USA: Kelly Clarkson and Melissa Etheridge were among the musicians honoured at the 24th Annual ASCAP Pop Music Awards in Hollywood

The 24th Annual ASCAP Pop Music Awards drew more than 850 songwriters, recording artists and music industry leaders to the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood this week to honour the men and women behind the most popular music of today. Singer-songwriter Melissa Etheridge took home the ASCAP Founders Award. "Because this award is about songwriting, that's very important to me, very close to me," said Etheridge. "I've been a songwriter since I was ten, and had been working at it, I wanted to write songs to inspire the world, to make the world sing, you know, make- I want to be the song you put on when you're driving your car down the road and to be honoured tonight, to get this award, means maybe some of that has come true." Etheridge has released nine albums since she signed her first major recording contract in 1987. Three of them have gone multi-platinum. The Grammy-award winning artist also won an Oscar this year for "I Need To Wake Up," the song written for the Al Gore documentary "An Inconvenient Truth." Rap star Chingy was among the hundreds of artists who turned out to support the event. "It's important to honour songwriters because we work really hard at what we do," said Chingy. "It's long nights and long weeks and long months of sitting in the studio coming up with this music that we're trying to get millions of people to understand so when, like the ASCAP Awards when they appreciate what we do as writers and publishers and authors and everything, it's just a beautiful thing, you know." The evening also featured performances by Nick Lachey and The Fray's Joe King and Isaac Slade, who collected awards for the songs "Over My Head" and "How To Save A Life." "I mean, it's cool," shared King. "I think as a songwriter, just as band I guess, whenever you, whenever you see an artist that everything was like spoon-fed, and pretty much just all done for them, you know there's definitely like a, like 'wow, she's a singer or whatever,' there's definitely, it's nice to be appreciated, I guess, is what I'm starting to say." Jermaine Dupri, who won the "Songwriter of the Year" Award (along with Johnta Austin) for songs such as "Don't Forget About Us" and "Shake It Off" sung by Mariah Carey spilled some of his secrets while walking the red carpet. "A lot of different things, you know," laughed Dupri. "I mean, we got a lot of different rituals that we do. We put pictures on the wall, if it's a man that's single in his life and he wants to talk about a women, we, uh, light candles for some of the women that's there. I mean it's a lot of different things. You know, Mariah (Carey) we drink a lot of wine before we write. So, there's a lot of different rituals that we got to get to the songs that we write." Dupri is also known for being Janet Jackson's long-time boyfriend. 2004 ASCAP Founders Award honouree, Jackson Browne, also talked about how he collects ideas for songs. "Oh, I'm inspired by everyday events," said Browne. "You know, by our daily lives, and just the challenges of living in the modern world, I guess. Um ,you know, relationship things, some political situations inspire me to want to say something." Browne, who was born in Heidelberg, Germany to an American serviceman, is a rock musician who was part of the "confessional" singer-songwriter movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. He is widely known for writing songs to expressing his opposition to nuclear weapons and wars on foreign soil. Singer Kelly Clarkson won awards for "Song of the Year" for "Because of You" and "Best Pop Songs" for "Behind Those Hazel Eyes" and "Walk Away." Meanwhile, Johnny Rzeznick, guitarist and singer for the band the Goo Goo Dolls summed up a sentiment widely expressed at the awards show. "You know what, it's really, really nice to be recognized as a writer, as a songwriter, even though more so than being recognized as an artist or a rock band, or whatever," said Rzeznick. "Cause, uh, you know, a lot of people tend to forget that it's all about the songs. And I keep saying this, without the songs, without the material, there is no rock star. There is no sold out concert. There is no radio. There is no video. There's nothing. It begins and ends with the song." ASCAP, or the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, formed in New York City in 1914. It is a membership association of more than 285,000 U.S. composers, songwriters, lyricists, and music publishers of every type of music. And, through agreements with affiliated international societies, ASCAP also represents hundreds of thousands of music creators worldwide. The primary purpose of ASCAP is to assure that music creators are fairly compensated for the public performance of their works, and that their rights are properly protected.

ITN Source | April 26, 2007

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