Love song

A love song is a song about being in love, falling in love, heartbreak upon the ending of a loving relationship, and the feelings that these experiences bring. A comprehensive list of even the best known performers and composers of love songs would be a large order.

Love songs can be found in many musical genres.

History

Love songs have been around for centuries and can be found in the histories and cultures of most societies, though their ubiquity is a modern phenomenon.

A highly controversial and startling explanation of the genesis of love songs can be found in Denis de Rougemont's "Love in the Western World". De Rougemont's thesis is that love songs grew out of the courtly love songs of the troubadours, and that those songs represented a rejection of the historical Christian notion of love.

Identities of love songs change from time to time, from the decade of love in the '70s, through night partying in the '80s, and into dark romance of the '90s. Love songs did not have an identity in the 2000s.

Love Songs

Love Songs, Lovesongs or The Love Songs may refer to:

Music

Albums

Love

Love is a variety of different feelings, states, and attitudes that ranges from interpersonal affection ("I love my mother") to pleasure ("I loved that meal"). It can refer to an emotion of a strong attraction and personal attachment. It can also be a virtue representing human kindness, compassion, and affection—"the unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another". It may also describe compassionate and affectionate actions towards other humans, one's self or animals.

Non-Western traditions have also distinguished variants or symbioses of these states. This diversity of uses and meanings combined with the complexity of the feelings involved makes love unusually difficult to consistently define, compared to other emotional states.

Love in its various forms acts as a major facilitator of interpersonal relationships and, owing to its central psychological importance, is one of the most common themes in the creative arts.

Love may be understood as a function to keep human beings together against menaces and to facilitate the continuation of the species.

Song

A song is a single (and often standalone) work of music intended to be sung by the human voice with distinct and fixed pitches and patterns using sound and silence and a variety of forms that often include the repetition of sections. Written words created specifically for music or for which music is specifically created, are called lyrics. If a pre-existing poem is set to composed music in classical music it is an art song. Songs that are sung on repeated pitches without distinct contours and patterns that rise and fall are called chants. Songs in a simple style that are learned informally are often referred to as folk songs. Songs that are composed for professional singers are called popular songs. These songs, which have broad appeal, are often composed by professional songwriters, composers and lyricists. Art songs are composed by trained classical composers for concert performances. Songs are performed live and recorded. Songs may also appear in plays, musical theatre, stage shows of any form, and within operas.

Rare Bird Alert

Rare Bird Alert is a 2011 bluegrass album by Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers, featuring guest appearances by Paul McCartney and The Dixie Chicks. This is Martin's second consecutive musical album, and comprises 13 songs. His first all-music album was 2009's The Crow: New Songs for the 5-String Banjo. Rare Bird Alert was first released on March 15, 2011. The album was nominated for a Grammy on November 30, 2011 (Best Bluegrass Album). "King Tut" is a new bluegrass arrangement of a song that had been a Billboard Top 20 hit for Martin in 1978.

Track list

All songs written by Steve Martin except where indicated.