Songwriters growing older and losing the ability to write engaging melodies

I think one thing that happens with a lot of people is that they think they can get away with stuff, which of course they can to an extent. The quality of song that is required to break through is higher than that required to keep a career ticking over.

With someone like Paul McCartney perhaps there is an element of getting out of practice and general losing of the musical plot in a wider sense rather than a specific loss of facility.

Plus when they were younger they were probably more tied into listening to music, be it live or on the radio. That atmosphere may have helped challenge and inspire them. Now they're not so tied into any such music.

So many pop melodies now just stay on or linger around one note -- maybe go up to the fifth and then back down if they're feeling adventurous.

I'm in the mood for a melody I'm in the mood for a melody I'm in the mooooooood ...

Hole in Our Soul : The Loss of Beauty and Meaning in American Popular Music by Martha Bayles.

She does/did work for a conservative thinktank, so some of it's just an attack on the '60s, but she does write some interesting stuff about the rise of post-James Brown r'n'b and the role of rhythm more than melody, and the transformation of rock n roll to rock.

Well, I don't think I'd go so far as to say it's lost "beauty and meaning," I just think melodies have declined. I mean, I still love "1Thing," -- it's a great song -- it just doesn't have much of a melody.

Elvis Costello has written several great songs in the last 20 years. But they are very different in style from what he used to write in the 70s, so those who are into more rock oriented stuff may be alienated by the fact that he is increasingly sophisticated and "difficult" songwriting-wise. Not a lot of the punk heritage left.

I think you're onto something here, but I disagree with the idea that emotions fade. I think they just become more subtle and complicated. Pop musicians don't age gracefully, but jazz, classical, minimalist, and hopefully IDM/ambient musicians often get better the older they get.

Well, putting aside what you think of the Inspiral Carpets, 'This Is How It Feels' was a big hit, an indie favourite for many years, and no one cared about the presumably more melodically complex Kinks album that Ray Davies was promoting at the time (UK Jive, fact fans).

So yeah, I think it's often that older musicians want different things to what the average listener. They don't want to feel like their repeating themselves. They have to move on to something, anything.

this is, i think, a dirty little secret concerning bob dylan as well. perhaps it's not noted because dylan isn't commonly appreciated as someone with a lot of songcraft. but a lot of his greatest tunes are really twisty and interesting tunes, with all kinds of cool counterpoint and shifts and stuff. that's been missing for a while, whatever his recent albums' merits.

I will FITE!!! you on the Costello front. "When I Was Cruel" alone is full of fantastic melodies. "When I Was Cruel Part 2," "15 Petals," "Dust," "Daddy Can I Turn This," "Radio Silence..."

Does melodic decline come from an artist's attempt to break their own mold, with the result that they grasp beyond their innate melodic reach and come up empty?

I say this as someone who loves garage-band simplicity, at least "for the initial singles and the debut LP before they lost it". Hell, many bands are at their most distinctive early on, precisely because they can hardly play.