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Top Six Mistakes While Writing Song Lyrics and How to Avoid Them
Many extraordinarily talented singers find it hard to conjure up good song lyrics, despite having good ideas in their mind. Writing song lyrics from scratch that should be unique and catchy enough to stick with the audience can be a tough job. Most musicians make mistakes in this tricky part while writing song lyrics that bring them down in their career paths. When we look back at the list of songs that topped the charts in history, we see a unique pattern of clever rhyming schemes, a progression of related topics and most importantly a hook that is catchy.
Common Mistakes While Writing Song Lyrics
While writing good music is certainly as important in a song as a story, more often than not it is the lyrics that determine if a song will be a the next hot or not.
When you sit down to write song lyrics, it might seem like an impossible task but if you steer clear of some of these common songwriting mistakes, it might increase your chances of success variably.
Avoid Too Much Rhyming
Rhyming is a key part of many song lyrics and it is pretty much what makes the song catchy that just sticks in your head all day long, but overloading your song with too much rhyming can make it sound more like a children’s poem. Some of the best song lyrics use rhyming in a way that is subtle and does not distract the listener from the story. You should definitely add rhyming words in your song lyrics but in a way that’s strategic enough to draw attention to some words instead of just adding a bunch of words only for the sake of making them rhyme.
Avoid Shifting Between Stories
Song lyrics are more than just babbling a bunch of words in a sing-song voice. They represent an idea or a story exactly like an essay or a novel. Most songwriters forget this concept and keep jumping on to various concept and stories within the same song. This is a definite way to kill your song. Your lyrics should stick to one theme or story and should unfold it more as the song progresses. This way your song will resonate with your listeners more clearly and stick with them.
Avoid Being Disingenuous
Many new songwriters seem to follow the new trends like sheep and as a result produce song after song that sounds almost the same as the first one. While remaining in touch with the trend is a good thing to practice, simply creating a song just for the sake of creating one will most likely kill your buzz. We hear so many songs these days that give the notion of being produced simply to generate an income or to fill that space in an album. Being a good songwriter means knowing that music is much more than just a dollar machine. Writing song lyrics that feel disingenuous and fake will fail to touch your listeners are heart and lack depth. Your song must be connected with you in a way that reflects your true personality and makes you genuine.
Take, for example, the song Bohemian Rhapsody, that was regarded as senseless and bizarre when it first got released, but the way Freddie Mercury pulled it off on stage reflected his true weird soul and personality and that’s what made the song an absolute favorite of its era.
Absence of a Hook
A song needs a hook as desperately as a TV commercial needs a good color scheme to grab hold of the viewer’s attention. A catchy melody is what makes your song hard to get out of the listener’s head. When a song lacks a hook, it just goes in and out of the listener’s ears like a poem with a melody. It doesn’t stay there. Not only should your song contain a hook that goes well with your melody, but you should also know how to pitch it in the right strategic spot. Remember that a hook is one of the key elements of a song that will keep your audience coming back from time to time to give your song another listen.
Avoid Jumbling too Many Ideas
Good songs often tell a story that gives a complete feel as you move through all the verses. When many songwriters mix up too many themes and ideas, it may seem like a remix with one tune is being played into your ears. Think of one idea and stick to it. If you want to write about a traumatic experience, try to include lyrics in your verses that make it sound like a traumatic song rather than adding a few verses that depict happiness and joy. This mistake can make your listeners feel like they are switching between radio stations and may get them confused and feeling nothing after they have finished listening your song.
Avoid Adding Ungrounded Lyrics
You might want to sound philosophical in your song lyrics by adding metaphors and deep verses that show that there is a deep meaning to your song but just writing bunch of ideas without an underlying idea that the listeners can decipher will make your lyrics sound like a jumble of difficult words put together and make it sound unrealistic. Stick to a grounded frame of reference and add metaphors accordingly. Take a look at these lyrics of the song ‘Gold’ by imagine Dragons:
Statues and empires are all at your hands,
Water to wine and the finest of sands
When all that you have’s turnin’ stale and its cold,
Oh you’ll no longer fear when your heart’s turned to gold
The verse uses a bunch of metaphors while remaining true to the song’s theme that is describing the ugly truths and the downside of fame and wealth.
Tips for Writing Song Lyrics for a Love Song
Love songs have been in style ever since mankind found the art of singing. It is one genre of music that will probably never lose its charm. You might think of writing a love song dedicated to a special someone or to let out your experiences for the world to know or merely because you are intrigued about the idea and the concept of love itself. Whatever reason makes you want to jot down your thoughts and feelings, a well written love song can make your song timeless.
