Marjorie Scott-Anderson - LeVaughn Flynn
With dancehall lyrics being scolded by the Broadcasting Commission's tongue of purification, the artistes are being pressed to produce material without delving into derogatory diatribes.
Marjorie Scott-Anderson offers a solution for that - Songwriters' Boot Camp.
Striving to enhance the skills of Jamaican lyricists, the Songwriters' Boot Camp puts ambitious writers through a strenuous weekend of inspiration and creative writing-skills training. March 27-29 will mark a successful eight years of training upcoming writers and giving them the skills they need to make it big in the business. Organised and conceptualised by Scott-Anderson, the Songwriters' Boot Camp was partly inspired by the military boot camp as a model for preparing persons physically, mentally and emotionally to conceive a new approach to songwriting.
Held at Starlight Chalet Hotel and Spa in the Blue Mountains, aspiring and established songwriters are whisked away to the peace and tranquility of the St Andrew hills to be inspired and write clean, uplifting lyrics.
"The camp was designed to arm participants with pertinent information, offer them an opportunity to use it and present a forum for product development," Scott-Anderson told The Sunday Gleaner.
"The whole person was considered - the physical and the spiritual. The camp started in 2000 and has been going strong getting usually about 30 participants each year. The aim is that participants will leave with market-ready songs to be evaluated by an identified producer and publishing company."
Out of these workshops, the Jamaica Songwriters' Guild was born and launched in April during Intellectual Property Week 2004. The mission of the guild is to promote the improvement of all aspects of the art of songwriting and to position Jamaican songwriting as a formidable product in the international marketplace.
Last Tuesday, Ronnie Burke, former managing director of Synergy Productions, stressed the importance of creativity in songwriting. Burke was speaking at a Reggae music symposium at the Girl Guides' headquarters in St Andrew, which was part of Reggae Month celebrations. He pointed out that cleanly written lyrics in English is more marketable.
"We have lost out a lot on marketing and overseas tours because our dominant music is dancehall, which is not accepted at the traditional European festivals," he said. "What we have found out in Europe, North America and the United Kingdom is that they simply don't understand what the DJs are saying and we find that it's not marketable. Thus, tours have fallen off because there is just not enough melody in what we call popular music today.
"Even when people understand, they do not like it, and the homophobic lyrics are not accepted in Europe."
Overseas presenters
Scott-Anderson said, over the years, the camp has strived to have local and overseas presenters, as well as presentations from local intellectual property rights organisations. Past presenters include acclaimed writer Colin Channer, Jason Blume, who is the songwriter for Britney Spears and Backstreet Boys and who also conducts all Broadcast Music Incorporated monthly songwriting workshops in the United States. There has also been Richard 'Dick' Weissman, vice-president of Music and Entertainment Industry Educators Association in the USA and associate professor in the music and entertainment industry studies programme at the University of Colorado, Denver, USA.
This year's overseas presenter is American John Braheny, author of The Craft and Business of Songwriting. He is one of the most recognised names in the music industry and in the songwriting community. Local songwriter and producer and owner of Grafton Studios, Mikie Bennett, has also played a key role as a presenter over the years. While attending the camp, students learn how to structure songs, learn about rhythms and rhymes, language development and more.
So far, the camp has seen talents such as Rachel Manley, Abijah and Alwin Bully, who plans productions for Father Richard Ho Lung, among others.
"The boot camp attracts a variety from young persons, to students from the School of Music, to business people, cabaret people from the north coast, the Rastaman who want to 'buss'. There was once a doctor who did it for two years who believed music was important to medicine," said Scott-Anderson.
Powerful tool
She stated the content and format of the boot camp makes it a powerful tool for upcoming songwriters who will add value to the music industry.
With the heat facing dancehall, Burke believes the artistes and writers need to reassess their approach to their craft.
"Dancehall has its place, it is great. However, we need to restore some balance between the writing of songs versus the writing of lyrics, because what we're doing is creating hit rhythms and not hit songs," Burke said.