Make Your Listeners Want To Hear Your Songs Over And Over

[AnthonyCeseri]

One technique which I think is a great little trick to keep your listeners coming back to your songs is to establish a catchy hook throughout your song, and then at the very end of the song, cut that hook short and leave them wanting it. I learned it from Jay Frank who wrote the book, "Future Hit DNA."

The best example I can think of this happens in the song, “We Are the Champions,†by Queen.

The chorus repeats three times in this song. The first two times we hear the chorus, it ends on Freddie Mercury singing the phrase “… Of the world,†after singing the line “We are the champions.†In the last chorus, at the very end of the song, that phrase “of the world†is omitted and the song ends on “We are the champions.â€

I remember hearing this song when I was younger. It would get to the very last line in the song and it would end without the line “Of the world.†It would drive me crazy. I’d wonder why the song didn’t the song end on that line. It was in the previous choruses, so why wasn’t it at the end? I needed to hear that line. I couldn’t take the way it left me hanging. So what would I do? I’d play the song again. I’d get my fix at the choruses in the middle of the song, but then I’d get to the end. Again, I was left hanging. By simply omitting that line, they made me want to hear that song over and over again.

Pretty cool stuff.

[snabbu]

Hi Anthony

That sounds like a goer to me, it's like a cliff hanger in a soap opera so you watch again next week.

I've stuck it in my list of things to try.

A technique I am fiddling with at the moment has to do with chord structure.

The idea is you start with less frequent chord changes and have more as the song progresses.

So line one and two of the verse might be a single chord.

Line three may have two

Line four four chords.

The idea is it creates a sence of the verse rushing towards te chorus.

So it will be interesting to see what happens.

Cheers

Gary

[AnthonyCeseri]

Interesting idea - Sounds like it can work really well!

[snabbu]

We will keep you posted Anthony. Also couldn't download your booklet on my iPad I'l try on my MacBook later.

Cheers

Gary

[AnthonyCeseri]

We will keep you posted Anthony. Also couldn't download your booklet on my iPad I'l try on my MacBook later.

Awesome.

As for the pdf - It should work on your ipad. Let me know if it doesn't work on the MacBook, and I'll get it to you in another format. Thanks!

[thepopeofpop]

"Leave them wanting more" - this is why a lot of pop songs wear out their welcome pretty quickly, because they have one good idea that they pound into the ground and so don't leave you wanting more. If the hook is repeated over and over, especially through a long fade out at the end, you may please the listener the first few times but your song will have little long-term replay value.

Anthony is exactly correct - the most powerful thing you can do in a song (like "We Are The Champions") is make the listener immediately want to hear it again to capture that special moment. Setting up that classic hook one last time and then denying the "payoff", or changing it radically, is one very effective technique.

Gary has a good idea ... changing the duration of chords. Definitely a good thing in a song - not just for dramatic effect but also to add variation.

Edited October 25, 2012 by thepopeofpop

[Olaf Stando]

Sounds like a pretty awesome technique, "We Are Ahe Champions" is such a good example, because just as you lot, I always had to hear this "of the world" bit, so I was effectively going back to the start of the song.

I'm totally new to songwriting, but what do you guys think of using instrumental bridges in between of every verse and chorus, just to make a song more interesting and make it sound less generic?

After all, a lot of people complain about so many pop songs consisting of only 3 or 4 chords, in the same, repetitive progression throughout.

[AnthonyCeseri]

Sounds like a pretty awesome technique, "We Are Ahe Champions" is such a good example, because just as you lot, I always had to hear this "of the world" bit, so I was effectively going back to the start of the song.

I'm totally new to songwriting, but what do you guys think of using instrumental bridges in between of every verse and chorus, just to make a song more interesting and make it sound less generic?

After all, a lot of people complain about so many pop songs consisting of only 3 or 4 chords, in the same, repetitive progression throughout.

Thanks. 

 

I think that could come off as sounding strange as it's SO different from the norm... but who knows. Do you have an example of what you mean, with a song link? If they were quick bridges, maybe it could work.