Patti,

No.You always write what you feel and what makes you happy. But if you are trying to get attention from the industry you are going to have to keep it in context. Let me give you an example.

After 9-11, the entire creative world went to writing. I did mine on the Saturday. Everybody in Nashville had one and we all did them for a few months. Then Alan Jackson came out with his, Toby Keith came out with his, Darryl Worely, the Dixie Chicks started all their stuff, and everything kind of went, "Okay that is enough." And it was on to the next subject.

Pretty much every idea, title, subject matter has been done over and over again. If it turns out melodically similar to something else, change it. If it is too similar lyrically, change that too. You have to try to keep it familiar, but you are going to have to change your's to avoid a "Been there, done that" reaction. Which happens all the time, trust me.

Basically you have to look at everyone, from publishers, to pluggers, to producers, to artists, to the general public, EVERYBODY is looking for a reason to tune you out. Because they have other songs, artists, competing interests, etc. you are competing with. Have you ever heard the line about the difference between men and women when it comes to TV watching? "Women watch what is on, men watch what ELSE is on."

We have radically short attention spans. In the general public, the primary focus of all music providers is drive time. That is between the hours of 7:00 to nine in the morning, and 3:00 to 6:00 in the afternoon. The audience is 70% women, age 18 to 45 in the country market. They are listening basically for local news, traffic and weather. Music is part of that, but not the main reason they listen. And anyone whoever has sat in traffic realize they are not in a good mood.

So our job is to get and keep their attention and everybody down that line, artists, producers, record labels, distributers, retail, etc. are all primarily interested in that end result. no interest in the songs, no listening to commercials on the radio station. No listening to the commercials, no buying products or shopping at that certain store. No shopping or buying products, no commerce for those products. No commerce for those products, no more advertising revenue. No more advertising revenue, no more radio.
So it is a continually developing cycle. And if you don't start with a fresh take on an idea, or at least try to separate your song from the others just like it, you are not getting in the cycle.
I hope this has helped and not made it more confusing.

MAB