I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on the unwritten but often oppressively enforced rules that seem to exist when it comes to songwriting.
The sort of rules that say, you have to have verses and choruses, you have to have a middle eight, you have to have bridges, you have to have an intro, you have to have an outro, you can't be too repetitive, you can't make the song too long, you can't make the song too short etc. etc. etc. etc. etc.
Personally I find I'm getting more and more stubborn in my old age and if I've decided I want to do something a certain way then that's how I'm going to do it regardless of whether it's radio-friendly or if my peers like it or whatever else.
A great song that always springs to mind is 'All Along The Watchtower' by Bob Dylan because it just bashes out the same three chords over and over and it doesn't have a chorus, just verses with harmonica breaks in between. To me it's a perfect example of someone coming up with a great song by just doing it how they want to and saying to hell with convention.
I'm the sort of writer who will happily be quite repetitive if I think that a certain bit of a song is really good I like to keep repeating it. Also, sometimes I'll only use a few words in a song if I think that that's all it takes to deliver the message.
Any thoughts?