Good songwriters use form to give their songs the emotional impact needed to
make them memorable. Just like the easiest poems to remember and even —
on a much less sophisticated level — rally cheers and anthems have some
sort of rhyming or rhythmic structure to them. The songs that are easiest for
audiences to truly connect with are the ones built according to form. The way
songs are put together is not arbitrary, and forms weren’t invented just to
create formula songs without depth or originality. These forms exist and per-
sist because songwriters, and audiences, have found that they help listeners
to understand and remember the message at the heart of a song. Chapter 13
talks a lot more about form.
Even when your songs come spontaneously, there will come a point when you
have to decide what form you want to use (we go into form in more detail
later in this section). Sometimes you may come up with a single verse or a
chorus idea first. After that first flash of inspiration and an exploration of
what you want the song to say, you need to have an idea of the type of form
you want to use to help you get your idea, or the story behind your song,
across most effectively. You may do that unconsciously, as a natural result of
having listened to and studied music all your life.
But sometimes — especially if you’ve only listened to bubblegum pop, or rap
music, or math rock — you may not be able to write anything that doesn’t
sound like a blatant imitation of a song you’re already familiar with. You have
to remember that what you already know or feel about form could be limiting.
Deciding on lyrics and tempo ...........................................................
If you’re starting from a lyric, the mood and subject matter will probably dic-
tate the tempo of the music. If it’s a happy song that demands an up-tempo
sort of rhythm to it, you might want to use a form with just a few sections,
such as AAA or ABA. If it’s a slow or mid-tempo ballad — for example, a good
country ballad like Hank Williams’ “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” — you can
use either the longer or shorter forms.
If you’re writing your lyrics first, then you’re going to have to choose a beat
that works with those lyrics. If your lyrics use a lot of multisyllabic words, or
if you have a lot of short words that fit together in long phrases, then you’re
probably going to need to choose a fast beat that matches the rhythm of your
dialog. Listen to anything by a fast-singing punk rock band, such as early
Suicidal Tendencies or Husker Dü to see what we mean.
On the folk music front, compare the lyrical tempo of one of Bob Dylan’s
especially wordy songs, such as “Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat,” to “Just Like
a Woman.” There’s no way that you could take the lyrics of “Leopard-Skin”
and set it to the beat of “Just Like A Woman” — the words wouldn’t fit rhyth-
mically against the music, and you would end up with a lot of words left over
at the end of the song.
Chapter 17: Composing Commercial Music and Songs 221