia Rodrigo’s “drivers license” has been compared to the likes of Taylor Swift, and Lorde. Although in my first listen of the song, my mind actually pointed me to Gracie Abrams’ “M.I.N.O.R.” (funny enough, also a song about a teenager longing to drive to see a lover — Olivia said to be inspired by Gracie’s song), as the song grows on me, it recalls more Adele than anyone else to me.

Yes, “drivers license” is adolescent; yes, the music video screams Generation Z ~aesthetics~; yes, Olivia’s timbre and the song’s production are closer to “indie” pop than radio diva pop…

Given that rock was the first music genre to be socially accepted as an icon of rebellion (for reasons that are beyond the scope of this review), it’s not that weird that the expression “rock star” became a common one to define iconoclastic musicians and performers, even when they do not make rock music. But, well, sometimes they do too.

It’s case the case of singer and songwriter Bad Bunny, the reggaeton king that doesn’t really limit his musicality. …

A non-exhaustive list of 7 times BTS’s songwriting blew my mind with their harmonies

[Disclaimer: this post is written from my perspective, as a music lover and songwriter who grew up listening to music mostly from Brazil, Latin American countries, the United States and United Kingdom. While my late familiarity with non-Western music might make me biased to judge the songwriting patterns in the music of BTS, I believe it may contribute to debunk the dismissive rhetoric that BTS and/or K-pop emulates bubblegum Western pop trends]

Harmony, in music theory and songwriting, is the combination of chords and the emotions…