Songwriting Camps in the 21st Century (SC21)

流行音乐对许多人来说有很高的个人价值；它触动了我们的情感，创造了我们的回忆，陪伴着我们的日常生活。听众可能不知道我们喜欢的歌曲是如何创作的；在许多情况下，它是通过许多人的合作努力：表演艺术家，唱片制作人，工程师，程序员，编曲。然而，歌曲这一最基本方面的创造者并不一定包括在这个列表中：那些创作要表演、录制和发行的歌曲的词曲作者。尽管人们浪漫地认为表演艺术家自己写歌，但现实往往大相径庭。许多进入排行榜的歌曲都是由专业的歌曲创作团队（共同）创作的，越来越多的歌曲创作团队由出版商和唱片公司召集和监督。这个项目研究在歌曲创作营中如何进行合作歌曲创作。作为首个关注英国和德国的研究，它调查了21世纪存在哪些形式的歌曲创作营地，以了解召集人（出版商、唱片公司、个人）和参与的专业人士的利益。它调查了协作的创作过程和不同角色的不同技能组合的相互作用（顶线者，节拍者，作词者，制作人，表演者），并提供了对离线和在线阵营的组织，法律因素的见解，以及歌曲创作阵营在更广泛的音乐产业中的作用。调查将揭示是谁召集了这些事件，目的是什么，什么被创造出来并最终被选择释放。法律因素，如版税、股份和分割将被考虑，以及在发挥作用的权力结构。除了组织这些营地，研究还将调查参与者的个人、专业和文化背景如何影响他们的目标和行动。这包括对协作创作工作的深入分析，以及对离线和在线协作歌曲创作价值的评估。此外，该研究将研究该行业如何在短期和中期使用营地的结果。为了了解歌曲创作营地的组织、目的、参与者、过程和结果，本研究采用了多种方法，特别是对30名专业人士（词曲作者和行业代表）进行定性访谈，在现实生活中的离线和在线歌曲创作营地进行民族志实地考察，并进行实地笔记和视频记录，以及通过多摄像头设置和录音采访记录歌曲创作实验室的实施。学术界对商业歌曲创作作为一种职业、一种创造性和经济活动，以及它在更广泛的音乐产业中的实现的理解仍然有限。特别是，几乎没有关于歌曲创作营的文献，而所有这些文献都是在Covid-19之前存在的。由于这些原因，这项研究有望产生深远的影响。它发展了一个经验衍生的歌曲创作阵营模型，其中包括不同的演员、兴趣以及歌曲创作的创造性、社会和经济背景。就词曲作者本身而言，我们希望对这种做法的普遍理解以及参与者如何合理化他们的参与产生重大影响。对于那些召集歌曲创作营的人来说，这项研究将改变他们对歌曲创作营作为一种生产模式的商业和专业潜力的理解。虽然学术和新闻文献对合作歌曲创作的价值达成了共识，但歌曲创作阵营日益重要的作用尚未得到很好的理解。本研究项目通过在英国和德国建立一个系统的歌曲创作营模型奠定了基础，填补了知识上的重大空白，为未来在年轻的歌曲创作研究领域的研究奠定了基础。

Popular music has a high personal value for many people; it touches us emotionally, creates memories and accompanies us in our daily lives. The listener may not be aware of how the songs we enjoy are created; in many cases, it is through the collaborative effort of a number of people involved: performing artists, record producers, engineers, programmers, arrangers. However, the creators of the most fundamental aspect, the song, are not necessarily included in this list: songwriters who compose the songs to be performed, recorded and released. Despite the romantic notion that performing artists write their own songs, the reality is often quite different. Many songs that enter the charts are (co-)written by professional songwriting teams, increasingly in songwriting camps convened and overseen by publishers and record companies.This project researches how collaborative songwriting takes place in songwriting camps. As the first study to focus on the UK and Germany, it investigates what forms of songwriting camps exist in the 21st century to understand the interests of convenors (publishers, record companies, individuals) and participating professionals. It investigates the collaborative creative processes and interplay of the different skill-sets of various roles (topliners, beatmakers, lyricists, producers, performers) and offers insights into the organisation of offline and online camps, legal factors, and the role of songwriting camps within the wider music industries. The investigation will uncover who convenes these events, for what purposes, and what is created and ultimately selected for release. Legal factors such as royalties, shares and splits will be considered as well as the power structures at play. Apart from the organisation of these camps, the research will investigate how the participants' personal, professional and cultural backgrounds influence their aims and actions. This includes an in-depth analysis of the collaborative creative work and the evaluation of the value of collaborative songwriting offline and online. Furthermore, the research will study how the industry uses the results of the camps in the short and medium term.To understand the organisation, purposes, participants, processes and outcomes of songwriting camps, the research employs a combination of methods, in particular qualitative interviews with 30 professionals (songwriters and industry representatives), ethnographic fieldwork in real-life offline and online songwriting camps with field notes and video recordings, and the implementation of a Songwriting Lab documented with a multi-camera setup and audio-recorded interviews.The academic understanding of commercial songwriting as a profession and as a creative and economic activity, as well as its realisation in the wider music industries, is still limited. In particular, there is next to no literature on songwriting camps, and all that exists pre-dates Covid-19. For these reasons, the research is expected to have a profound impact. It develops an empirically derived model of songwriting camps with their various actors, interests and the creative, social and economic contexts in which songs are written. In terms of the songwriters themselves, we expect to make a significant impact on the general understanding of this practice and how participants rationalise their involvement. For those who convene songwriting camps, this research will transform their understanding of the commercial and professional potential of songwriting camps as a model of production. While there is a consensus in academic and journalistic literature about the value of collaborative songwriting, the increasingly important role of songwriting camps is not yet well understood. This research project lays the groundwork by developing a systematic model of songwriting camps in the UK and Germany, filling a significant gap in knowledge and providing a foundation for future research in the young field of songwriting studies.