PRINTInspiration on demand
50-song 90-day music challenge gets the creative ball rolling
TRUTH LEEM/Missourian
Tom Elliott sings a song, “Oh, Lord take me,” which he composed Sept. 18 as a part of the 50/90 challenge. He was inspired to write the song during a trip to a country music festival in Nashville with his wife, Phoebe.
October 2, 2008 | 12:00 a.m. CST
Nearly a century ago, Jack London said: “You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” And his words still ring true. A modern manifestation of this idea has been born in a worldwide competition called the 50 Song Challenge, in which songwriters try to complete 50 songs in 90 days.
The challenge, running from July to October, began as a small series of online posts in 2001. This year, however, it is led by Burr Settles. A doctoral student at the University of Wisconsin, Settles started a similar competition known as February Album Writing Month in 2004. This year, Settles created a Web site for the 50/90 Challenge (5090.fawm.org), and its popularity soared. Songwriters from Australia to Columbia are participating in the free challenge, which encompasses much more than its title suggests.
Columbia resident Tom Elliott has not only found the time to take part in 50/90 but has also engaged in the mini-challenges created by other participants on the online boards. His latest quest? Writing a song about the greenhouse effect and navel lint. So what’s the prize for producing a song about saving the world one fuzzy bellybutton dweller at a time? Nothing. There are no prizes, no placeholders and no trophies for concluding this colossal competition. The real reward, Elliott says, is getting into the habit of creating music.
With a packed calendar, including a job in public works, tae kwon do classes and coaching duty for his daughters’ hockey teams, Elliott once felt that there were simply not enough hours in the day. “One thing I’ve learned from 50/90 is that you always have time to get an idea down,” he says.
The whole point of the competition is making time for creativity, Settles says. The challenges are about
completing something for yourself, even if most of the songs are going to end up in the trash. “That’s just the way the creative process works,” he says. “You have to get through the crap to get to the jewels.”
Sometimes the resulting jewel is discovering an entire new genre. Jessica Fogle, a singer-songwriter in Chicago, would describe her style as anything but mainstream, but during 50/90 she suddenly found her inner Top 40, which helped her grow as a musician. “There’s a reason to bother to write 50 songs.” Fogle says. “If I hadn’t signed up for this, I would’ve only written three or four. There would have been all these songs in me that I wouldn’t have bothered to find.”
Ultimately, though, “it’s all about songwriting, not about getting things published,” says Tim
Wille-Jørgensen of Åarhus, Denmark. He is one of the original 50/90 challengers. “You cannot write 50 songs without changing or improving as much as possible,” he says. “Three thousand songs have been written that wouldn’t have been written otherwise.” This surge of creativity is thanks in part to the community created by online connection.
In 2007, Wille-Jørgensen traveled to London to meet fellow participants and decided to perform their material at an open-mic night. Within minutes of meeting the group, he heard someone play one of the songs he wrote and posted online. “I never met this bloke, and he’s singing my songs,” he says, chuckling.
The 50/90 competition is far from a simple Web site and discussion board. “It’s a supportive, magical place,” Wille-Jørgensen says. This personal contest is a forum for connection, support and creativity that moves its members to challenge one another, meet up in the real world and even create songs about saving the world with lint. What a magical place indeed.
