Where does song writing ability go as we age?

Rich G.

Experienced
After seeing THIS thread about Heart's new album I decided to listen to the whole thing. I was surprised that of the 10 songs on the album, only 3 were new tracks. The other 7 were remakes of songs from Heart's past. This got me thinking about songwriting. It seems that most artists come up with their best songs somewhere between 25 and 35 years old. Van Halen, Rhoads, Hendrix- all in their 20's when they were on fire. The early Heart albums have some incredible songwriting. The more recent one seem stale.

What changes in us that makes us less creative as we age? Do our brains stop creating new neural pathways thus putting us in a musical rut? You'd think as we age we'd gain more musical experience that would help us in song writing. I'm interested in perspectives on this...
 
I think writing true to the heart songs are what makes a song have longevity.

Once you are past the drama in your life, then your songs are not as interesting to the masses.

Some of the best songs / albums are written out of the emotional turmoil of the band / writers.
 
It's all in the Angst. You lose it as you get older and start to get in a groove with life. Older musicians have stated they can do most things but be angry is not one of them. Once your kids are in college, and your mortgage is almost paid off. You're kinda doing things right. My beard is longer than my picture and my wife says I look angry at times. Personally, I'm never, ever angry. I think of these guys who play metal into their late 40's. They may look angry they are not. If they are, they must have crappy accountants.
 
Young, dumb, full of crap, 10 feet tall, invisible and bulletproof.
vs
Old and just happy we survived all that crap and happy we can afford all the stuff we couldn't when we were in the above condition.
 
Interesting topic - and I agree with Rich's observations to a certain extend.
Often I find the songs written when the artist is young and (somewhat) unknown to be the best, most pure with the most raw emotion like others have mentioned.
And I agree that emotional turmoil, angst, being pissed off at injustices (political, racial, economical - or just being pissed off for no other reason than to be pissed off) and struggling with finding your way in life and defining yourself can play a big part in this.
Also when you're young you take chances, you're often more rebellious and you often see the world more black and white - and rebellious and uncompromising people or songs are often the ones that attract the most attention.
That being said, I believe that some if not a lot of the best song writers continue to hone their skills through life and become even better songwriters with age - I've certainly seen more than a few examples of that.
The guys Rick mention in the OP (VH, Rhoads and Hendrix) and many others absolutely did their best stuff early on, but there might be a very obvious reason for that - they were fueled by drugs and alcohol, so apart from dying early (2/3), they probably decomposed their brain and thus their creativity quite a bit.
I know many state that they were great because of the drugs, but I for one don't buy that for a second, maybe the drugs temporarily channeled something, but I think most of these guys were in fact held back by the drugs and I've heard Clapton say that he believes that the drugs had a negative effect on his and others playing and development as musicians.
I for one have often thought about what Hendrix's creative output would have been had he not done so many drugs and not died so young.
 
Viagra = robber of creativity ;) no, i'm not sure, it does seem that most bands have a "White Album" so to speak, and then it's kind of down hill from there. It's also worth discussing about where you were when you heard the music you hold dear. VH1 will not hold the same spot in my sons heart as it does for me. I grew up on it, he did not.
 
Don't agree with the idea completely. Isn't it more a matter of interest of the youth and broadcoasting companies for younger artists ? It doesn't mean older artist can't write anymore; there's just less emphasis and floodlight on their work that reflects more life experience and the experience that so many stories have been told and sung a million times. The Bruce still writes great songs, Dylan does, Arno Hintjes does, Edith Piaff did and many more experienced musicians still do. Their songs just don't come up on the radio as much compared to their older victories, and the main difference of those that still can passionate and those that don't anymore is their own passions for their job and interest in humanity and contact with society in a general manner. Maybe the mortgage or the difficulty of consumers to understand that there's an artist life after the big hit ? Just my 2 cents.
 
One other potential factor is time. Earlier albums are the result of years of writing. Once a band breaks through, they generally get only a year or two between albums. Consequently we find ourselves comparing early albums with five years of material with later ones containing two years of material. Couple that with the personal and professional time demands as one's life progresses and it's easy to understand how the creative products change for the worse, especially when day to day life becomes less dramatic.
 
It's also worth discussing about where you were when you heard the music you hold dear. VH1 will not hold the same spot in my sons heart as it does for me. I grew up on it, he did not.
This. ^^^

No music can ever completely match the music you listened to in your teens and twenties. Whenever that was for you, that's the stuff with the best riffs, the truest feel, and the deepest lyrics.
 
No music can ever completely match the music you listened to in your teens and twenties. Whenever that was for you, that's the stuff with the best riffs, the truest feel, and the deepest lyrics.

Very interesting! Never thought about that before... But still think it is a combination of a lot of factors. I think that in younger age, we don't know where we belong and we try to find that missing part. Most of us just explore more in their 20's and are more unstable, angrier or more naive. It might give the songwriting in younger age the special thing(more exciting maybe?). If you take some classical music(I know very little btw), I observed that I tend to like the earlier pieces more. How about you guys?
 
My two cents:
1) Time. Young people have more time together to be creative. They jam and experiment more because they don't have as many other responsibilities.
2) Freedom. Freedom to sound like crap, or be simple, or whatever. I think we tend to limit our creativity as we get older by self imposed standards of what a good riff or song is supposed to be like.

Also, I think that we need to acknowledge we are talking in generalities, so of course there are exceptions.
 
Here are my observations as a 40-something musician.

When you are young you are not afraid of:
  • nicking your influences and putting your spin on it.
  • establishing a musical identity and then mutating it or changing it completely based on whims, life changing events, etc.
  • taking chances on your instrument and being unafraid of doing stuff wrong or sounding "bad".
When you are older, all of that dials back a little.

Many start trying to be "original" to the point of chasing their tails trying to avoid any nicking of anything from the past. Either that or you get into the rut where you have a catalog of 200 songs, but they are variants of the same 10 songs that were the early hits for fear of alienating the fans.

Many start trying to perfect instrument techniques and fancy theory to the detriment of telling the story and conveying emotion of a song through their instrument.

The struggle is real trying to avoid those traps of growing older, but it is certainly better than the alternative.
 
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People get hi-jacked by lifes other issues, many musicians that attain fame aren't allowed to grow beyond the style or music that made them famous - people don't accept them or new music from them, so they have to dig up old stuff to remain relevant?
 
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