Components of a Popular Song

Video Transcript

"So, as we talk about song structure, there are probably thousands of structures that you could come upon to write songs, but in pop song writing there are usually components in each song that will show up perhaps in different orders. The examples of the components of a popular song, it usually include some kind of verse, usually includes some kind of bridge, whether that is a long or short segment, it could look different in each song. A bridge is usually described as something that's a little bit of a departure from the repeatable components of a song. It's a different thing that will happen one time. But, you can also have sections of a song that you consider bridging material to get you from one place to the next that do repeat. But, typically a bridge in a song is a unique break from the pattern of a song, and then you have your chorus, and some people call that the refrain, and it depends on the era of songwriting also, because things were called different things at different times. Nowadays, we, in pop song writing we talk about the hook a lot, that can be anything from a chorus of the song that's repeatable, that you hear over and over again, and that's the part that you kind of keep in your mind, but a hook, it can also be something that happens in the production of the song. Whether that?s, the actual melody of the song, that's a hook, or some instrumental thing that is very recognizable, and this is where I will advise that you tune into the next video that I will be presenting, which is about creating a demo, a song demo, because you can create hooks in the recording process in the studio. The example that I gave earlier of Stevie Wonder's tune, Signed, Seal, Delivered, would be an example of a hook. Just that little melody would be kind of a hook in that song, and while that's never sung in that song, you might consider that a hook, and an important of the structure, even though it's more like a, milotic interlude in that song. As opposed to the example that I gave of Norwegian Wood, where that melody, that is both played, and sung, and that could be considered the refrain of that song, because you hear it over, and over again sung, but you also hear it instrumentally, so in the recording of that song as a record, that would be considered a hook."