SongwritingHooks

Back in Black, by AC/DC: The Guitar Riff

Ahh, simple yet satisfying. The guitar riff may be the greatest innovation in 20th century pop music. No doubt, an entire encyclopedia could be devoted to the subtleties of the rock riff, but let's let AC/DC do some of the talking first.

Hear the hook: Back in Black MP3             Copyright info

The Rock Guitar Riff: Catchy, Distinctive Branding

The rock guitar riff does a few things at once. It gets in your head, which is its main asset. But with a great hook, it's also a super clear identifier of the song you're listening to. Like a Nike swoosh or the golden arches, when you hear a great guitar riff you know immediately what song you're listening to. Unlike chord structure or even lyrics, you can't reuse someone else's riff without the world knowing that you did it. (In a world of sampling, that means artists are still going to rip off riffs -- they'll just do it overtly and in plain view. Perhaps the first mainstream example: Vanilla Ice, who would have had no career without the bass riff from Queen's "Under Pressure.")

The Best Rock Guitar Riffs: Anatomy of a Hook

A great riff doesn't have to be hard. "Smoke on the Water" is dead simple. But it doesn't have to be simple, either. "Sweet Child o' Mine" and "Sweet Home Alabama," though by no means killer shredding, aren't something that your average guitar hack can play at first listen.
Perhaps the only essential trait of a rock guitar riff is that it be repeated several times in a song. But even then there are exceptions. The intro riff from "Crazy Train" only happens at the beginning of the song, and can likely still qualify. Although, it raises a question: what's the difference between a riff and a solo? I'd argue that repetition is key, so maybe we need to take "Crazy Train" out of the mix.

Songwriters, it's your turn: Add links to online versions of your own songs, which feature a brilliant guitar riff. Or non-guitar riff!

And as always, please comment below with your suggestions for the best guitar riffs of all time.

Hey Jude, by the Beatles: The Na Na Na Hook

There's no better way to start an encyclopedia of pop music songwriting techniques than with the Beatles, and with Paul McCartney in particular. And there's no better hook in a musician's arsenal than the sing-along lyric. Take a mediocre song, add a refrain of na-na-na, la-la-la, oo-ee-oo, or anything of the sort, and you've made it catchy. 

The power comes from the fact that everyone wants to be a part of the action. With an easy refrain, they can be. You don't have to listen to "Hey Jude" more than once to be able to join in for a full 4 minutes of "Na, na na, na-na-na-NAAAAA." (In fact, the "na na na" part comes in at 3:08 and continues until 7:08 -- meaning there's more "na na na" to the song than anything else.)

Hear the hook: Hey Jude MP3             Copyright info

No Chorus in "Hey, Jude"?

The heavy use of the na-na hook doesn't take anything away from this tune. "Hey Jude" is the Beatles at their pop anthemic best. And McCartney (and ostensibly John Lennon) use a number of interesting devices in crafting this beast. But here's a question: where's the chorus? The most common structure for pop songs is:

verse-chorus, verse-chorus, bridge, chorus
(or sometimes verse-verse-chorus, verse-chorus, bridge, chorus).

But on the premise that the chorus is the easy thing to sing, that repeats over and over again, there's no chorus in this song! I was almost tempted to say that the first "verse" is actually the chorus, since it repeats at the end of the song.

Verse 1:
Hey Jude, don't make it bad
Take a sad song and make it better
Remember to let her into your heart
Then you can start to make it better

But melodically and structurally this part of the song is repeated over and over again with different lyrics, which defines it as a verse. 

Verse 2:
Hey Jude, don't be afraid
You were made to go out and get her
The minute you let her under your skin
Then you begin to make it better.

So it's interesting that one of the best, most memorable pop songs by some of the best pop writers of all time a) uses one of the best songwriting hooks ever, while b) completely disregarding the structural conventions of pop music. Interesting.

Songwriters, it's your turn: Add links to online versions of your own songs, which use the "na-na-na" hooks, in the comments.

And please, one and all, let me know your favourite "na-na-na" songs, plus any other thoughts on this post.