When you hum a tune in the shower, what part of the song is what you just sang? Even if I’m not a diviner, it’s a safe bet that this is the chorus ! The chorus is indeed the central part of your song and it is often what your listener will remember first. It is therefore necessary to pay particular attention to its composition.
But how do you compose a powerful chorus? How to distinguish its chorus from the other parts of the song? And in general, how to make it memorable? This is what we will see in the rest of this article!
Know The Subject of The Song
It seems obvious, but it is essential! Because if you don’t have a subject, you will scatter yourselves! When writing your lyrics, be aware of what you want to talk about. A sad event? A joy ? A message of public interest that you want to denounce? A story based on something you read? Everything is possible ! When you know what you’re talking about, writing is much smoother and easier!
See the progression of the story through the different parts
Again, it’s about moving forward. You are telling a story!
To take my example:
1st verse , You meet this girl.
In the chorus, you express how crazy you are about her.
In the 2nd verse , you tell how it occupies your minds.
You repeat the chorus
At the bridge, you explicitly kiss her.
If necessary, you talk about the continuation in a 3rd verse or towards the end.
Be sincere with others, but also with yourself
This is surely the first piece of advice any writer or lyricist would give.
You always have to know the reasons that led us to write a text at the base and what emotions we wanted to trigger.
So yes, sometimes we want to be fashionable and we dream of conquering the record industry by imitating certain performers.
But between you and me, where would be the merit of talking about a subject that you don’t know at all?
All this to conform to the fashion of the moment!
When Eminem talks about his terrible childhood in the red light districts of Detroit, we can feel this suffering of daily life, his difficult relationship with his mother and the ambiguous link between his writing and his will to get out of it.
How to explain its success?
Apart from his supersonic flow and his surgical technique, what characterizes artists like Eminem, those who mark the spirits in an immediate way, are their ability to be sincere and to portray in an authentic way what they contain deepest in them .
In short, they don’t cheat .
These artists are themselves and the public perceives this sort of thing very well in the final execution.
Writing is a difficult exercise. It is not Fauve or Mathias Malzieu who wants. Being true to yourself is a great first step to writing a song that works .
Rhymes are nice, but…
So yes it sounds good and it’s pretty.
The text seems more fluid, smarter and above all more powerful, but don’t make the mistake of focusing too much on rhymes , because they can unfortunately do your words a disservice by reducing the range of possibilities in terms of vocabulary and nuances that you could bring through your message.
Already write a first text without trying to rhyme, assonance or alliteration.
Bring out the essence and the skeleton of your words and then work on the style and the sounds from the bottom .
Writing lyrics is always starting from the bottom to the form and not the other way around!
Be inventive!
To illuminate your verses and make them both captivating and pleasing to the ear, do not hesitate to use the metaphor which is the figure of speech most used by authors .
Use image words that not only convey more emotion, but will give weight to what you want to say in your song.
Figures of speech cause fun, smiles, sadness. In short, they clearly make people react, think and therefore participate !
However, avoid abstract figures that will confuse your audience.
Avoid coming across as pretentious
Pseudo-nerd messages will make you look like a lesson giver .
You can position yourself as an inquisitor, rhetorically and vehemently blasting system devotees like a Cash Investigation reporter, while avoiding smugness and condescension.
There is nothing worse than artists who take themselves too seriously and look down on their audience.
To write a song is to integrate the crowd into its world, even if it means simplifying its message.
Build a heady and catchy chorus
The chorus is the brain of your song and the essence of what you want to say . It is he who embodies your business card.
If the turns are good and striking, the public will hum it without stopping in the car, at work, in the shower.
The chorus must be unique and above all very simple in its formula in order to be easy to remember .
Avoid caricature, stay yourself!
We have all heard certain texts and were immediately touched.
We then want to reproduce the same pattern, do Zaz, Damien Saez, David Bowie, but never forget that trying to look like someone else is to stop being yourself .
During a writing work, we always write in reference to something that marked us before.
It is an unavoidable and typically human cerebral functioning.
But keep your uniqueness, your way of expressing yourself and prioritize the lexical fields specific to your identity .
Do not let yourself be impressed by fads even if you sometimes have to follow them to move forward. It is important to write truthfully and to write accurately.
Optional: Be committed (but always with sincerity)
We all have different views and demands.
If you have the temperament to defend ideals, whatever they are, committed writing will allow you to express yourself fully .
Talking about poverty, precariousness and inequality is unfortunately not about to change.
These are endless topics perhaps but infinite in how to deal with them, because we all have a different way of conceiving them or even of fighting them .
Well-meaning and bombastic speeches may only bring you indifference, because it is the intensity, the singularity and the authentic emotion that you want to convey on each word that will be the most important.
Remember this famous adage: everything has already been written, but not by you!
Conclusion
Be sincere with yourself, with others and write on subjects that are important to you and not because they may seem “trendy”.
Be bold and inventive. Make your song inescapable and unforgettable thanks to well-founded and catchy metaphors.
Finally, don’t get lost in pretentiousness and moralizing.
Finally, writing lyrics is an invitation to the public to discover your unique universe by making your speech as intelligible and memorable as possible.
