MFA that can help with song lyricists, conceptual albums?

[Kratistos]

Hey everyone,

I am interested in creating, "Conceptual Albums" where there's a narrative throughout the whole album. My ultimate goal is to eventually partner with a producer to release the lyrics into a album. Think Kendrick Lamar's good kid, mad city or Blur's Parklife.

Anyone know programs that could help me in this path?

Edited August 20, 2016 by Kratistos

[heliogabalus]

You might want to look into musical theater MFAs. From my limited experience, MFAs seem to concentrate on more popular contemporary poetry that eschew the vowel-rhymes that work well in lyrics.

[slouching]

In my research, I haven't come across any creative writing MFA programs that deal with songwriting, and I suspect trying to do a project like that in the context of a creative writing program would be a challenge. There are certainly some programs that are more open to experimental and interdisciplinary work than others, but ultimately, writing lyrics is different from writing poetry-- what works in a song doesn't necessarily work on the page, and vice versa. Creative writing programs aren't designed to teach songwriting, and I think you'll have difficulty finding faculty who have experience working with song lyrics. You could try looking into programs at schools that also have strong music programs (Indiana, for example) and that would allow you to take courses in that area.