A number of popular music styles and traditions have pushed the song form to "the edge," whereby terms like "track" are often considered to be more appropriate formal descriptors (as in much electronic dance music). But despite these and other challenges to the popular song form, the notion of the "song" persists as a key organising principle in the vast majority of popular music cultures. In a sense, the concept of the "song" is so ubiquitous that it tends to avoid critique in popular music studies: that is, the concept of a "song" become an undisputed musical territory, a vessel into which musical meaning is poured, or clay that is moulded by an artist. This paper outlines the early stages of a research project into the immensely varied cultures and practices of songwriting, from the historical origins of the song form, to non-Western song forms, variously disputed "golden ages of songwriting," and current-day practices.