November 10, 2011 Unusual Song Writing Technique
Hi guys,
I am not sure if any song writing teacher would recommend this but I wonder, can a poorly written, lazy and uninspiring verse make a well written chorus sound twice as good as it otherwise would have?
And, more controversially, could this be a song writing technique that is worth using?
I am in the process of opening a Birmingham Recording Studio Birmingham Recording Studio in the UK and in doing so have had to interview several producers. Recently, one of the producers played a song that took about 1.30mins to reach the chorus, it was a looong boring wait! But, when the chorus came it was unbelievably well written and executed. He told me that it was no mistake!
I have been pondering this recently after listening to a few tracks that have superb choruses but well, average (or worse) verses. The long uninspiring verse in some songs seems to make the chorus appear even better in comparison.
Listening to the radio the other day I heard a famous song, I forget the name, but it was clear that whoever wrote it was a skilled song writer. The chorus was beautifully crafted and it’s little wonder I recognised it as a hit song. But, the verse was awful? How can this be .. was it intentional? Contrary to the obvious effort that was put into the chorus, the verse sounded like it must have been the first thing that they thought of .. seriously!
Could it be that they decided an “average” verse would make their chorus seem even better than it was? Or, alternatively, would the chorus stand out so much if the verse was better? I simply don’t know but one thing is for sure, a killer chorus is all that is needed to create a hit song.
I honestly wish I could remember the song to post a link here but I can’t. I can’t find any examples right now but one song that has a monotone verse is “I like the way you move” by OutKast http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ei7Yn2EF2U
Of course this is rap so very different to a sung verse, but you’ll see what I mean. The chorus feels all the more exciting as a result of the flat verse. I am not saying the verse is poorly wriSavetten in this example, just that it (purposefully) has way less ‘colour’ than the chorus.
Can you think of songs that have a bad verse but a great chorus?
Do you think this could be a technique songwriters can use?
Songwriting | tagged song writing
Reader Comments (3)
*cough*Beach Boys*cough*
"More Than A Feeling" by Boston is the PRIME example of what you're talking about.
To me that absolutely sounds crazy. Just because, I can't imagine wanting to write a song and leave it particularly bad/uninspired. Though there is a difference between writing something "good" and then having a lot of different aspects going on to make it "interesting".
I think it makes perfect sense to have a minimalist verse and then a layered and dense chorus to make the chorus blossom. What's great though, is it can also work the other way around. having a really happening, interesting verse, and then a minimalist chorus.
Leaving something you know is uninspired and "bad" on purpose just to make another part of the song sound better just sounds dumb. I would think you want all aspects of your song to be as "good" as they can.
I think something that is important to remember here is that sometimes you just understand your chorus better or understand what you want more, or are just plain inspired when writing that section of your song. And then it could be you're not inspired or don't understand exactly what you want for your verse, so you just settle with the best you can do. So it wasn't on purpose that the verse was "bad" it just was the best you could do...
Hope this makes sense.