From 'Murphy's Laws' to Writing Comedy Music

Blogged by Cal State graduate music student and EXPO attendee, Julie Kenol...

The first session I went to was Murphy’s Laws of Songwriting.  It was excellent, especially as a songwriter looking for better ways to write songs and get them placed on radio and in the commercial world. Ralph Murphy not only was hilarious but he gave some really concrete tools to use while writing. He mentioned that it’s important to know who you’re writing for which is something I’ve always heard – but the essential concept that he mentioned was to write for women and about women. That was really an eye opener because then he stressed how important each detail was and why. Over all I left with a greater understanding of what to think about while writing a song specifically geared towards radio.

The next panel I sat in on was Song Listening: Pop/Rock. I actually was looking for more in depth discussion on each song that was played. They went pretty quickly through the commentary part and not all the panelist spoke about each song, which I thought would have been helpful since they all come from different areas in the business. An interesting point that Lynn Grossman made was that as a Music Supervisor, it is really easy to place a song that has a general story and not something that is really specific, as those are harder to place. And that is really helpful to know especially when that is one of my goals.

I also sat in part of on the Funny Money: Writing Comedy Music.  Unfortunately I missed some of panelists, but I caught Tim & Eric and heard Seth MacFarlane (creator of "Family Guy") speak. It was hilarious and I even heard a mini performance from Kevin McDonald of his “unfinished song.” I learned about the thought process a composer goes through in composing for shows like “Family Guy” and “The Simpsons” (Alf Clausen) and how music helps get the joke across.