for MUSIC ARTISTS— the TrueFans AMP— Issue 124

“I think my music is the closest thing to the truth I know.” 
— Judee Sill

In This Issue... about 20 pages (about 30ish minutes to read) You'll Get... 

• RECOMMENDS— Do It Anyway, Girl* a book by Michelle Cunningham 

• Your BIZ— Do Music Stars Write Their Own Songs? A Statistical Analysis by  Daniel Parris of StatSignificant  

• the Greatest Music Artists of All Time— Judee Sill: The Mystic Nobody Saw  Coming (But Everyone Should Know) 

in partnership with Jason Blume 

• Editorial Feature— Why Are There So Many More Male Songwriters Than  Female? by John Fogg 

• PS from PS— the Rooms Where It Happens 

Here’s the playlist

* First up: This book is for women— BUT it's also perfect those men smart enough to read it.

Second down: In a former life before the TrueFans AMP™ and New Music Lives™, I spent 30+ years in Direct Sales / Network Marketing— a profession made up of Independent Contractors. Music Artists share many of the sames values and challenges, but more importantly there are career-building strategies, tips and techniques that lead to success in both fields. Ms. Cunningham's book is an excellent resource for these proven ideas. So...  

“You don’t get confidence first. You get confidence because you acted.” 
— Michelle Cunningham

Some books sneak up on you. Michelle Cunningham’s Do It Anyway, Girl is one of them. Marketed primarily to Network Marketers, it turns out to be far more universal— a field guide for anyone building something from nothing. And that includes every Music Artist working hard to become the successful creator you know (yes, you do really know) you can be.

The title is a promise to: Do it scared. Do it messy. Do it imperfectly. Do it anyway.
That’s rocket fuel for all shapes and sizes of Creators.

Where many “motivation” books drown in clichés, Michelle offers clear, simple, behavioral truths: confidence is built, not gifted; action precedes clarity; consistency beats intensity; and your story— not your polish— is what connects you to the world.

For Music Artists who wait too long to post, promote, share, record, or release because the inner critic won’t shut up, this book hits like a permission slip from the universe.

Why This Book Works For Artists…
Because the mindset of a successful Network Marketer isn’t much different from the mindset of an independent Music Artist.

Both require:

• courage
• visibility
• self-belief
• messy action
• learning by doing
• resilience
• relationship-building
• consistency over perfection

Michelle speaks directly to the emotional struggles every artist knows: fear, procrastination, rejection, self-doubt, comparison, and the illusion that “I’ll do it when I feel ready.”

Spoiler: you won’t.
And that’s why the book helps.

What Music Artists Could Skip In This Book
(And why that’s not a problem.)

Yes— this book has “MLM DNA.” You'll see:

• prospecting scripts
• team-building references
• comp-plan talk
• recruiting structures

Music Artists should simply ignore all of that (though much is interesting and analogous with music biz details). NOthing will be lost in translation. Promise.

You’re not here for the mechanics. You’re here for the mindset, the habits, the courage, the energy, the repeatable daily moves.

When you read the book as a Creator’s Mindset Manual, it becomes enormously useful.

Your TrueFans AMP™ Checklist:
7 Things Music Artists Can Trust From Michelle Cunningham

1. Action Before Confidence
Don’t wait until the song is perfect, the plan is perfect, or you feel fearless.
Post anyway. Release anyway. Reach out anyway.

2. Consistency Beats Talent
Daily baby steps outperform rare heroic leaps.
(Music Artist translation: post, write, practice, release, repeat.)

3. Detach From Outcomes
Don’t chase likes, streams, or immediate validation.
Show up because the work matters.

4. Your Story Is Your Brand
The quirks, scars, weirdness, and truth you think you should hide?
That’s what fans bond with.

5. Reject Rejection
A “no” isn’t personal; it’s neutral.
Playlist curators, venues, blogs, and industry gatekeepers say no to everyone.

6. Create Systems
Michelle’s strength is turning chaos into simple habits.
Artists need systems too: fan outreach, content calendars, release cycles, email list building.

