Lesson 6 – Songwriting Themes and Hooks

Following on from our last lesson on Songwriting 101 I promised that this time we would look in more depth at the first two of the four main elements of a successful pop song. To recap, these are the four elements I speak of:

Universal Themes
Strong Hooks
Audience-Friendly Structures
Radio-Friendly Production

Today we’ll only explore the concepts of Themes and Hooks as I don’t want to overload you with you information. The goal of this Online Classroom is to inform and inspire, not exhaust!

THEMES

In a nutshell, these are found in your lyrics. Sometimes the music can support the themes, for instance a song about being a proud drunken larrakin would not go so well with a gentle orchestral arrangement. An Irish pub band sound might suit the theme better. Likewise, a song of angry rebellion often suits rock, and songs of sensitive and/or chauvinistic seduction often suit RnB sounds. The first thing to consider here is what your song is actually about. There are only really three themes that people relate to, and if you study the lyrics carefully you’ll find that most of the great hits of the last fifty or more years fit into one or more of these three themes:

Love, Loss, and Partying.

You’ll be hard-pressed to find a successful song that doesn’t fit into one of those. Why is it so? They are universally human themes. No one can deny that the strongest emotional states they have ever experienced have been during the processes of falling in or out of love, or when getting a bit tipsy and dancing to Loveshack down at the local watering hole! Obviously each of these themes can be explored with much more depth than I just did, love is a complicated thing, and your pain is deep like the ocean, and celebrating is your God-given right so let’s get this party started. See what I just did there? I expanded on the three basic themes to create the illusion of greater depth or even, perhaps, a shred of originality.

Whether or not you try really hard to break away from these themes (and I strongly suggest you explore your own experience of them rather than resist them), the first thing you need to be clear on is WHAT YOU ARE SINGING ABOUT (one final clue: it is probably either love, loss or partying…. just saying…).

HOOKS

You’ve no doubt heard this term before, and whether or not it has ever been explained to you I’m sure you have a sense that the hook is the greatly sought after and oh so mysterious holy grail of hit-making. Truth be told, a hook is not just a songwriting device, it is prevalent in all of the arts including the written word, visual artists, and most especially in film making and advertising. In music a hook is simply a musical or lyrical device that grabs the attention of the audience quickly and lodges itself firmly in the listener’s brain, creating an almost haunting effect as it resounds long after the song has finished. Easy right? Alas, it is a difficult and sometimes unpredictable pot of gold at the end of the songwriting rainbow.

Lyrical hooks are pretty important as they link your musical ideas to your themes. Every hit song has one. It’s the big line of the chorus (usually) that everyone in the pub bursts into singing together, loudly and proudly because they know the words of that part (and often ONLY that part). That is what makes it a lyrical hook – it’s memorable, even to a bunch of drunk folk.

Take Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl” (again). Every pub gig I have ever played (and believe me I’ve played more than a few) this song absolutely goes off when we play it, and if we don’t play it, it most certainly gets requested. Come the chorus, every person in the venue is roaring a-melodically “you my…. brown eyed girl… do you remember when, we used to sing…. SHA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LALA DE DA…” and so on. Bless Mister Morrison, he didn’t need to use anything resembling well structured language to create one of the great lyrical hooks of the 20th Century. I’m sure you will quickly work out what the lyrical hook of any chosen pop song is.

The key to creating one yourself is simplicity. Choosing to say “Ooh baby I love your way” is much more hooky than choosing words with the same meaning, and perhaps more depth, but less charm. For instance: “Ooh baby, the things that you do make me realise that you are a really special person in my life and I am very impressed by your uniqueness and beauty… every day… heeyyyy”. Not quite as punchy! To find the ideal lyrical hook, you need to go back to your THEMES, and if you’ve already written a page of lyrics that comprise your verses and perhaps your bridge, clues about what you’re really on about will undoubtedly be in here. If your song sticks to one of the above common themes, chances are it has some amount of direction and flow in the lyrics and from that you can create a natural lyrical hook.

For instance, I recently wrote a song whose lyrical/melodic hook had not yet presented itself to me. The verses read like this:

You’ve got a lot of nerve showing your face ’round here
To get another serve of my affection
You’ve been safe and sound, I’ve been here working
Just to find solid ground after shaking you

I see you standing there hoping for a handout but it’s not fair
I ain’t gonna give it to you, no.

By the look in your eye I’d say you’re lonely
Babe you try and try, but where is your truth?

