Welcome to part two of my new (well, old but new) series, How to Write Your First Song! In this addition, we'll be talking about song structure and form of popular music. I'll only be covering the basics, so of course there are many other things relating to song structure and form than are mentioned here. But anyway, let's get started!
Probably the most common song path that pop songs nowadays follow is as the following:
- Instrumental introduction
- Verse
- Pre-chorus
- Chorus
- Verse
- Pre-chorus
- Chorus
- Bridge
- Final chorus
Using Shake It Off by Taylor Swift as an example (since that's a song pretty much everyone knows), I'll explain what each of these terms mean.
Verse
The verses are the majority of the song. They are the story-telling bulk. Typically, lyrics here are more literal; they explain the situation. In Shake It Off, the verse starts out the song with "I stay up too late, / got nothing in my brain". The second verse begins with "I'll never miss a beat, / I'm lightning on my feet". These verses are the main story line of the song. For pretty much 99% of songs, the lyrics for the verse change, but the melody is identical or at least very similar. Generally, the melody here is in the lower range of the singer.
Pre-chorus
The pre-chorus is the bridge between the verse and the real chorus. It's mainly there to serve a transition between the two. In Shake It Off, it's the sections that start with "But I keep cruising, can't stop, won't stop moving" and "But I keep cruising, can't stop, won't stop grooving". It should be lead-in and build up to the chorus. Often times, the melody gets higher and higher as the pre-chorus goes along. However, a pre-chorus is not always necessary; there are plenty of fine songs that lack one.
Chorus
The chorus is the most important, most well-known part of the song. For pretty much any song, people probably won't know how the verses go - however, the chorus it the big, sing-along section. It's the iconic "But the players gonna play, play, play, play, play" and etc. in Shake It Off. Rhythms and such are generally simpler than the ones in the verse. Additionally, the lyrics are more emotional and sum up the message of the song. To convey the emotional content and energy behind this section, the chorus generally should be in the higher range of the singer.
Bridge
The bridge is a section, that as its name suggests, is oftentimes a turning point. In the lyrics, maybe a new perspective is gained, emotions change, etc. Regarding most aspects of the song, especially chord-wise, this part of the song should be fresh and sound different from the rest of the song. However, I would warn against changing the key because that can make it sound like an entirely different song. Nonetheless, no matter what, this part of the song should just somehow sound different. For example, in Shake It Off, this is the section with the talky-part - "Hey, hey, hey, just think while you've been getting down and out about the liars and the dirty, dirty cheats in the world you could have been getting down to this sick beat" and such.
Though this is not suggested, there are some songs that don't have a bridge and have an instrumental solo instead or whatever. However, usually it's with commercially-produced, beat-driven hits that are meant to appeal to the masses - and not a song that's actually well-written with meaningful lyrics and such.
I hope these brief descriptions of the different parts of a song were helpful to writing your first song! Make sure to stay tuned for future installments of this series. Also, check out this post for the first part of this series about chords and some other basic music theory things.
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