Developing habits of mind for an ethical and accountable songwriting praxis

In a co-taught course on songwriting, we identified a need to discuss the ethics of being a songwriter. Songwriters and songwriting educators must consider how to best address issues related to cultural appropriation and develop ethical and accountable responses in their creative works. This article forwards habits of mind songwriters and songwriting educators can use to develop intellectual practices to focus on cultural exchange and lean into the power dynamics that surface in creative work. Habits of mind include posing critical questions and engaging reflexivity, researching lineages of the musics practised by individual songwriters, considering how songwriters position themselves in their music, developing a disposition towards compensation and taking a stance of cultural humility. This article suggests methods to help aspiring songwriters take up hard questions about what it means to be creative in a world where cultural exploitation has too quickly become a way to find commercial success.