Copywriting & Musicians Redux

Hey all!

Some of you know my background is in music, performing and songwriting...Most of my success was centered around a fleeting moment in my career when I was vetted by Journey to be their lead singer in 2007, and my participation in the subsequent success of their Platinum selling comeback release in 2008.

I'm working on my plan of action for the coming year, and in studying people like Kevin Rogers, Vin, and Carlton for inspiration, my big goal for next year is to fully flesh out some sort of USP for myself...The natural go-to source of that in my eyes has been my success as a songwriter and my experiences as a performer.

I've talked with a few top-notch pros in private that frequent this forum about this approach. And we've talked before about a common thread between copywriters and musical ability (apparently there's a lot of us knocking around on guitars between copywriting gigs).

I've been developing my own correlation between the elements of successful copy and songwriting and performing, but I'd like to hear from some of the other musos here on this forum that maybe have found a link between writing effective copy and writing a killer song...

Have you ever found yourself writing a song and used the principles of copywriting (getting attention, creating desire within the listener, using storytelling to maintain interest, etc)?

For example, one common thread I've seen is finding the right "voice" for your prospects (or listeners)...It's just as important to write in the language of your listeners (and prospects) and write for your specific audience.

In other words, if you're marketing to other internet marketers, you'd better write in a way that they identify with, versus writing for lonely women or people desperate to lose weight.

Same goes for a song. If you're writing music for a target market, you'd better focus on what they want to hear in a way that they're used to hearing it.

When I wrote with Journey, it was at a time they had some trouble getting back on track with what it was that made them so popular and beloved (or hated!)...One segment of the band wanted to branch out into more experimental territory...Another knew what fans wanted to hear, which was...More Journey.

And I happened to agree with that. So despite some resistance to write in a more experimental vein, I helped focus them back to the basics of what made their songs such a success.

The result was a resurgence in the band, a million copies sold, and New York Times critic Ben Ratliff saying "Within the first minute and a half, you’re given a huge melody and a full story line: a pair of young lovers have run away, hit hard times and decided with finality that they won’t give up on love. Journey, in a nutshell."

Now it's just as important to focus copywriting in the same way. Write in their voice...To their own needs, problems, and desires...

I admit, it's copywriting 101...Elementary bullshit, some may say...But it's a key component of both copywriting and writing a successful song, which is exactly the correlation I'm trying to flesh out in my own approach.

So for any other musical copywriters out there...Do you find that this rings true for you? What ways have you strengthened either your own copywriting or songwriting by applying some of the same principles?

Jeremey