Making a Song Immediately Appealing

In the pop song genres, the short length of a complete tune (when compared to, let’s say, the classical genres), is an interesting challenge to deal with. Interesting, because the inexperienced songwriter might be fooled into thinking that a short song means you can put it all together quickly.

But in fact, a short song presents the singular issue of needing to grab the audience’s attention quickly, and then make them feel that they’ve had a complete and satisfying musical experience before it all ends three or four minutes later.

Songwriters are very familiar with the chorus hook, but there are other kinds to experiment with, and you will want to discover the power of layering various kinds of hooks in the same song. “Hooks and Riffs: How They Grab Attention, Make Songs Memorable, and Build Your Fan Base“ shows you how it’s done.

And doing that — grabbing attention quickly — is not necessarily an easy thing to do.

Just for sake of comparison, the first movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 is about fifteen minutes long. Beethoven gives himself the luxury of taking almost four-and-a-half minutes just for the introduction.

That’s four-and-a-half minutes, where his main purpose and task is simply to set a mood. Not necessarily to grab attention the way a pop songwriter would need to grab attention.

So while Beethoven can take his time in building up some interest in his symphony, a typical pop song usually needs:

1. A (comparatively) short intro, of fifteen seconds or less.
2. A verse that gets to the chorus usually in less than one minute.
3. A chorus that contains the most interesting part of the song (i.e., the hook).
4. A satisfying conclusion to the musical journey, usually in 4 minutes or (usually) less.

It’s common for people to think that most listeners don’t have the attention span to stick with a song for more than four minutes, but I really don’t think that that’s it. It’s more that the pop music genre has developed, over time, a song form — the popular song — that is a short-form “work of art”.

It’s definitely fair to say that the success of a song most often comes down to the success of its hook. If you don’t have something short, catchy and memorable at the heart of your song, you’ve missed what pop songwriting is all about.

And how do you judge the success of your hook? Most of the time, a hit song with a great hook will get the attention of the listening world pretty quickly, will rise in people’s awareness (i.e., move up the charts), and then will naturally subside and be replaced to some degree by other songs that are moving upward.

And whatever appreciation or desire to re-listen which remains after the song fades from immediate notice will define the longterm success of the song.

But it all starts with immediate appeal. You want people to listen again and again to your song for the reason that there’s something immediately appealing to them. Because of the genre he wrote in, Beethoven can take as long as he wants to build interest in his music, but he was OK with people taking years, sometimes, to understand his music.

You don’t want your songs taking years to make an impression! The key to a great song in the pop genres is — get to the chorus before the one-minute mark, and create a hook that has the best chance of being immediately enjoyed and remembered.

Written by Gary Ewer. Follow Gary on Twitter.

“The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 10-eBook bundle includes “Writing a Song From a Chord Progression”. Discover the secrets of making the chords-first songwriting process work for you.