Repetition Repetition Repetition Repetition

As we’ve learned in the past, a chorus is usually a part that repeats. Although this is good, lyrically, it can become annoying. When someone doesn’t know what they’re doing.

Case in point, I’ve no idea who does this song, but I hear it every day whilst in my car, usually more than once:

This is the story of a girl
Who cried a river and drowned the whole world
And though she looks so sad in photographs
I absolutely lover her
When she smiles

Not that the song itself is so bad, but it’s this chorus that is. Of itself, it works. The song starts off like this. This method, although not very common, is usually associated with Storytelling.

You start off by explaining the point of the song. OK. Problem is, this comes back after every verse. At the end, it comes back three times in a row. That’s overkill.

I don’t want to place the blame on anyone. This might be the songwriter’s fault. Perhaps he liked this theme and decided to repeat it ad nauseam. On the other hand, maybe he just lacked inspiration or didn’t feel like working too hard and decided to make a simple song.

On the other hand, maybe he wrote it and played it for his girlfriend and she suggested that he repeat it ad nauseam.

Then again, maybe it was the producer’s fault. If it was, I don’t want him producing any of my material. Also, it may have been the record company’s fault. A guy who was an accountant last week was suddenly promoted to creative director and his favorite song is “Da-da-da”.

For whatever the reason, the song’s title should be Ad Nauseam.

To lead-in to the song with this chorus is not a bad thing. To repeat it like this is. What they should’ve done is write a second chorus, which would have been repeated throughout the song except at the end, where it could have gone:

This was the story of a girl…

If you intend at some point to write a song in this style, try to keep in mind that once you’ve introduced the subject, there’s no need to keep reintroducing the subject.

And a chorus, any chorus, played three times in a row is always annoying.

Compare this to another song currently on the radio by a band called Treblecharger.

Now I know how far you’ll go
To be the latest freak show
American psycho

This chorus is repeated throughout the song, but only once every time. It doesn’t last forever either. Three lines, then off to something else. It doesn’t kill the song.

The point about repetition is that you shouldn’t repeat the repetition.

To repeat something we’ve learned earlier, the chorus is the point of the song. Not the introduction as the first song in our example. To make sense, that chorus should have been an intro verse at the beginning of the song. Not a chorus.

In our second example, the chorus is the point of the song, not the introduction to the subject.

At least it serves a purpose: It’s a good example of what you should avoid.