song, sticks in your head like peanut butter to the roof of your mouth, and
repeats throughout your song at critical points. It is the part of the song that
will be remembered (sometimes begrudgingly) when the rest of the song is
long forgotten.Usually the hook is the chorus, but not always. Sometimes an instrumental
interlude between verses can be a hook (think of the guitar part to
“Satisfaction” by the Rolling Stones). What we can say about hooks is that
if your song doesn’t have one, you will have a hard time finding anyone to
publish or perform it.So where do hooks come from?Many places. They can come from common expressions in daily use. Every
generation has its jargon. For example, how often do you hear someone say,
“It’s all good”? How about “24/7”? Many expressions go into and out of popu-
larity over the years; any of them can be a good starting point for coming up
with a memorable hook. Listen to conversations and try to observe which
simple phrases get used a lot. They don’t even have to have a lot of depth.
You will be able to provide depth when you begin to flesh them out.Sometimes a hook comes from putting a new spin on a common idea. It can
even come from putting a new spin on a common musical idea. Originally, rock
and roll utilized snare accents on beat 2, the andof beat 2, and beat 4. At some
point the andof 2 was dropped and accents were put only on 2 and 4. Then
someone tried accenting all four beats with the snare. These were small
changes in the drums, but they provided a large change in feel and provided
musical hooks. Christopher Cross used a major ninth chord in “Sailing.”
Hendrix introduced us to the 7 sharp 9 chord. If you use the same hook a lot,
it can become your little identifying trademark. If you use the same hook too
much, it can make you a one-hit-wonder.
One common songwriting technique is to start with a strong musical or lyrical
phrase — it doesn’t matter which. This phrase will likely become the hook, but
it probably won’t be the very first thing that we hear in the finished song. You
are going to build up to it with your music and/or lyrics. Think of other lyrical
or musical ideas that support this phrase. Toss the phrase around in your head
for a couple of weeks until it magnetically starts to gather more words, more
music, more storyline ideas, and generally develops into a hook. Now you can
write verses that lead to the climax that your hook should provide.
Your hook will probably end up being the song title, but not the first lyrics
the listener hears. Not many songs actually start right out with the title in the
lyrics. So try writing your hooks first. That way you will at least be sure your
songs have them. Even if the phrase you work with doesn’t become a hook, it
is often a good idea to write songs from the inside out and not necessarily
force yourself to start writing your song from the beginning.
Chapter 17: Composing Commercial Music and Songs 227