I would contend that, despite the 'limitations' of how many notes there are, the mathematical possibilities of how a composer might recombine them make it infinite.

The problem, then, is not in the exhausting of possibilities, but the failure to attempt to come up with a new melody, settling instead for a melody that commences, goes up, goes down, goes to the end of the lyrical line, and ends, often with such predictability that a listener can make up their own words as they listen and sing that same melody on the spot.

I think Marc Barnette cited someone listening to demonstration recordings and dismissing them as "...standard country melody #3..."

The penchant in the industry for promoting singers instead of writers, and for songwriting commencing with THE hook/title and fabricating lyrical lines that merely rhyme to lead up to and arrive at that title, has filled the airwaves and the market with these predictable, 'standard,' and bland melodies, and equally bland lyrics. I am skeptical many if any of these will ever be 'covered' by anyone in the future, revived as 'classics.'

Rather than supplying their function of 'hooking,' being memorable, they are often forgettable. You literally do not know what you've been listening to. Or I don't. I become aware the song is over, having drifted off to my own thoughts rather than listening raptly to the lyrical storyline, and/or the vocal melody. Even the production and arrangement of instrumentation failed to hook me. I don't know what the song was about, and I can't sing any of the melody, let alone THE hook.

Indeed, I hear lyrical lines that twist the natural music of the words when spoken in natural cadence, and ignore the obvious variations of pitch in natural emotion, given the story they're telling, twisted instead to fit that preconceived melody.

Explore. In the 100,000 years of human exploration of music we have not exhausted the ways in which the lyrical stories of the human condition can be expressed, nor have we exhausted the melodic possibilities. And we are far from exhausting the possible accompaniment. Explore. Find the new possibilities. I promise you they are there to be found.

You could argue, 'No! It's all been done.' But you'll see. Someone will write that new stuff and amaze you and you'll see.

There will always be another song to be written. Someone will write it. Why not you? www.garyeandrews.com