Songwriting Tip – Pop Song Structure

When it comes to writing pop songs, there is a general formula that is used for song structure. But even before we get closer to the specific structure of a pop song, it’s important to know the purpose of a pop song because it helps to make the most of the structure.

Purpose of a pop song

The purpose of the pop song is to hook the listeners to the song as soon as possible and keep the listener engaged for as long as possible in a span of about 3-4 minutes. This is the era of consumerism where people buy, then get bored, then buy again, then get bored again, and so on. it’s a cycle. The same goes for pop music today. People listen and find music very appealing, then get bored, so they listen to new songs and then get bored again. So the pop song basically needs three things: familiarity, variety, and hook.

Structure

So knowing that we want the song we write to engage listeners, how does that translate into the structure of a pop song? We have to figure out what doesn’t work first, then come to what works and what works well.

Here is a question. Would a song that had only verses work as a pop song? I do not believe it. Why wouldn’t it work? It wouldn’t work because you would quickly get bored of the song. The verses can be catchy, but if there’s nothing to change them, they’ll get old fast. So what do we do? Add another section.

So the lesson here is to give the song variety and keep the song from being too mundane. But on the other hand, having too much variety wouldn’t work either. For example, if you were to introduce a new section each time without repeating a section, it would be difficult to absorb the song. Let’s say I have a song that has the structure A – B – C – D (each letter represents an individual section. In order for the listener to gain some sense of familiarity, they will probably have to re-listen to the song for a while). a couple of times, even if each section was catchy. But if you had a song that reintroduced sections like A – B – A – B, the listener can get the hang of it in one or two listens. But remember that the song should keep the listener engaged with the hook.

The general structure of a pop song is A – B – A – B – C – B, also known as verse – chorus – verse – chorus – bridge – chorus. This works really well because not only does it add a sense of familiarity by repeating sections A and B, but there is also a sense of variety by adding section C. The familiarity is then reinforced by maintaining a sense of freshness by ending the section with B. This structure of a pop song is effective when the hook takes place in the chorus section, where the lyrics remain the same each time the section is sung.

You can use A – B – A – B – C – B as the basis for your song and add sections to it for added effects of familiarity and variety. Here are some examples.

A – A – B – A – B – C – B

A – B – C – A – B – C – D – C (This is known as verse – prechorus – chorus – verse – prechorus – chorus – bridge – chorus)

A-B-A-B-C-A-B

There are many options when it comes to the structure of a pop song. Remember that having the structure of a pop song is not what makes a song popular. You need a hook which is usually in the chorus section of the song. Have fun devising your structure!