This whole concept took the top of my head off last week and continues to make me think. There is no doubt in my mind that a positive song is both more appealing and harder to write.

Listen, we all know and love sad songs. (I've even heard that they say so much.) They tend to be the most meaningful to us writers on a personal basis. They're cathartic and deep and all that. It's not that there's no place for them. But what's getting me is that I never really thought about this before. So I see it as an excellent challenge, and also a new question to ask myself whenever I write something: is this good enough to transcend the idea that it's going to bring a lot of people down?

Yeah, I'll still write negative songs...but I intend to write a whole lot less of them. Looking back on my catalog, man, I've got plenty.

http://www.soundclick.com/MarkKaufman