The Pros And Cons Of Pop Music

How do they do it? Why does a Beatles or a Michael Jackson song capture a listener’s attention the way they do? What is their secret, what’s the formula? If all of us songwriters had the answers to these questions, we would all be a lot richer.

While there’s no real “formula” to crafting a potential hit, there are methodologies to it. As anyone who has spent time listening to the radio can tell hit songs come in a few well- defined forms. This is no accident. These writers, producers and singers on the radio all know how to put together a song that will probably be a smash. So how do you think the pros do it? They listen to hits of the past and they use them as resources for their ideas. That’s one of the less well-kept secrets of pop songwriting.

The way they make it their own is by using some of the skills I’ll mention below to make variations.

The structure of a song will determine what kind of effect it will have on the listener, whether it will be a hit or not. One of the most common and possibly the most effective forms of a hit to write is the verse/chorus. This song form goes hand in hand with the dynamics of the audience:

• The audience usually listens to the story the verses are telling
• And then the chorus will come around, summarizing the story as the audience sings along

Lyrically speaking, the chorus is going to summarize the main idea of the lyric and is going to be the emotional high point – the highest intensity section – of your song. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to include song title in there too. You want people to know what your song is called, right? Now how do you want the music to feel? Want something happy and upbeat? Make your chorus major key with a high tempo and maybe use eighth notes. Want something a bit funkier and maybe a bit more intimate? Slow the tempo down and use a mixolydian mode instead.