7. Have Fun— It Attracts People
The more you enjoy what you’re sharing, the more fans feel invited into your world.

We Recommend Her Book Because... 
The TrueFans AMP™, cares about mindset just as much as music— because without the right mindset, the music never gets made, never gets released, never gets heard.

Michelle Cunningham’s book is a mindset tune-up. A resistance killer. A permission engine.

It's not a music book.
It’s a make-your-art-anyway book.

And if you struggle with hesitation, perfectionism, fear of judgment, or the endless “I’ll do it tomorrow”… this one earns its spot on your shelf.

Take This Away... 
Read it like a musician, not a marketer.
Ignore the MLM mechanics.
Absorb the mindset.

Then— in Michelle’s words— Do. It. Anyway.

__________  

Special Free Offer— Really. Do This Anyway...
... You Want To Make Your First $1,000 On Social Media (Without Spamming Random Strangers?)

If so, you'll need a beautiful online brand. Michelle claims and proves (because she's done it) that's the secret. When you build a brand that serves and loves and helps others, you'll never have to work a day in your life (or worry about money again.). 

Tap this link to get your free copy of 5 Steps To Build a Beautiful OnLine Brand.

• Your BIZ— Do Music Stars Write Their Own Songs? A Statistical Analysis by Daniel Parris of StatSignificant 

PLEASE NOTE: Daniel Parris’s original StatSignificant essay includes charts, graphs, and deeper data than we can show here. This is the “key-insights” condensation. If this topic grabs you— tap the title link above and enjoy the full enchilada. It’s absolutely worth it.

Do Music Stars Write Their Own Songs? (Short Answer: Yes… and also no.)
In the Brill Building era of the early ’60s, pop music ran on an assembly line. Songwriters wrote. Artists sang. Producers produced. Hits rolled off the belt like cars with fins in Detroit. Then The Beatles arrived, rewrote the rules, and made “artist as Songwriter” the new gold standard.

The Brill Building faded. Artist-authorship rose. You’d think that trend peaked in the ’70s and ’80s.

But the data shows something surprising:

Today’s chart-topping artists receive songwriting credits at nearly 100%— the highest in history.

So what’s happening? Is this a creative renaissance? Are artists suddenly writing everything themselves?

Not quite.

The Max-Martin-ification of Pop
While artist co-writing rates are up, solo writing and self-producing have sharply declined since rock’s heyday. Why?

Enter the modern hit factory:

The Guru-Producer-Songwriter.
Max Martin, Jack Antonoff, Dr. Luke— masters of melody, structure, and commercial instinct. Scan credits for Taylor Swift, The Weeknd, or Sabrina Carpenter. These names appear everywhere.

Artists collaborate, shape, and influence their songs. But behind the scenes, the architects are often these specialists. It’s the Brill Building model— updated, digitized, optimized.

This explains why today’s Top 40 sounds cohesive, consistent, and commercially precise.

A Visit to Bummer Town: Gender Edition
Here’s the gut punch.

Daniel’s gender breakdown shows unmistakable patterns:

Male artists receive more songwriting and producing credit than female artists across every metric.

Even more stark:

Female-only songwriting credits on chart-topping songs have dropped to nearly zero over the last 20 years.

This isn’t because women suddenly stopped writing great songs.
It’s structural. It’s systemic. And it runs deep.

And the biggest behind-the-scenes hitmakers— Martin, Luke, Tedder— are almost entirely men.

The End of Rockism (and the Return to the Historical Norm)
Rock culture created a powerful myth:

Real artists write and produce their own songs.

From the ’60s to the ’80s, that myth ruled criticism, radio, and fan culture. But historically? That era was a 20-year anomaly.

Before it— and after it— hits mostly came from a small group of expert songwriters behind the curtain. Cole Porter. Leiber & Stoller. Carole King. The Brill Building. Max Martin.

The machinery stays the same. The faces up front change. Only rock culture briefly convinced us otherwise.

a Bunch of TrueFans AMP™ TakeAways

• If you’re a Songwriter yourself, your superpower is that you control your own creative supply chain.

