The Null Device

In the age of riffs, grooves and samples, the question of what constitutes songwriting is not easily answered: (Salon)

The traditional definition of a song -- a lyric set to melody over chord changes -- works fine for Jewel, Bob Dylan or Celine Dion. But it doesn't work for Metallica, Public Enemy, the Wu-Tang Clan or any other groups that build songs from riffs, beats and sound effects.

Take "I'll Be Missing You," a smash hit for Sean "Puffy" Combs in 1997. Built on a sample from the Police's 1983 hit "Every Breath You Take," Combs credited the song to Sting, who wrote the Police tune, and the two lyricists who wrote the new words. For Police guitarist Andy Summers, this constituted a double whammy. "My job in the Police was to provide the guitar part, but I provided a rather seminal one there, which kind of made the song," says Summers, who received no writing credit, and never thought to ask for it.

"If I can sit down and play the chords and sing the lyrics and melody, that's my song," says Kooper, 55. "Anything else is arrangement. That's why those words were coined."

Another reason for sharing in hip-hop may be African-American cultural norms. "There's this Western European idea of one guy who sits down and comes up with the important thing -- the melody and the words," notes guitarist Peter Buck of R.E.M. "Whereas the African conception is that everyone plays together. Bo Diddley should be a millionaire for the Bo Diddley beat, but that isn't the way it works."

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