Description

How to Write a Hit Song

All genres have standard themes and structures. Blues are usually about troubled relationships and difficult lives, and set to the 12-bar blues. Country is about pick-up trucks and cheaters, and rest on C, and Rock is no exception. If you want to write a hit song, the public needs to identify with the topics you are talking about, the basic form of the song, a familiar chord progression and the words and small phrases that are used to be recognisable as the art form known as “Rock”.

Think about it. There are only three elements to a song – the words, melody and chord progression. So, what determines whether or not a song is a hit is the words, melody and chords that are chosen to make up that song. For your song to be a hit, you must choose words, chords and a melody that your audience identifies with immediately as “that’s cool, that band sounds like so and so, but with a new original sound!”. Using words, phrases, songs, structures, and chord progressions that are common to your genre is not copyright infringement; it’s part of carrying on a tradition.