• If you’re not a strong writer (yet), that doesn’t make you less “authentic.” You’re actually aligned with most of music history. Find collaborators who elevate you.

• If you’re a woman, see Part Two (grab the Editorial Feature— Why Are There So Many More Male Songwriters Than Female? down below.) We’re diving directly into what’s really driving the gap— and what can help close it.

• Above all: don’t buy into the purity myth. Collaboration is not cheating.
It’s how most great music has always been made.

About Daniel Parris
Daniel Parris is the creator of Stat Significant, a data-driven music newsletter that sits at the intersection of analytics, culture, and the business of sound. With a background in economic modeling and a deep love for pop music history, Daniel translates complex industry data into clear, compelling insights that help readers understand how hits are made, why trends emerge, and where the industry is heading next. His work is widely shared among analysts, artists, executives, and fans who appreciate a smart, accessible look under the hood of the music machine. Learn more at Stat Significant.

About Stat Significant
Stat Significant is a research-forward music publication dedicated to uncovering the trends shaping today’s industry. Using charts, datasets, and deep dives into Billboard archives, it blends storytelling with statistical analysis to reveal how songs rise, how genres shift, and how the creative economy adapts over time. It’s one of the most insightful independent newsletters for anyone who wants to understand the numbers behind the narratives in modern music. Learn more at Stat Significant.

• The Greatest Music Artists of All Time— Judee Sill: The Mystic Nobody Saw Coming (But Everyone Should Know)

“She was incredibly gifted. One of the most talented artists I ever signed.”
— David Geffen

Some artists slip into the world fully themselves— strange, luminous, uncompromising— and the world simply isn’t ready. Judee Sill was one of them. A composer with the harmonic imagination of Bach, the spiritual hunger of a desert mystic, and the emotional precision of a surgeon's knife, she wrote songs that felt less like compositions and more like revelations.

Her life was wild. Her craft was astonishing. Her legacy, long overlooked, is finally being understood anew.

This is the Judee Sill renaissance. And for all Music Artists her story is a masterclass in originality, courage, and the cost of devotion to the muse.

The Life: Tragedy, Genius, and a Spiritual Compass That Never Stopped Spinning
Judee Sill was born to chaos: a turbulent home, a stepfather she despised, petty crime, reform school. She learned organ by playing hymns at juvenile detention— already blending sacred longing with outlaw survival.

By her early 20's she’d been a burglar, a heroin addict, a bar-band musician, a student of classical voice-leading, and a scholar of obscure spiritual texts.

She lived several lifetimes before writing her first masterpiece.

And then she emerged— fully formed— as one of the most shockingly sophisticated songwriters of the 1970s LA scene.

“She was doing something no one else was doing.” 
— JD Souther

The Music: Folk + Gospel + Bach = Sill’s Cosmic Signature
Try describing Judee Sill’s music and you’ll run out of genres before you run out of awe.

She used Bachian counterpoint inside Laurel Canyon folk.
She wrote chorale-style resolutions inside country-rock.
She layered mystical longing over melodic hooks sweet enough to fool you into thinking the light wasn’t coming from a fire.

She was deeply original and almost impossible to categorize— one reason she was worshipped by fellow musicians but misunderstood by the marketplace.

“Judee Sill wrote songs that sounded like hymns from a forgotten religion.”
— Rolling Stone

Key elements of her writing:

• complex internal harmonies
• unconventional chord progressions
• soaring, sacred-feeling melodies
• lyrics that sound like prayer, prophecy, or confession

Her songs didn’t chase hits. They chased transcendence.

Breakthrough (and Breakdown): The Brief Years When the World Glimpsed Her Light
In 1971, David Geffen signed her as the first artist on Asylum Records. That alone speaks volumes.

Her debut album Judee Sill delivered two of the most astonishing songs of her career:

Jesus Was a Cross Maker (produced by Graham Nash) and Crayon Angels.

The critics swooned. Artists took notice. The public? Not quite.

Her follow-up album, Heart Food (1973), was even more ambitious, culminating in the breathtaking choral closer:

The Donor—  one of the most devastating and transcendent songs ever recorded. (Tap the title link to listen on YouTube.)

