john

Hey Tristan, welcome to Songstuff!

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Price Tag - Jessie J

Hi and welcome to Songstuff Manish What Steve means is, are you posting the lyrics only, or are you posting recordings? If just lyrics then post to the Lyrics Critique board to get feedback (make sure you provide comments on at least 2 songs per song posted by you. Please explain your comments, not simply offer 1 line saying you like it). If you are posting recordings, then post them to the Song and Recording board. Similarly, please leave comments on recordings by other members.

Hi and welcome to Songstuff

For me, I tend to write with the verse providing detail such as an evolving story, or painting images, but rather than making the chorus "more general" I use the chorus to comment on the verse or offer a different perspective while in both cases using the chorus to deliver the fundamental message of the song. I don't always follow this pattern but it is my dominant approach. Either way, in AB or ABC form you are using distinct musical sections, generally establishing variations in dynamic and emotional intensity from section to section. As such there is a strong encouragement for the lyrics to follow suite, giving a different lyrical feel from section to section. Perspective, tone, vehicle and purpose are obvious variations to include, on a sectional basis, whether you assign detail to verse and message to chorus or the other way around. There are obvious reasons why a chorus tends to have the message. Choruses tend to have the catchiest musical hooks. A message is communicated at it's best when it is repeated. Multiple voices serve to underline and strengthen the lyrics, which makes them ideally suited to deliver messages. Multiple voices singing a repeated line matches the definition of a chorus (chorus being the name for multiple voices, it's the root of the section of music we now call a chorus) That said a chorus can still add detail, or evolve meaning as choruses can and do sometimes contain lines that change from repetition to repetition, but the chorus is the section that contains the primary lyrical hook, hook melody etc. True the picture becomes a bit more complicated if you deviate away from a standard AB (verse-chorus) form, for example to include a refrain line within the verse, the chorus still fulfils it's fundamental purpose. Maybe Bruce has just decided to swap what he calls verse and what he calls chorus?