SongwritingHooks

"Cross My Heart and Hope to Die," Marianas Trench: Hook-y Summer Jam

If I were younger, I could see "Cross My Heart and Hope to Die" being a favorite summer jam. Wicked fun tune, with some beautiful hooks.

(Image swiped from MuchMusic; I hope they don't mind too much.)

The hook device used most dominantly, and it's used a lot, is the breakdown, by which I mean: the song is clicking along until a particular spot where some or most of the instruments drop out (except drums, which usually stick around in a breakdown).There are a lot of breakdowns in "Cross My Heart," though somehow it doesn't feel over used. Here's a selection:

"When the Stars Go Blue," Ryan Adams: Big leaps, small leaps, big hooks

Editor’s note: Finally some country music! David Kraut is our guest blogger today. Please check out his links, at the end of the post.
Songwritinghooks.com is looking for more people to join the conversation. Interested in being a guest blogger?

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One of the biggest challenges for a country songwriter is making every word and note count, knowing that not every word and note is going to count. Put differently, most listeners don’t have lyrics in front of them, so they don’t hear every aspect of the song the first time … or even the second, third or fourth time. This reality is one reason hooks are so important – they provide a Cliffnotes version of the song, giving the listener something to remember from those first few listens. You may not have realized that Garth Brooks was talking about crashing his ex-girlfriend’s party in front of her new boyfriend, but you did know that Garth was a drunk with “friends in low places”.

Ryan Adams is not your typical country songwriter, but his song “When the Stars Go Blue” became a huge hit when covered by Tim McGraw (as well as a big hit for other artists both here and abroad). The song grabbed people because it told a story through its hooks, and yet there was more beyond the hooks to sweeten the ride, once you came back to listen.

Let’s take a look at three types of hooks Adams used:

1. First Word of Line Repetition: Adams uses the same word to start each line of the first verse (and uses this same technique in the pre-chorus and second verse), painting the image of a woman “dancing” and “laughing” and then questioning her in the pre-chorus about where she goes to ease her loneliness. Combined with the melancholy melody, this approach leaves the first time listener with a sense of the story, even if he didn’t get to hear every word.

Hear the hooks:

Stars Go Blue MP3s, repetition             Copyright info

2. Melodic Jumps: For most of the verse, Adams keeps the melody squarely inside of a major third, giving the listener time to ease into the mood of the song. But on the final word of each verse stanza, Adams jumps a perfect fifth. This leap grabs the listener for several reasons. First, it’s surprising since the listener has expected to hear the melody within the confines of the major third. Second, it comes at the end of the verse, building a strong power position for the note and the word. And the third reason is a hook itself …

3. Falsetto Switch: Switching into falsetto in the middle of a line is a common device for some artists, like Sarah McLachlan. When done right, it can create an eerie, haunting sound, and it catches the ear more distinctly than jumping to the same note in full voice. By combining the melodic leap with the falsetto switch, Adams doesn’t just highlight the last word of each verse stanza, he practically nails it into your ear (but in a soothing way).

Hear the hook: Stars Go Blue MP3, falsetto

After hooking us in different ways throughout the verse and pre-chorus, Adams arrives at the chorus and brilliantly combines all three techniques, repeating the melodic line “When the stars go blue” four times, while hitting “blue” with an octave leap that switches into falsetto.

Hear the hook: Stars Go Blue MP3, three hooks in one

By the time Adams is finished with the first chorus, the listener may not remember every note and word, but he will definitely remember the dancing woman in a wedding gown, laughing and yet tinged with sadness, as the stars around her reflect her pain.

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About David Kraut:
David is a songwriter and classically trained pianist living in New York. His songs have appeared on a variety of independent artists' albums, including two cuts on Shiela Harrison's new album. Follow him at:
www.davidkraut.com
www.myspace.com/dkraut

When September Ends, Green Day: lyrics and intervals

From quasi-punk pop band Green Day came "Wake Me Up When September Ends" in 2005.