But commercial success never arrived. Her health unraveled. Old addictions resurfaced. She was hit by a string of injuries that left her in chronic pain. By her mid-thirties, she was gone.

A genius extinguished before the world understood what she’d given.

“Judee Sill is one of those artists who makes you wonder how on earth anyone could write like that.”
— Andy Partridge (XTC)

Featured Songs Every AMP Reader Could— and Should— Study

Jesus Was a Cross Maker
A perfect fusion of pop, theology, and emotional autobiography. This is songwriting as alchemy.

The Kiss
Melodic purity meets sacred yearning. A lesson in how to lift a listener without ever pushing.

Crayon Angels
Her whimsical, aching mission statement— one of the best uses of metaphor in 1970s songwriting.

The Donor
A cathedral built from a single voice. If songwriting is a spiritual act, this is holy scripture.

Down Where the Valleys Are Low
A study in musical humility— quiet, tender... and devastating.

Her Influence: Quiet, Widespread, Rarely Acknowledged
Judee’s fingerprints show up everywhere— even where her name doesn’t.

Artists who cite her or echo her:

• Fleet Foxes (Robin Pecknold has championed her work for years)
• Linda Ronstadt
• Andy Partridge (XTC)
• Shawn Colvin
• Ron Sexsmith
• Weyes Blood
• Phoebe Bridgers (her harmonic sensibility is pure Judee DNA)

“She was inventing a language the rest of us are still trying to learn.” 
— Linda Ronstadt

Modern indie-folk owes her a debt it hasn’t fully acknowledged.
So does cinematic pop.
So does anyone who tries to make spiritual music without being preachy.

Judee Sill’s Genius in Practice
Craft Lessons for Music Artists

1. Harmony Is Emotion
Her Bach-inspired harmonic shifts weren’t academic— they were emotional triggers. Every chord had purpose.

2. Spirituality ≠ Vagueness
She wrote mystical songs with specificity and courage. She meant every word.

3. Complexity Works When the Heart Leads
Her songs were intricate, but the listener never gets lost. Emotional clarity is the compass.

4. Originality Is Expensive
She paid the price for being ahead of her time. Many greats do. The lesson? Write what’s true, not what’s trending.

5. Music as Redemption
Her songs were attempts at healing— not performance. That intention is audible in every note.

Why Judee Sill Belongs in the Greatest of All Time Series
Because of the wonderful things she does...

Because she is one of the deepest wells of originality American songwriting has ever produced.
Because she fused disciplines most people never noticed could live together.
Because her music is still revealing new secrets 50 years later.
Because she wrote with spiritual courage.
Because she lived a life that broke her— and she turned that brokenness into beauty.
Because greatness is not measured only in sales, awards, or fame.

Sometimes the greatest artists are the ones who leave behind a small body of work that burns like a comet.

Judee Sill was one of those comets.

“She was an extraordinary songwriter— completely unique.”
— Graham Nash

The Legacy: Rising Again, As She Always Wrote She Would
Today, Judee Sill is finally getting the attention she deserved:

• multiple reissues
• new documentaries
• tribute concerts
• artists covering her work
• a new generation discovering her through streaming

Her light is growing— posthumously, yes, but unmistakably.
Her songs still feel like spells.

Still feel like prayers.
Still feel like they were written by someone listening to a frequency most of us can’t quite tune into.

And maybe that’s her true legacy:
She reminds us that songwriting can be a spiritual calling.
Not just craft.
Not just career.
But devotion.

“I’m trying to become a better person through my music.” 
— Judee Sill

Mission accomplished.

For Music Artists today: study her. Steal from her (with attribution and gratitude). Let her widen your imagination. And let her remind you that originality, courage, and vulnerability are the real sacred trilogy.

in partnership with Jason Blume

• EDITORIAL— Why Are There So Many More Male Songwriters Than Female? by John Fogg
A Below-the-Surface Look at a Problem Hiding in Plain Sight

As I read Daniel Parris’ piece asking Do Music Stars Write Their Own Songs? I got a kick-in-my-ass to dig into a topic I’ve put off for too long.

