3 Songwriters Who Treated Silence Like an Instrument

Sometimes songwriters think making music is all about bombastic volume. It’s as if they believe that the louder you are or the more notes you put into a tune, the better it is. But that’s simply not always the case.

Here below, we wanted to track the careers of three songwriters who did the opposite. These artists chose nuance and even a sense of quiet to make their work sing. Indeed, these are three songwriters who treated silence like an instrument.

Leonard Cohen

Leonard Cohen often seemed as if he whispered all of his lyrics to his fans. It was as if he was kneeling, hands clasped, and he was confessing his music rather than singing or performing it. Cohen was as much a mystic as he was a musician. The man cast spells as much as he wrote sonic compositions. Cohen seemed to be operating on another level compared to so many of his peers. Perhaps then it’s no wonder that he penned perhaps the best song of all time. Indeed, “Hallelujah” is as much a prayer as it is a hit single.

Paul Simon

To many, it might seem like, as an artist, Paul Simon wrote the book on silence. Well, to be fair, he actually wrote the song about it. His track “The Sounds Of Silence” makes him the professor emeritus when it comes to using quiet to accentuate his work. Indeed, he wrote the theme song for the stuff. But that’s what happens when you have the talent to write all-time lyrics and then sing them as if your voice was a gift from the angels. You don’t need to hit people over the head with force. You can hold them in the palm of your hand instead.

Billie Eilish

Pop star Billie Eilish is no ordinary singer of the week. No, she is much more advanced than that. Eilish understands that restraint is often as powerful—if not more so—than a rushing river of song. She knows that holding back a little bit can actually be more impactful than smacking people in the face with a bombastic pop lyric or chord change. That’s one of the reasons why she stands above her peers. She knows there are two sides to the pop coin.

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