16 !!Chapter 1
MZ: How much does the head account person have to say about
the actual creative work as opposed to the content of the work?
Joel: It really varies. I find that really good account people get it.
They understand where the creative heads are because they’ve
got a streak of creativity in their bodies themselves. I have had
more than a few experiences where I have worked with account
people who were so good that they sometimes have either come
up with a creative idea or really enhanced it.
MZ: How does a person become a copywriter?
Joel: Put together a portfolio and take it to agencies. That will be
your proof to them that ‘‘I can do stuff, and I’m pretty good.’’
MZ: How do you decide on the genre of music you want for a com-
mercial?
Joel: I can only speak for myself, but I think that whenever I have
done something and I think it requires music, I’ve just come up
with—in my head—what I think the music should be. But it is
never that definitive because I am not a musical expert—you or
people like you are the music mavens. I would sit down and
share ideas with you, give you input on how I hear it, and some-
times you would say, ‘‘That won’t work,’’ or you’d say, ‘‘That’s
a terrific approach, let me mull that over and come up with a
couple of ideas.’’ A lot of it is really gut.
MZ: How often do composers suggest a style of music that is in a
different direction than what you asked for?
Joel: Probably half of the time—a music person who just executes
what I have in my head without coming up with something else
is not really doing their job.
MZ: What percentage of copywriters know how to write lyrics,
and how open are they to having the music company edit a lyric
given to them by the copywriter?
Joel: I have found that most copywriters don’t know how to write
[lyrics]. They can write lines, they may not scan, they may not
work musically. It has been my experience that when you then
take it to a good music company, [they] in a very frank, open
kind of discussion can point out things, point out ways of mak-
ing it better. Sometimes they take the lyric and rewrite it. Some-
times they say, ‘‘This won’t work.’’ I have found that
copywriters who write lyrics are not lyricists. They’re not paid
to be lyricists. Egos should not stand in the way of changing lyr-
ics to make them better.
MZ: What do you do when you are handed a ‘‘laundry list’’ of
points to be included in a lyric and there is too much informa-
tion to fit into the short time span of a commercial?
Joel: The advertising shouldn’t start until there is an agreed-upon
strategy, and that strategy should be very, very single-minded.