Why are there so many more male songwriters than female?

I’m some part feminist. All things patriarchal piss me off at first blush. The second and third blush usually make me furious. (Raised by a single working mom and her woman friends.)

What I’ve got is a bias against bias— Catch 23.

And this one matters— personally and professionally! It’s not just an industry quirk. It shapes whose voices get heard, whose stories get told, and whose vision of the world becomes the soundtrack the rest of us live with. And yeah, to extends waaaay beyond the music biz.

So go with me below the surface and seek the truth about why songwriting still skews so heavily male— and what can be done about it. This isn't here goes nothing. This is here goes everything.

1. The Industry Was Built by Men, For Men
From Tin Pan Alley to the Brill Building to today’s writing camps, men held the jobs, the budgets, the publishing catalogs, the studios, and the authority. That means:

Men hired their friends.

Men opened doors for other men. Holding them for women out of duty. Only.

Men trusted the writers who already had hits— which, surprise, were mostly men.

Who gets into the room where it happens is the whole ballgame. For decades, women simply weren’t invited.

Those structures don’t disappear just because the calendar advances. Some times they are not changing.

2. Risk-Averse Labels Double Down on “The Usual Guys”
When millions are on the line, labels reach for “reliability.” Reliability, in their minds, means Max Martin, Jack Antonoff, Ryan Tedder, Shane McAnally… the hitmakers. Great writers, absolutely. But also overwhelmingly male.

This creates a closed loop:
Male hitmakers → more hits → more trust → more work → fewer women getting shots → industry says, “See? This is what works.” And... who makes it work.

Talent isn’t the problem.
Access is.

3. Cultural Conditioning Starts Early and Runs Deep

Boys are encouraged to create.
Girls are encouraged to perform.

Boys are told to start bands.
Girls are told to sing pretty.

Boys experiment with gear and DAWs without judgment.
Girls are treated like the equipment belongs to someone else.

Look but don't touch.

By adulthood, men are expected to be authors.
Women are expected to interpret.

That’s patriarchy’s quietest and most insidious trick: shaping identity before a career even begins.

4. The Rooms Themselves Aren’t Neutral
Let’s be honest. A modern writing camp can be intimidating even for seasoned pros. Add:

• being the only woman in the session
• dealing with unconscious bias
• navigating subtle dismissal or over-mansplaining
• worrying your ideas will be ignored or appropriated
• the pressure to prove you “belong”

Many women simply do not get the same psychological space to try, fail, iterate, and grow.

Creativity needs safety.
Male-dominated rooms rarely provide it. For women.

5. Logistics, Safety, Motherhood, and Time
This one is almost never discussed publicly:

Hit songwriting requires late nights, strange locations, total schedule flexibility, and radical spontaneity. For women juggling childcare, safety concerns, finances, or cultural expectations... the barriers are multiplied.

Not because women aren’t committed.
Because the system wasn’t built with navigating their lives in mind.

Men don’t face the same structural drag.

6. The Invisible Penalty: Women Are Punished for the Very Traits Men Are Rewarded For
Assertive men are called leaders.
Assertive women are called difficult.

Men who challenge ideas are bold.
Women who do the same are “creating trouble.”

Men get to claim their instincts.
Women are questioned, second-guessed, or talked over.

Multiply that by a few decades and you get the numbers Daniel shared: Female-only songwriting credits for chart-topping hits have dropped to nearly zero.

Not because the talent isn’t there.
Because the environment isn’t built for it to thrive.

Is Change Possible? Yes. But Not Accidentally.
If we wait for the industry to fix itself, we’ll be waiting until Max Martin writes his last hook— which might be sometime around 2085.

Change will only happen because Music Artists, producers, labels, and communities make intentional choices.

Here’s what we can do (but will we?):

1. Hire Women Songwriters and Producers on Purpose
Not as a gesture.
Not for optics.
Because women create extraordinary work.

A better industry requires better habits.

2. Build Safe, Respectful, Empowering Writing Rooms
Make space.
Listen fully.
Respectfully challenge.
Be curious, not corrective.