I see you standing there, I gave you everything don’t that make us square?
I ain’t gonna give you no more.

So although I had already fleshed out my structure and some of my production (more on these in the next lesson), I hadn’t yet created a hook, lyrical or otherwise, because I hadn’t yet read back over my lyrics and gotten to the bottom of the themes. As it turns out, rather obviously from what you read about, this song is about loss, specifically the story of an ex-lover reappearing to ask for more after they’ve already dished out a feast of hurt. Naturally the lyrics are loaded with anger and resentment, so the lyrical hook would need to reflect this as simply and universally as possible.

What I came up with very quickly after considering the theme of the song was this:

I’m all worn down,
You won’t leave me,
While you run around,
You freely bleed me.

Now, from reading the words alone it is difficult to get a sense of how those words add up to a hook, so I will put the song in a player below for you to listen to and connect with. With any luck this song will be a single released at some point, but the version below is just the demo as it currently stands at the time of writing this lesson!

All Worn Down (Demo) by The Quick Brown Fox

To boil down what makes the chorus a lyrical hook, it is simple and uncluttered. There are only four words per line and they are in a typical ABAB rhyming pattern. The melody also follows the same ABAB pattern, so there is enough repetition melodically to make up for the fact that over those four lines the lyrics are constantly changing. The basic lyrical idea is a metaphor of being physical worn down like an old pair of shoes or tyres whilst the “enemy” in the song is freely roaming unhindered by such deep feelings of pain and remorse. To break it down even more, the lyrics say “I’m hurt because of you” and that is a feeling that most living humans can relate to. The create a lyrical hook that says this much in just 16 words is definitely something to strive for. Now its arrogant of me to say that this song is THE way to write, because its certainly not yet a hit, but I wanted to share it so you get an understand of the process of finding the natural hook of a song, and that is an insight I cannot offer when discussing Van Morrison or Peter Frampton and how they write.

This brings us very naturally to the MUSICAL HOOK. This concept is just as, if not more important than the lyrical hook. Music (without words) connects with us on a very primal and visceral level. Rhythms, melodies and patterns within those are inherent to nature and our understanding of our surroundings and the experience of life, so when a melody or rhythm conjures feelings of nostalgia, elation, depression, excitement, or even just foot tapping, we are onto something good as a songwriter. Everyone responds differently to different musical stimuli, but it is clear that not all musical hooks are created equal.

Musical hooks most often exist as the melody that carries the lyrical hook of a song, but sometimes they are a guitar riff (eg. “Highway to Hell” by AC/DC), a keyboard line (eg. “Jump” by Van Halen), a sax solo (eg. “Baker Street” by Gerry Rafferty) or bass line (eg. “Billie Jean” by Michael Jackson). Some great songs have a combination of these things leading to multiple hooks. Going back to our prime example of “Brown Eyed Girl”, the opening guitar riff is instantly recognisable to all and can even be sung along with or mimed by the air-guitarists out there. Then the vocals provide several sing-along hooks throughout the short and sweet party hit.

Nobody really knows exactly what makes a musical hook, but we know it when we hear it, and I still maintain that like with lyrical hooks and even the themes of a song, simplicity is key and only through keeping it simple and elegant can we open up the appeal of a song to a more universal audience. There will always be a place for impressive, virtuosic or even intellectual musicianship and composition in art music and pop music alike, but if a song does not have at least one passage of simple and elegant hookery it has little chance of attaining hit status. The hook is the touchstone of a song through which the audience is reminded of the fundamental themes and the feeling the writer intends to convey, which is why the chorus is often repeated 2 to 6 times in an average pop song.

Take some time to consider the hooks of your favourite pop songs. How quickly can you recognise them when the song comes on the radio? How easily can you sing along with the vocals or the instrumental hook? Think about your own songs. How can your themes be clarified and made more universal? How can your hooks be stronger and simpler?

In our next lesson we’ll take a look at the remaining two elements of successful songs – the structure and the production – and we’ll explore why a solid and audience-friendly structure is the make-or-break of a song and why production is the icing on the cake that can really get your song noticed.

Until then happy writing, be well, be inspired and be empowered to stay active in pursuit of your BIG PICTURE! I hope your first 30-day challenge is going well and you have your second list already lined up to push you closer to success in your 12-month goal!

Love and much respect to you,

James Higgins

Director and founder of J.Fox Soul