The most obvious way to make your song more memorable is by writing an irresistibly catchy chorus. The difficulty though is that this is much easier said than done. After all, if it were that easy, we would have hit after hit being cranked out every day. Although we still haven’t cracked the formula for the chorus yet, there are other, more definite ways we can make our songs “stickier” so we aren’t always relying on the usual trial-and-error process.
1. Come up with a unique title
When people are scanning through a list of songs they’ve never heard before, which song do you think they’re likely to click on? All things being equal, they’re likely to play the song with the most interesting name. For example, Katy Perry’s 2008 hit “I Kissed a Girl” would likely catch your interest once you read the title, because you can tell there’s a story behind it. To contrast, one of the least-played songs on the same album is titled “Lost”, a much more generic name that’s shared by many other songs.
Even if you don’t realize it, you have a filter in you head that tells you what songs have the potential to be good just by reading their titles. In a time when there is more music than we could ever listen to, it simply isn’t possible to listen to every song, so we have to make judgments before we even hit the play button. It may feel unfair that people are judging your music before they listen to it, but that’s reality. Obviously, there are more factors to a song’s stickiness than its title, but there is an appreciable edge to having a compelling title.
2. Write specific lyrics
Writing universal lyrics are great because many people can relate to them, but the downside is that they’re usually less interesting. They don’t paint vivid pictures in our heads, and they can even feel bland and superficial if there are too many clichés present. Below I have lyrical excerpts from the songs “A New Day Has Come” by Celine Dion, and “House of the Rising Sun” by The Animals. Read them, and take note of the differences in their specificity:
A New Day Has Come
“I was waiting for so long
For a miracle to come
Everyone told me to be strong
Hold on and don’t shed a tear
Through the darkness and good times
I knew I’d make it through
And the world thought I had it all
But I was waiting for you”
House of the Rising Sun
“There is a house in New Orleans
They call the Rising Sun
And it’s been the ruin of many a poor boy
And God, I know I’m one
My mother was a tailor
She sewed my new blue jeans
My father was a gamblin’ man
Down in New Orleans”
“A New Day Has Come” by Celine Dion has a lovely message about hope, but ironically, the words feel uninspiring. The use of clichés and lack of uniqueness make the lyrics almost too universal. In other words, by attempting to make the words apply to everyone, they made the words apply to no one. Contrast this to “House of the Rising Sun”, and we’re instantly drawn in. We’re taken to a specific place, and we learn more details about the narrator’s life sinful life as the story progresses.
The temptation is to play it safe with our lyrics and write something that everyone can relate to, but think of the most iconic songs in popular music. Even the songs that are about generic topics such as love still include specificity in their lyrics that in some way or another capture the listener’s imagination.
3. Include story elements
Everyone loves stories, and incorporating them into our songs is an excellent way to pull in our listeners. Think of “Escape (The Pina Colada Song)” by Rupert Holmes. Humour aside, the lyrics are actually brilliant. The narrator tells the story of how he’s fallen out of love with his girlfriend and is looking for someone new and exciting. As the verses progress, we hear the story unfold of his plan to meet a mystery woman at the local bar. The clever part is how the lyrics at the end of each verse ties into the chorus:
“There was this letter I read…
If you like Pina Coladas
And getting caught in the rain”
This happens at the end of every verse, so that even though we hear the same chorus being repeated multiple times throughout the song, it still fits into the storyline seamlessly. To make things even more interesting, the story ends with a plot twist, where the mystery woman he goes to meet at the bar turns out to be his girlfriend.
This is an excellent example of incorporating stories into your music, but you don’t need a complete journey from beginning to end of your song. Take for example the lyrics from “Float On” by Modest House:
“I backed my car into a cop car the other day
Well, he just drove off, sometimes life’s okay”
Here, the narrator could have simply written lyrics expressing general sentiments about how things always turn out okay in the end, but that wouldn’t have been nearly as potent as his anecdote about getting away with backing into a cop car. The reason this is so much more effective is because the human experience is defined by actions, not general concepts and ideas. Hearing someone tell us “life always turns out okay” is a nice thought, but hearing someone’s tale about hitting a cop car and getting away with it taps into much stronger emotions, especially if we’ve had previous negative experiences with the police.
Put simply, including small episodic and anecdotal elements in your lyrics will make your music more relatable, and having more relatable lyrics means your listener will form a stronger connection with your music.
4. Introduce a new sound to your music
We expect to hear certain sounds and instruments in each genre, so introducing a unique or unexpected sound to your music is an easy way to make it more memorable. Think of the song “Safe and Sound” by Capital Cities. Right away, the first thing you think of it is the trumpet hook in the chorus. Although hearing a brass instrument in modern pop radio is rare these days, it was especially rare in 2013 when heavily electronic music was dominating the top 40 charts. Ironically, the trumpet brought an electrifying quality to the song that a synthesizer couldn’t, and combined with an undeniably catchy riff, it became one of the most memorable melodies of the 2010s.
That being said, introducing a new sound to your music doesn’t even have to mean including an instrument that’s totally foreign to your genre. Simply using a unique synthesizer or guitar sound is enough to make your music more memorable. Think of the song “Levitating” by Dua Lipa. If you’ve heard it before, you’ll recognize it as soon as it comes on because of the unique synthesizer at the beginning. Even though it’s playing a basic 2-bar chord pattern, you’re able to recognize it instantly because of its unique timbre.
5. Less is more
A hackneyed expression, I know, but if you want your songs to be more memorable, you need to make them easy to remember. Complex, wandering melodies and chord progressions might sound cool and impress your musician friends, but if you want people to actually remember your song or be able to sing it back after one or two listens, you need to be much more succinct in your writing. This doesn’t mean that you are “dumbing down” your music; it means that you are making it easier for your listeners to participate, even if they aren’t musically inclined.
Summary
We all know that the most obvious way to make a song more memorable is with an undeniably catchy hook, but hopefully these points give you a few ideas on how you can make your song “stickier”. Understand that there are many iconic songs we wouldn’t necessarily consider “catchy” in the traditional sense.
The refrain in “Think” by Aretha Franklin is simply her repeating the word “freedom”, yet it’s the part we all think of when someone mentions that song. When “Safety Dance” by Men Without Hats comes on, we instantly recognize it before the verse even starts because of the synth sound. So next time you go to write a song, understand that you have many tools at your disposal to make your music more memorable other than just the notes.