Creativity expands where ego contracts.

3. Support Young Women Early
Tell girls they have something to say, not just something to sing.

Encourage writing at 8, not 18.
Encourage producing at 12, not 22.
Normalize girls with guitars, MIDI controllers, laptops, and opinions.

Songwriting careers start decades before the first check arrives.

4. Normalize Women as Producers and Creative Leads
This is the missing piece.
Production = Authorship.

When more women produce, everything changes— the workflow, the sound, the culture, the access, the opportunity.

5. Women Supporting Women: Build Power Networks
The old boy network worked for a reason— because it was a network.

Women creating their own ecosystems— songwriting circles, production collectives, mentorship groups— reshapes the entire playing field.

Power multiplies when shared. ONLY when shared.

6. And Men? Step Up. Step Back. Both.
Champion women publicly.
Make room privately.
Advocate when you can.
Shut up when you should.

Patriarchy dissolves one choice at a time, mostly by the people who benefit from it acknowledging it and doing better.

a Closing Chorus to Every Woman Reading This
You don’t need permission to be a Songwriter.
You don’t need a gatekeeper to validate your voice.
You don’t need a man in the room to make your work legitimate.

Your stories matter.
Your sound matters.
Your authorship matters.

The world needs more songs only you can write.

The imbalance is real. But so is the opportunity.
And the future of music will be brighter, richer, more honest, and far more human when more women stand in the center of creation instead of at its edges.

Let’s build that world— together.

__________  

Author’s Note
I don’t claim to have the whole map here— just a lifelong allergy to unfair systems, a soft spot for people who get overlooked, and a bias against bias (Catch 23). I was raised by a woman who did everything a stacked world said she shouldn’t, so when I see talent pushed to the margins, I get loud. If this piece opens even one door, sparks one collaboration, or nudges one man— including me— to do a little better, then it’s done its job. The future of music gets brighter every time some silent someone is finally heard. Let's help more women get heard.

About John Fogg
John Fogg is the founding editor of the TrueFans AMP™, co-creator of New Music Lives™, and a lifelong writer, listener, and fan of great songs and the people who make them. A million-selling author (The Greatest Networker in the World), Fogg has written and coached artists, entrepreneurs, and visionaries for more than four decades. Through the TrueFans AMP™, he champions a new generation of Music Artists building sustainable careers— Making Right Now Money and having Fans Forever.

• PS from PS— the Rooms Where It Happens

Michelle Cunningham writes: 

"You don't get confidence first. You get confidence because you acted."

I kept returning to this while reading Daniel Parris's data. Female-only songwriting credits on chart-topping songs have dropped to nearly zero over the last 20 years. Not because talent disappeared. Because the rooms were never built for women to thrive in them.

The architecture of exclusion is subtle but devastating. Boys encouraged to create, girls encouraged to perform. Men called leaders for being assertive, women called difficult for the same behavior. By the time anyone asks "where are all the female Songwriters?", the answer is already decades old.

What struck me hardest wasn't just gender disparity— it was recognizing this pattern everywhere in music. The systematic funneling of creative power toward fewer hands while calling it meritocracy. We've lost something profound: sonic diversity, unexpected perspectives, songs that could have reshaped how we understand ourselves.

This isn't about talent. It's about...
Who gets invited into the room. 
Who gets to fail and try again. 
Who gets trusted with creative authority.
Who gets... whatever.

Change requires intentional choices: hiring women Songwriters on purpose, building rooms where creativity expands, supporting young girls at 8 and 12 instead of waiting until they're already conditioned to doubt themselves.

Michelle's insight applies universally: Do it scared. Do it messy. Do it anyway.

Every song you write that only you could write matters. Every time you act before confidence arrives matters. Every door we hold open for marginalized voices matters.

The future gets brighter when we stop asking permission and start building the rooms we wish existed.

Until we speak again...

Thanks for reading. Give us your feedback.

And PLEASE, if you've got any Singer Songwriter friends, pass the AMP on, because... It’s Time... for a Change. Big Time. Past Time...