Misuse of the word "Song".

[lontano]

Call me fussy if you choose, but I have a few words to say regarding the use of the English word "song". All too often, particularly on Youtube but other sites as well, "song" is used to describe virtually ANY piece of music. I suppose having worked in music education I'm a bit more sensitive to this, but it is a grammatical error that's not very difficult to fix. I was going to write my own definition of the word "song", but I found the following pop up in a google search and it seems perfectly adequate:

""Piece", "Work" and "Composition" can generally be used interchangeably- both refer to any musical work, although "piece" usually connotes a less substantial musical work then "composition" does.

To be a "song", a musical work has to meet two criteria: it must have a component of singing (unless it is referred to as a "song without words", in which case it wouldn't) and it must be relatively short (an opera or a cantata would not be considered a song for this reason, although both of those pieces can be said to contain several songs). Note that a "vocalese" (which is a song without specific words- typically sung to "ah" or "ooh") can be considered a song as well.

So a song can be a piece or a composition, but not all pieces and compositions are songs."

[Bob]

*nods in agreement*

[pianist1976]

That's as true as life itself. Unfortunately this issue is not exclusive of English...

[pianowolfi]

Well, calling any piece of music "a song" is actually kid's language. And in some sense they are absolutely right! I never correct younger kids if they call everything a "song".
But why do many people use this term as adults?
Because most of them are used only to pop music, where songs are normal and instrumental pieces are an exception.

[rachfan]

A piece is a piece, but no matter how often the young people are reminded, they still call everything a song.  It's so prevalent now that I think it's hopeless to expect them to differentiate the two.

[pianowolfi]

A piece is a piece, but no matter how often the young people are reminded, they still call everything a song.  It's so prevalent now that I think it's hopeless to expect them to differentiate the two.

The problem is that every piece of music is called a song by every single freaking electronic device you can buy nowadays. All the cellphones, recording devices, Ipods, all have nothing but the term "song" for any piece of music. If I open the music library on my Nokia phone it lets me chose "Playlists" "Interpreters" "Albums" "All songs", "composers" "Genres" If I want to record something with my yamaha Recorder it's the same.

Nothing about pieces. Nowhere. And there is no option to change it. The "music industry" has decided to call everything a song...

[birba]

I think I brought this up a while ago, and was strongly rebuked for being such a stickler for correct english.  So I just go with the flow of the crowd now...
My latest song I'm learning is Bach-Busoni's Chaconne.

[littletune]

I think I brought this up a while ago, and was strongly rebuked for being such a stickler for correct english.  So I just go with the flow of the crowd now...
My latest song I'm learning is Bach-Busoni's Chaconne.

 
Well I learned on Pianostreet that I should say a piece. So I always say a piece   But in my language even my piano teacher says "a song", so I say a song too  well people usually say something like "a little song" in my language  like you would say "a songy" in English  except in English it sounds really weird, but in my language people usually say it like that when they mean pieces for kids or easier pieces.... I don't think they say that for longer and more difficult pieces  at least not that often....

[thalbergmad]

It's so prevalent now that I think it's hopeless to expect them to differentiate the two.

Perhaps the death sentence or 30 years with hard labour would do the trick.

This term drives me to the brink of insanity.

Thal

[lostinidlewonder]

My piano sings and plays lots of songs Could you call a piece a song if it is meant to be sung with a voice while you play the piano? I play a lot of cocktail piano and call them songs not pieces because of this reason.

[birba]

Of course!  Just look at the Gershwin "song" book.