How important are titles? by Tom O'Brien on The Pipeline at IndieMusicPeople

How important are titles?
Do you judge the proverbial book by its cover? Do you look at a title, and then if it doesn't speak to you, not listen to it? I ask because I think there are good songs of mine that don't seem to get as much play as others. It might just be that they don't grab people with the first few bars, but what if it's all in the title and people never even listen?

There's way too much music out there to listen to all of it. Check out my titles, if you would, and see if there are any that make you not want to listen. I've already changed "Anchors Aweigh" to "Sausalito." I'm not averse to title changes. A title's just a selling tool.

http://iacmusic.com/artist.aspx?id=128691

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Richard Scotti

6/10/2009 10:40:20 PM

Tom-
You might be over thinking this a little. I looked at your titles and they were all
interesting and not in need of changing. It would be pointless and somewhat arbitrary to change an existing title. The title is the title! It reflects what's in the song. If you think a title might be uninteresting then maybe the song needs changing, which would autmatically change the title. For myself, I basically use the first line of the chorus as the title most of the time. I know there are artists who use titles that are no teven mentioned in the song (famous example- Rainy Day Women #12 and #35 by Dylan) But when artists other than Dylan do it, it sounds a bit pretentious and kind of distracts from the song because the listener is waiting to hear the title of the song in the body of the song. If they don't hear the title mentioned in the song then it's easy to forget what it is. But there are no rules. It's all subjective. This is just my take on titles. Yours are fine. Don't worry about it.

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SILVERWOODSTUDIO

6/10/2009 11:09:39 PM

I tend to agree with Richard except in certain genres ---Punk and Hip Hop

then--------- expletives or derivitive terms, (from the culture) seem to be necessary to catch the right listeners--

----but that's not ewe Tom lol!

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Paul groover

6/10/2009 11:30:34 PM ---- Updated 6/10/2009 11:31:35 PM

I think titles are the cusp of intelligence, thoughtfulness and desire they show what you are bringing before you have played a note. It can bring the listener in subliminally without them ever being aware of it. Think of all the songs you like yourself they all have great titles why because the title usually have a deeper meaning unseen to your everyday self. Only when you sit down and listen to a piece with an open mind does it dawn on you what they are driving at. Music is much more than a bunch of random notes selected for there usefulness and funkiness. It,s on a much higher plain than that. The spiritual you always knows when something is right all you got to do is listen to when just for a second you have an epiphany and you know it,s right. Then bam your uncle is your mother,s brother

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Bob Elliott

6/11/2009 3:50:01 AM

I'm really into naming the songs...

Sometimes there isn't really a choice. But sometimes there really is...

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