Here are some tips that can help you get started with this amazing experience:
Show Your Passion
An emotion as powerful as love can bring out a side of you that you normally don’t choose to display in front of others. In your love song though, that’s precisely what you have to do. Be as passionate as your feelings are and describe them as best as you can so the audience can feel your pain and feelings and resonate to them.
Match the Complexity
Contrary to many other genres, romance is a genre that focuses more on the message than on the music. Don’t make the music boring, obviously, but concentrate more on your message and give it the center stage. However, both the music and the lyrics should match in their complexity for that is the most important thing. If your lyrics are sweet and happy, keep the music joyful too while if your song orients around a bittersweet journey of love, make the music in such a way that shows how complex your story is.
Make it Personal
Everyone has their own concepts about love as their stories and definitions of love are different. You cannot claim to write a song that appeals to everyone’s ideas all at the same time. Therefore, the best way is to make your song as personal as you can. Write lyrics that depict your own experiences about love and thoughts and let it out for people to discover and connect with you on the same page.
Don’t Add Contradictions
What makes a good love song is the ability of the songwriter to portray their feelings genuinely. If you use contradictory phrases or ironies like “Love is blind” and “Love is life” in the same song, it will give an empty meaningless façade to your song. Avoid using cliched statements and stick to one theme and genuine analysis of love itself.
Tips for Writing Song Lyrics for a Pop Song
Radio stations love to play a good pop song that has a catchy melody. A pop song is one that many people enjoy listening to and is literally very popular. A good pop song touches its listeners either emotionally or physically-meaning that it would make the listeners feel like dancing. What drives a pop song’s success is its ability to make the audience want to hear it over and over again. It is a perfect blend of what you want to say and what the listeners want to hear.
Some ways to make your pop song lyrics exceptional are down below
Keeping Balance Between the Contrast
A good contrast is something that holds the balance between the two things being blended. If your song lyrics are bittersweet with a touch of a happy melody, it will not only make the song perfect and catchy but give it that pop boost that you’re looking for.
Starting with the Chorus
Many writers use this technique of starting their lyrics with a variation of the main chorus. It plants the melody into the ear of the listener within the first ten seconds of the song rather than waiting for a minute. If you get the audience by the hook immediately in the beginning with a catchy version of the chorus, by the time your song ends, your listeners will be singing along-guaranteed!
In the song “The Time of My Life” from the “Dirty Dancing” movie, the singer Bil Medley starts with the intro of the chorus long before the main chorus comes. No wonder that song’s catchy as hell!
Catchy Rhyming
What makes pop songs stand out from the other genres are their ability to effortlessly make a person sing along. This is only possible when you sketch lyrics that are simple with rhyming words, yet meaningful. In Ed Sheeran’s song “Shape of You” that was topping the pop charts a while back, he sings:
I’m in love with the shape of you
We push and pull like a magnet do
Although my heart is falling too
I’m in love with your body
The sweet rhyming paired with the catchy chorus rhythm is what makes this song so full of emotions and the one that you’d play again and again.
Writing Song Lyrics for a Country Song
Country music is the most beloved form of music among the working class. The plain language and simple messages in their song lyrics are the trademark of songs that started in the South and spread in the North, East and West in no time at all.
Writing songs for this genre is comparatively easier than other song lyrics. Simple and traditional is what makes it standout so this might be a good option for beginners.
Some tips to get you started on Country songs are
Stick to Country Themes
Before you start writing it is important to understand what country music is all about. The lyrics describe living in the country itself, how peaceful it is, life in the country and such related things. Today, this genre has expanded somehow. Now you can add themes in your country music like sorrow, friendship, romance or about the south and west side.
Write About Genuine Events
One thing about country songs is that this sort of music plays with people’s emotions and desires in a simple yet mesmerizing way. If you really want to delve into the country music genre then you will have to be an honest and genuine songwriter. Write about events that happened in your life rather than making up stories and even if you do choose to do that, be very sincere and compelling about your white lies.
Follow a Simple Structure
Country songs are simple, cheerful and beautiful. They don’t have complicated things that make you want to scream out loud; that’s the job for rock genre. Being a beginner, you should stick to the simplest structure in your lyrics. Follow a verse-verse-chorus-verse map. This is the most basic structure to get you started and you can add more verses on the bridge if you feel like it.
Whatever genre you choose to write a song about, remember that it is all about expressing your feelings and being true to them. The more you embrace authenticity, the more you will rock your song.