“I’m writing a teenage symphony to God.”
- Brian
Wilson on the composition process for Smile
The most reliable method music has of getting noticed and
beloved is to be emotionally relatable. Unlike aesthetic appeal, which is
subjective, or technical ability, which can be off-putting in its virtuosity, a
song that contains emotional rawness based around love, pain, or some other
primal human emotion will almost always find an audience, and a devoted one at
that. If a listener can connect to a song emotionally, they will forgive almost
any flaw or shortcoming that may occur to a more objective critic; a belief in
a song’s message will outweigh almost everything else.
There’s a reason, after all, why the first wave of
mainstream pop was orchestrated pocket symphonies built around love stories,
sad or otherwise. The early 60s were filled to the brim with aching, ‘young’
stories: tales of rebellion, squashed ambition, star-crossed lovers, or even
simple hobbies like surfing and driving. That first wave of pop appealed to
young folks (the market most likely to be buying singles and hanging around
radios) with stories they could find relatable, either by some core detail or
through some massive-in-scale emotion. When you’re a teenager, after all, every
defeat, victory, and heartbreak has an intense poignancy. It all feels like something
out of the movies, mainly because moviemakers decided to tap into that idea.