The first thing I love here is the lyric. I don't know any of the other lyrics in the song, but I know that one line from the title, which is repeated (hookishly) at the end of every verse. Such a vivid emotion, phrased in a new way: "wake me up when September ends."  Awesome.

Intervals as Hooks

Most pop melodies move within a narrow range of notes, and when the interval between consecutive notes gets bigger, the passage gets more memorable.

Hear the hook: When September Ends MP3, intervals             Copyright info

Here, most of the notes in the verse go from the note A to the note B -- two half-steps (in this clip, the first two words, "like my"). But then there's a big leap, the G to the E (nine steps) in "has gone." The big interval, and the contrast between the small one and the big one, make this a memorable phrase, and a good hook once it's repeated over and over again.

[Editor's note: you can look forward to more about intervals from guest blogger David Kraut, coming up next Friday.]

Descending Bass Line

As I just mentioned in the Lauren Hill/"Can't Take My Eyes Off You" post, descending bass lines are a hook-y arranging device. This clip is from the very start of the song.

Hear the hook: When September Ends MP3, bass line             Copyright info

The bass line (implied, mostly, since it's all played on the acoustic guitar) starts on the G, and goes down the scale do-ti-la-so-fa. Very catchy.

Paper Planes, by M.I.A.: Samples, novelty and gansta-ism as hooks

M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes" got a huge boost to its mainstream, international profile when it was used in Slumdog Millionaire, but the song had a pretty good thing going already beforehand. It charted in 2008 before the movie was released, not least because of some strong hooks.

The song's first and most pervasive hook is the staccato guitar/descending high-pitched trio of notes (D-C#-G or D-A-G) that forms the foundation of the song. Here it is at the start of the song. Listen for it in the background:

Hear the hook: MIA Paper Planes MP3, background trio             Copyright info

This combination repeats from the very beginning to the very end of the song (just a short pause in the breakdown). Somehow I didn't notice until someone else pointed it out: this is actually a sample from "Straight to Hell" by The Clash.

Hear the Clash version of the M.I.A. hook: Straight to Hell MP3             Copyright info

On the Clash track, it works to give the song a war-in-Japan feel -- sort of Asian, sort of unsettling. It does the same here, both by the music's own virtue, and (if you know the reference) by the connection to the Clash song. (The chorus of the Clash song is "Go straight to hell, boys..." and is obviously about young men in combat.) And sampling, as I've written, is hook-y because it's familiar -- if you knew a hook already, it's easier to remember a new song that incorporates that hook.

The other super-distinctive hook has got to be the non-instrument sounds of gunfire and a cash register in the chorus.

Hear the hook: M.I.A. Paper Planes MP3, gunfire and cash registers             Copyright info

Non-musical samples like this are always hook-y when they're incorporated right into the song (as opposed to just an ambient embellishment). Think of the ping-pong ball sound in Depeche Mode's "Pipeline," the hammer-on-anvil percussion in "Tainted Love," the cash register (just like this one) in Pink Floyd's "Money" -- all super hook-y.

M.I.A.as a Gangsta: Shock Value Hook

I've argued before that novelty and shock are hook-y devices, because they're memorable (and better yet, because people will talk about them and spread the word of your song).

Though "gangsta" music (usually rap) has been around since the early '80s, it still carries shock value for most of the non-rap-listening community. I'm pretty sure people introduced to "Paper Planes" via Slumdog Millionaire aren't, for the most part, a gangsta crowd, so the shock value would be easy to come by. In "Paper Planes," you get lyrics like "some I murder / some I let go," and the song is all about stealing people's money, so I think it qualifies thematically as gangsta-ism.

The shock hook is boosted by M.I.A.'s delivery, which at times sounds like she's singing a nursery rhyme. In those instances, the shock hook combines with a novelty hook, too. The Indian/Sri Lankan feel also add to the novelty, given that we haven't yet had a huge influence from Indian music in North American pop. 

Structurally, the song is also set up for hook-y success: every verse is repeated a second time right after it's first introduced.

Curious footnote: "Paper Planes" has now itself been sampled and referenced lyrically by various artists including Kanye West. Is being sampled the biggest form of musical flattery?