Creativity Quote by Dorothy Fields

Nobody is spared in Fields's blunt little ultimatum, least of all the songwriter. For a lyricist who helped define the American musical at its slickest and most emotionally legible, this is craft advice with teeth: music is not a decorative pause between "real" scenes, it is the scene. A song that doesn't advance the narrative isn't merely indulgent; it's sabotage.

Fields is talking about pacing, but the subtext is power. In a musical, the song can hijack the whole machine: the star gets their moment, the composer gets their melody, the audience gets their applause cue. Fields warns that the crowd may enjoy the tune yet still feel cheated if the story doesn't move. "Reject" is the key verb. She trusts audiences as instinctive editors; they might not articulate why they're restless, but they'll sense when the show is stalling and punish it with disengagement.

The context matters: Fields worked in an era when Broadway and Hollywood were refining the integrated musical, shifting away from vaudeville-style numbers that existed to showcase performers. Her line lands as a professional creed from someone who understood that sentiment has to be earned, not parked. The intent isn't anti-beauty; it's anti-selfishness. A "good" song, in her view, isn't just catchy or clever. It's dramaturgy in three minutes: turning point, revelation, decision. If it can't do that, it doesn't belong, no matter how pretty the rhyme is.