Use of Songs

[nirorivers6]

Can you use songs as a source of poetry? I saw mention earlier that you couldn't, but that seems like a valuable source of poetic wealth to draw from.

[Aelfric5578]

In the NYCFL it's definitely allowed. I've very rarely seen it done well though. Great, poetic songs don't always work well without the accompaniment. Also, sung lyrics have a type of dynamic which could not be produced using just spoken words. My guess would be that a slow, evenly paced song would do better than a fast one. For some reason, including the fact that I'm listening to the Elvis version right now, I could see "My Way" having the right rythm for a round of poetry. At the same time, picking a famous song might be tantamount to performing a scene from a popular movie in an interp round.

[nirorivers6]

are songs generally published?

[Aelfric5578]

Well, I own a few books of sheet music with lyrics, and those books have ISBN numbers, so doesn't that mean that atleast those songs that you can find sheet music for are considered published? I think even individual pieces of sheet music have ISBNs. I don't have my copy of Billy Joel's "Piano Man" with me, but I'm pretty sure there was an ISBN barcode on the back. So yeah, I'm pretty sure most songs are legal in competition. I just don't recommend actually using a song, unless you're sure that it's lyrics can stand alone without accompaniment.

[nirorivers6]

i just read under some invitational's rules (i forget which) that song lyrics were specifically prohibited, so it might vary from region to region, competition to compettion...better chech that out...

[GlobalLlama]

It's definitely allowed around here.

My poetry program last year was based on Collin Raye's song "Counting Sheep". It worked brilliantly. I made a little sheep character that I'd pop into whenever the sheep would do something. It helped to keep me from falling into a rythm.

Yes, you should be careful about song poetry, but it CAN be done to good effect.

[don silvestre]

Can you use songs as a source of poetry? I saw mention earlier that you couldn't, but that seems like a valuable source of poetic wealth to draw from.

It depends where you are. Usually, yes. But usually, you don't really want to. And ALWAYS make sure you are using the song because it has STRONG LYRICS that TRANSLATE WELL, not because you like Bob Dylan so much you just wanna cut up a whole **** stupid program about him.

[Josiahzacks]

Can you use songs as a source of poetry? I saw mention earlier that you couldn't, but that seems like a valuable source of poetic wealth to draw from.

It depends where you are. Usually, yes. But usually, you don't really want to. And ALWAYS make sure you are using the song because it has STRONG LYRICS that TRANSLATE WELL, not because you like Bob Dylan so much you just wanna cut up a whole huge stupid program about him.

True.

Also, the more obscure the song, the better.

There is no way you will be able to perform anything the judge knows the melody to without him or her thinking about the melody while you perform it.

And that's just distracting.



This is one of those situations where, if you're going to take the risk to do it (use song lyrics), be sure that 1) it's appropriate and essential to your piece, and 2) that you do it really, really well.

The potential for this sort of thing to fail miserably is high, so be sure your work is refined and practiced, and you're not doing song lyrics as poetry because you think it will be easier than doing a real poem.