When does "ornate" become "pretentious

I am 15 years old. I am incapable of writing a nice, simple, 3 power chord song. Largely because I have little or no interest in it. It can take me weeks to finish a song with music and lyrics, but I get much more satisfaction out of writing a good song than writing many, so I think it's worth it. However, I am completely unable to write happy songs, so I write sad ones. Any time I share music or lyrics I am shot down with cries of "pretentious git", however, whenever I claim to be playing a song by an obscure artist, I get a reasonable amount of praise.

I am not saying that I succeed in conveying deep emotions, but at least I try. Most fellow songwriters write about sex & drugs, which, given their age, I think is considerably more pretentious. However,theirs is the true "art". It annoys me that my own, humble compositions are despised because I put effort into them, while a song knocked off in a drunken haze by a fellow teenager with the same predictable chords, melody, and lyrics is lauded for its originality. I just feel the need to ask, when does my fussing over if I have quite a strong enough counterpoint in my song stop being a labour of love, and become mere histrionics?

Hey Intro!
My names luke welcome to the forums!! :)

I wana see what you mean by saying the songs you write are only "Sad" ones!
if covering a song from a different band give you praise and make you happy i would try writing a song when your really happy, to try and bring your songs up more often
and if it takes you weeks to write songs make sure you add the topic at the top of the page and try to only write when your happy, before you know it you'll write an happier song!
If that does not work then I'd try to form a band and try and write a good 50% of songs, sometimes when bands make more sad songs it becomes a big Hit!


Just be happy when writing your songs or get someone else in your band (if you have one) to write some songs!

but remember sad songs are not all that bad!

I hope i sort of explained what you wanted.
If not SORRY!

Let's hear them dude. You have any recorded? If so post them somewhere and shoot us a link. There's plenty of knowledgeable people here to provide help and criticism [constructive].

Ozz

Im with ozz even though i sorta said that in my post
POST IT UP

that much maturity and intelligence in a post by someone whos my age? hit me up with the song dude. you create a very interesting and true argument.

let me tell you a short funny story

once upon a time there was me and 2 friends. the drummer and i are still friends, however the singer went on to not be too smart heres my example:

hes recording one of his many songs (he makes a new one a day, with those simple 3 chord songs same meaningless lyrics over and over, not musical at all) so hes practice with my drummer and they practice and he says k were gona record tht tommorow. the next day hes like k were not recording what we played yesterday, i wrote a new song last night (which was basclly the same idea just different key, which is basically all he does, one time i walk into practice and he goes i wrote a new song and i asked well what key is it in hes like idk but it starts on a "b" and i go right so its b, g, d, a. hes like how the ** did you know?? im like because you werite the same thing over and over just in different keys same shapes... and its the notes of the strings! hahaha) anyway they go to record it and he randomly changes the tempo and they were like wtf you dont need that...

** i totally forgot what i was going at let me post sober haha...

but seriously keep doing what your doing and hit me up with it id be curious to hear it.

oh yeah im not sure what you ment by all those long words... explain simpler sorry... haha

thom yorke didn't write any happy songs... (but then again, he did rise to popularity at a time when the grunge movement was at its peak).

i completely agree that a 15 year old writing about sex and drugs is pretentious and i wouldn't listen to that crap.

yeah man, the world needs musicians like you!! dont give up writing what you want, dont fall into writing about crap. I too seem to only be able to write sad songs, even though I'm quite a jolly guy.

anywho, welcome! im looking forward to hearing your music

well you turn out more songs than i do, i might write a song a month, if not longer. my writing process is very slow. But i understand what yer sayin, i play sad music, its the way ive always been. And i have an absolute hate for power chords, i find myself calling them the lazy mans chord

im not all for power chords, but im not at all against them either. in some places they do sound better than open chords (imo). you just gotta do whats best for the song

My best advice would be write songs that are true to you, but at the same time know your audience. If you want to entertain friends or parents or whatever, don't play sad songs, or just play some of your less sad songs. You don't necessarily have to write happy songs to be able to play them anywhere. Songs I write rarely are "happy" songs. But they are "hopeful" by that I mean Im talking about something that saddens me or depresses me, but almost in a way that makes the listener/myself feel influenced. Hope that helps some.

trust me, i know people that take YEARS to make one song. you arnt slow lol.

You are on the right track. Keep it up and ignore the critics!

If YOU compose a song (that what I read from your post, its your emotions and feelings etc there) who can give critics to your emotions? none, keep your trail that you have chosen and have faith in it. If hundred people do not like your lyrics (emotions etc), there IS always those, who share these emotions or touch them somehow.

Anyway, baseballer have good points there, if you need to play to audience and they WANT somekind of style, give em it...or refuse to play :P...

Empirism