How to Write Good Club Songs

Good club songs need a hook for people to remember and sing after the song's over.

A good club song brings people together and motivates them to move their bodies. A song with a beat makes people want to dance. Writing a good club song means knowing your audience and choosing a beat that invokes energy. The best club songs stick around for years. Michael Jackson's "Beat It" is one of those songs that still plays in modern nightclubs because the beat and lyrics are well-known and appreciated. As you start writing a club song, think of songs that you remember from the club or what song makes you want to dance the most. Artists often borrow beats and hooks to develop newer sounds. Using what interests you, you can begin writing a good club song.

Instructions

1. Select a beat. Listen to familiar club, hip hop, rap and techno songs to decide what kind of beat you want to achieve. Heavier bass produces better club songs, as speakers pump out bass tones in nightclubs to get people to dance. Visit a nightclub and see what songs energize people to dance.

2. Record the basic beat of the song using an audio recording application, such as Audio Recorder or Audacity. Even if you only have your hands to clap out a series of beats, recording this sound helps you remember and add to the melody as you develop the rest of the song. Humming also helps produce the melody. If you have better production equipment or a production studio, ask a disc jockey or producer to help develop the beat to your song.

3. Develop phrases and cadences that flow with your chosen beat. A phrase is a collection of notes that sound complete when played apart from instrumentals. For instance, rappers such as Jay-Z often use a phrase separate from the instrumentals to get the song started. "Bring 'Em Out" is a frequent phrase in Jay-Z's rap song. A cadence helps you harmonize throughout the song; it's a similar sound, either a rhyme or tone, that you develop with the verses of your song.

4. Write a chorus for the song. Every good club song has a hook. The hook is catchy and keeps repeating throughout the song so that people hear the hook and remember the song long after the song ends. There are two-, four-, six- or eight-bar hooks. However, the simpler hooks are easier to remember and sing. If you need help developing bars, How2Rap provides a bar tutorial (see Resources).

5. Write verses for the song. After writing the hook, write the verses for the song around the hook's theme. Topics include partying, dancing, relationships with girls or guys, friends, ex-boyfriends or just being single. Beyonce's "Single Ladies" is a club song that portrays a confident woman going out and dancing with all her girlfriends. This is a catchy theme to start for a good club song.

6. Select a title. Some songwriters suggest coming up with a title first, but if that is too daunting, adding the title at the end also defines the message of the song you wrote. Action words, images, short phrases or places make great song titles.

References

• How2Rap: How To Write Your Own Rap Song
• Dave Noodlez: How To Write A Rap Song by Dave Noodlez
• Robin Frederick: How to Write a Song
• Music Theory: Phrases and Cadences

Resources

• How2Rap: Bar Tutorial