lensart

När jag vår ung, trodde jag på det. Men, nu är jag gammalt och jag vet det är inte sant.

It might be more interesting to have the first few lines of a new posting instead of the poster's username. The username really isn't valuable information when looking at the overview of posts. It is more interesting to see what the last person who posted said, than who posted last. That way one could scan the debate in a particular thread for interest simply from the first line of a new post.

Christer, Thank you once again for responding to my yearly email concerning the Melody Festival rules. I appreciate you taking time to once again do so. This year I have begun a debate in the Studio Magazine forum and invite you to participate. The concern that I’m voicing is not based upon the relationship of SVT to SMFF, but that the Melody Festival rule set, which is written by SVT, assigns SMFF the task of judging the initial entries, even though members of that organization have a monetary interest in the ultimate success of competition songs, since they act as agents for some of the contestants. It seems like leaving the fox to guard the hen house, doesn’t it? Shouldn’t some other organization that has less conflict of interest be the initial song filter? It doesn’t seem like a coincidence that a grossly disproportionate number of ‘approved’ songs come from members of SMFF. In my opinion it is unethical to ask the public to spend time recording songs for the contest, when the chance that they have to be chosen is much less than song writers who have a publisher in SMFF. It is misleading for SVT to state that there were 3000 entries, when 2900 of them were very possibly summarily dismissed by the SMFF. I invite you to participate in the debate going on in the Studio magazine forum at https://www.studio.se/index.php?showtopic=26913. This letter will, of course, be posted there. Given that a large number of amateur and semi-professional song writers can be found there, it might be very constructive for you to read their views. Given the current rule set, it appears that the true purpose of the song contest is to promote the music of the Swedish Music Publisher’s Union, in which case I think that ‘melody festival’ is an inappropriate name and ‘SMFF Promotion Festival’ should replace it. Sincerely, Kirk Clendinning

Ordet Melodi kan väl även betyda Låt? Så jag förstår inte varför man ska utesluta arrangemang. Många melodier skulle inte låta särskilt övertygande utan ackord. Så för mig så är arrangemanget även en del av låtskrivarprocessen, eller vad är det ja missar? 😕 Dock håller jag med om att man ska lägga tyngdpunkt på själva låten i första hand. Sedan om det är en bra show är det ett plus. Som sagts tidigare kan Carola lyfta en inte särskilt övertygande melodi, men förstå då kombinationen av detta MEN med en övertygande melodi. Med närmare tanke ang. MIDI filer. En ev sång gör ett annat sound av melodin, med tanke på de olika vokalerna bl a. Och produktioner (inspelat/programmerat material) i allmänhet hjälper till att "få fram" kompositionen, med hjälp av dynamik, glide to note, etc. Så jag tycker allting går hand i hand, mer eller mindre. Men om detta skapar de problem du pratat om, så kanske man ändå måste använda sig av MIDI filer... Jag blir osäker. Viktigare är väl att man har en helt oberoende jury som väljer låtarna, inte de vanliga snubbarna. Yeah, I agree. The idea that certain melodies wouldn't sound good without the arrangement is true. And, my response to that is, they are not strong melodies! What has been lost now in pop music, with the advent of computerized arrangement technique, is similar to what has happened in film with digital effects; the plot is lost in the explosions. For me, there is a place for effect driven music, however that isn't in a melody festival. My opinion is that the melody and text should stand on their own without the backing arrangement. Then when the arrangement is added, the song is even stronger. So I guess the first question is whether or not the contest should be a 'song' contest or a 'Melody Festival'. I prefer the latter. I'm one who believes that both an effect driven song and melody driven song are art forms in their own right, but the former is an example of artistic ability 'playing' the studio, while the latter is an example of song crafting. For me the melody festival should be a contest of song crafting, not a display of production ability.

I must admit, I'm don't read or write music well. However, there are plenty of scripting tools available on computer now, among them 'Harmony' from a group in France, that inexpensively allows those that 'play by ear' to write a lead sheet. Frankly, a lead sheet is simply the melody line. It is a single staff with one line of notes and the words under it. It is what used to be required for a copyright before tapes were allowed.

Essentially, one would send an entry that contains what is required to copyright a song, melody and text with optional chords. To me, any arrangement helps give away the identity of the songwriter(s). I admit, it's almost impossible to completely separate the artist from the melody, but as you said, this would be a good compromise. What is more troubling, is that no one in Swedish Television or the musicians union... or perhaps the correct translation is the music publisher's union, see anything unethical about what is being done. It makes one question the very nature of humanity... are we still ruled by the 'selfish gene?'

Okay.. I couldn't help myself. I wrote Martin and asked him to participate in our little discussion. Martin, Again this year I’ve brought up a discussion of the Music Festival rules, only this time I have done so with musicians instead of SVT. Perhaps you’d be interested in taking part in this discussion. You can find it at https://www.studio.se/index.php?showtopic=26913. The question posed is why the 2007 rules state that those affiliated with SVT can’t compete, yet there is no mention of Svenska Musikförläggarföreningen judging the initial entries, yet also being the home of the majority of winners. Isn’t this a classic conflict of interest? Perhaps it’s time to either change the name of the contest to Swedish Music Industry Song Contest for Eurovision Promotional Exposure, or change the rules. Sincerely, Kirk Clendinning

