"Pat and John on..." What Gets a song Played?

I was in a club the other day, not drunk enough to start dancing I paid close attention to the music videos that were playing and the music in general. I started noticing patterns in the songs, there were some that told people what to do, some that talked about the night and some that singled out people. Just about all of the songs started fitting into different categories in my head, these categories didn't make the songs hits, but they definitely helped get them played. Which lead me to think, what do you put in a song if you want it to get some airtime? Sounds like a job for Pat and John. Jobs not for Pat and John include: Indoor plumbing, car repair, and parenting (at least not that we know of).



City

Creating a song about a city is like being a beat writer for the local little league. Someone from the neighboring town wont care about it, but the people in your geography will be bumping your work in their scrapbook/iTunes for years to come.

You cant leave Fenway after a sox game without hearing “awwwwww Boston you’re my home” or Yankee stadium without “New York, Newwwww yorkkkkkkkk”, although its not fool proof in that, I’m sure that in Iraq they don’t play Bombs over Bagdad at the end of every donkey fight.



Who has taken a trip to Miami after 1998 without hearing “welcome to Miami bienvenido a Miami” playing through their head? And even after we know that the Mommas and the Poppas singer John Phillips was boning his daughter we’re still “California Dreaming” when we think of the Golden State. In fact California alone has a litany of songs. The Flaming Lips made California maybe the most addicting chorus of all time using just the state’s name. It also was the theme song unfortunately to the OC.



Thanks to 2pac I know “California knows how to party.” Snoop Dogg taught me that LBC is the cool way to say Long Beach, and just about any west coast rapper has informed me through the art of rhyme that south central LA and Compton are probably places I don’t want to be dippin’ through any time soon.



Rappers love talking about their hometown. Who needs to look up a rapper on google to see where they’re from? You just need to listen to 1 out of 5 songs. Jay Z, we know he’s reppin BK, as did Biggie. Dr. Dre hails from Compton but sticks out for other hoods. Hell even Nelly was proud to be from St. Louis.



Bottom line, Just about every place has a song. And if it didn’t have a song, Johnny Cash took care of that.

Check out the other ways to get a song some airplay HERE.

And visit Pat and John On every Monday for a new blog!