David:

I totally agree that there are MANY crap songs that become hits that if you or I wrote, we would be shown the door. Based on my observations though (and you kind of alluded to this already), the crap songs only become hits when they are written/performed by well established artists. With very few exceptions, I've rarely seen this from folks who are at the beginning of their career or just on the verge of becoming famous.

This concept has always fascinated me because it's been my contention for a long time that the great artists have to "give" away their great songs in the beginning so they can rake in the cash on their crap songs after they've established a successful track record. Of course, this is not always true but think about your own favorite artists. I don't know about you but I'm much more forgiving of a less-than-great song recorded by an artist who I already admire but if that song had been the first song I'd heard from that artist, I'd probably roll my eyes and listen to something else. I could cite many examples of this phenomenon but I don't think I need to and it's mostly my opinion anyway.

Having said all that, I agree with most of the others. A line does not have to stand on it's own but it definately should contribute to the overall message. There are many great songs that contain lines that stand on their own but if you try to do that with every line, you'll never finish writing anything. I think the reason no one can give you a concrete answer is because what you seek is pretty much impossible to a accomplish.

Van

Van Borden
a.k.a. Buzz Grudge