Svenska Musikförläggarföreningen Föreningsjurist Ellinor Gyllenstierna Telefon: 08-783 89 86 E-mail: ellinor.gyllenstierna@smff.se Ordförande Kjell-Åke Hamrén Telefon: 08-783 95 24 E-mail: kjell-ake.hamren@@smff.se Ellinor, How come the members of the music union judge the entries to the song contest when so many of the member are competing. As a legal professional, I’d think you would understand how much of a conflict in interest that is. Don’t you think the melody festival rules should be changed so that members of the musician’s union are not allowed to compete if members of the union are judging the contest? Care to comment on the discussion I’ve started at Studio magazine’s forum? https://www.studio.se/index.php?showtopic=26913 Kirk PS, this letter in included in the discussion…

What would be really impressive is if I could write in Swedish... I can read it but not write it alas... English is my native language. As I explained in an earlier post, Does that mean an immigrant shouldn't express himself in Sweden if he cannot do so in Swedish? 😠

Now for the rules for those who are interested. At the Eurovision site is says: That means SVT and TV4. WHAT? TV4 could put on their own song contest? Looks like it... As for the local rules: What does transparency mean? The Swedish rules may found at: http://svt.se/content/1/c6/59/43/81/t%E4vl...regler_2007.pdf Here are a few of the interesting parts: Yeah, like they won't be able to hear who's singing the demo.. what a joke! But yet... I think that anyone associated with Svenska Musikförläggarföreningen should be disqualified for competion as well... Oh.. then there wouldn't be any contestants... Anyone interested in a rule change should write: m Martin Österdahl, projektledare SVT Fiktion, 08-784 0000 eller mejl martin.osterdahl@svt.se

SVT is a bit sensitive about this very question. Here's what it says on their homepage. But their math is a bit confused, the question asks about established songwriters, their answer talks about the number of writers who weren't involved earlier (a bit under what I counted in previous years). That answer is misleading because it doesn't count established songwriters working in a team with old pros... Not much encouragement to amateurs without industry connections. And if you count the Thomas G:son types who are involved with more than one song, that number looks more like 32 out of 89. Each time Thomas G:son was involved in a song, he should be counted as a participant. The real question, of course, is how many songs are written only by amateurs. I think this year that number would be... hmm... let me see if I added this up right... ZERO!!!! I might have counted wrong, so here's the list of all the song writing participants. Andreas Johnson, Peter Kvint, Calle Kindbom, Dan Fernström, Ingela "Pling" Forsman, Lars "Dille" Diedricson, Martin Hedström, Robert Olausson, Matti Alfonzetti, Johan Lyander, Sonya, Anders Glenmark, Niklas Strömstedt, Michael Clauss, Matthews Green, Carola Häggkvist, Thomas G:son, Bobby Ljunggren, Henrik Wikström, Lina Eriksson, Mårten Eriksson, Thomas G:son, Calle Kindbom, Alexander Bard, Anders Hansson, Lars Åberg, Jan Schaffer, Niclas Molinder, Joacim Persson, Pelle Ankarberg, Ingela "Pling" Forsman, Bobby Ljunggren, Henrik Wikström, Mikael Anderfjärd, Andreas Nordqvist, Dan Attlerud, Patrik Isaksson, Thomas G:son, Marcos Ubeda, Simone Moreno, Anders von Hofsten, Andreas Unge, Andreas Kleerup, Anna Sahlin, Bobby Ljunggren, Henrik Wikström, Kristofer Stange, Adam Chiapponi, Stefan Wesström, Martin Landh, Joacim Dubbleman, Sam McCarthy, Daniel Bäckström, Eddie Brown, Jens Duvsjö, Martin Carboo, Dan Larsson, Ingela "Pling" Forsman, Bobby Ljunggren, Henrik Wikström, Thomas G:son, Patrik Magnusson, Johan Ramström, Pablo Cepeda, Thomas G:son, Pontus Assarsson, Magnus Rongedal, Henrik Rongedal, Lotta Ahlin, Tommy Lydell, Niklas Edberger, Johan Fransson, Tobias Lundgren, Tim Larsson, Thomas G:son, Henrik Sethsson, Henrik Hansson, Anders Hallbäck, Mats Söderlund, Anderz Wrethov, Johan Fransson, Tobias Lundgren, Niklas Edberger, Tim Larsson, Sandra Dahlberg, Evan, Malin Eriksson, Jonas Sjöström

So the next question, or course, is how the Eurovision contest is run... What are the rules by which countries must abide to participate? How is the official 'host' of a country's contest chosen?

I think that it is important to separate production, performers and arrangement from the melody if one is to call it a 'Melodifestivalen'. As well, hearing an arrangement or a singer's voice is a very strong clue as to who sent in an entry.

Yes and I'm not steered by my wife either... 😉 While the two are not directly coupled, one might say that they get up on different sides of the same bed every morning. If you see laws that are not in favor of SVT get passed (or laws that make it easier to have private TV and radio) then you'll see more criticism of the government on the air. If you see too much critique of the government, then you'll see laws that support 'state' media and SVT funding under attack. It's not a perfect marriage, but it works. In fact, industry... one might think of as the child of the family still sleeps with his parents when he has bad dreams... 😳

The point of the boycott is that SVT does make a big deal about asking everyone to send in a song. I've got nothing against the music industry having a song contest to send to Eurovision if they want to do that, as long as everyone is playing on the same page, so to speak, and everyone knows what their TV license is paying for. What I want to see stopped is this senseless Santa Claus lie that SVT tells every year to young hopeful songwriters. I think that is unethical and irresponsible. OR... I want to see them adopt a rule change that only allows lead sheets to be sent in. That would make it more difficult (though not impossible) for the industry to cut to the front of the line. OR... I want the name changed to 'Best Produced Demo with the most Star Studded Cast Contest'... 😳