![]() They can also be humorous or edgy, depending on the artist or album being promoted. These slogans are usually catchy, clever, and memorable, and often feature clever wordplay and double entendres. You’ll find words like “up” “enough” and “blood.Rock SlogansRock slogans are phrases used to express a sentiment about rock music, often used to promote a band or album. Avoid familiar rhymes like “love” and “above” or “dreaming of.” Look up near rhymes for the word “love” on one of the rhyming websites I mentioned. They’ll also give you “mosaic” rhymes – rhymes consisting of more than one word!) Try It Now! (On WikiRhymer scroll to the bottom of the results page for near rhymes. You can find lists of near rhymes at and . Just type in the word you want to rhyme. Rhyming words are emphasized so make sure they’re important words you want to draw attention to.Never change the word order in a lyric line to accommodate a rhyme!.Aim to express emotions first, then use rhyming to support it.But you won’t hear this style on today’s radio. ![]() The Disney animated films have many good examples of stage-style songs with perfect rhymes, especially in the wonderful patter songs. While powerful stage songs do sometimes land on today’s radio charts (“And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” from Dreamgirls is an example), these are rare. Try using more noticeable perfect rhymes at the ends of verse or chorus sections or when you want to emphasize a word or thought. Never twist the word order out of shape to accommodate a rhyme – it will sound false and artificial when sung. (Late/mate, will/still, river/giver are perfect rhymes.) As you work on later drafts of your song, turning your raw material into a final lyric, look for near rhymes that occur naturally. You have a MUCH greater selection of rhyming words when you use near rhymes than you do using “perfect” rhymes that rhyme both the vowel and consonant sounds. If you look at a contemporary Pop lyric, you’ll find rhymes throughout the song but these rhymes will tend to be very natural sounding near rhymes. For instance, the last two lines of the chorus will often have a strong rhyme that signals the end of a thought and makes the lines more memorable. But rhyming is only emphasized when there’s a reason for it. This doesn’t mean that popular songs don’t rhyme at all, they do. It’s ALL about unique rhymes that the singer just thought of!) Use rhymes for emphasi s (The Rap/Hip Hop genre is a BIG exception to this. A clever rhyme that draws attention to itself, can remind listeners that this song was carefully crafted and isn’t an emotion that’s just occurring to the singer. These singers MUST maintain credibility with their audience, as if the song is naturally pouring out of them in the moment. The lyrics sound honest, natural, and authentic when they’re sung by a Kelly Clarkson, or Toby Keith. These rhymes create a very conversational, natural style that sounds believable for Pop, Rock, and Country singers. In a near rhyme only the vowel sound is the same – find/time, away/save, see/meet. But for contemporary popular songs, we take the emphasis off rhyming, leaning on “near rhymes” (or vowel rhymes) in a way that stage and cabaret songs would never do. I began my career writing musicals so I’m a huge fan of Sondheim. I thought it might be a good idea to post a couple of thoughts here on why rhyming in today’s commercial song styles – Pop, Rock, SInger-Songwriter, Urban, and Country – is a little different from the theatrical musical style of Sondheim. My reader suggested that I look into Stephen Sondheim’s philosophy of rhyming. The reason I wrote this is because I often see lyrics that have sacrificed meaning or depth for a rhyme. If a rhyme happens to come along, hang on to it, but keep your focus on communicating emotion. I had suggested that when working up the raw material or first draft of a song, songwriters don’t need to focus on rhyming. I got an email from someone who felt that I might be slighting the importance of serious rhyming in songwriting.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |