How to Prevent Lyrics from Feeling Cheesy

Sometimes our lyrics would do better sliced on a French baguette than sung to the melody of a song. As a songwriter, I have been the distributor of this aged delicacy known as the ‘cliché,’ but it makes me cringe every time. Cheesy lyrics are those that insinuate a lot of drama, but fail in making us feel the weight and truth of the concept. They take a truth and boil it down to a hollow triteness that elicits an almost cynical response. Clichés are the stuff in pre-teen pop, when the drama is naturally high and the cheese is sprayed directly into the mouth from a can.

For those of us who have graduated middle school English literature, we aspire to a higher level of expression that doesn’t include these familiar, eye-rolling phrases. Or do we? Are clichés ineffective, no matter the setting, and should they be avoided at all costs?

Let’s break down what a cliché actually is. Take, for example, the familiar phrase ‘break my heart’. There are two primary words colliding to create a metaphor—‘break’ and ‘heart’. As it is with clichés, we often see a metaphor created—the collision of two words that though interesting and novel at one time, have lost their sensory and tactile feelings and simply lie flat and motionless. Replace the verb ‘break’ with an unusual pairing, such as ‘shatter’ or ‘lacerate’, and we sharply increase the novelty and sensory nature of the collision once again. ‘Lacerate my heart,’ though strange and oddly graphic, produces a much stronger image than the familiar ‘break my heart’.

So the question for us songwriters is not whether we should allow clichés into our lyric writing, but whether we’re allowing them for lack of better ways to express our ideas. What is better for a verse may not be better for a chorus, and what is better for one genre or style may not be better for another. When we can key into our instincts and determine the lyric style that feels believable in context of our musical expression, we can either stand behind our clichés or work to replace them. 

Light language that summarizes big ideas such as the line “I’ve been waiting for something to change,” doesn’t carry any sensory language at all. As a line, it’s fairly flimsy, much like a cliché. But let’s look at it again: in context of other lines that give this flimsy line believability and weight, such as “Slumped against the cupboard, cold tiles against my skin, holding the phone in my hand, worried you won’t make it home again…,” the idea “I’ve been waiting for something to change” carries meaning, and tells the listener directly that this state of worry and distress has gone on a long time, is taxing to me or both of us, and I desperately want to escape or move on from this situation. Clichés alone don’t have the power to convey the message, but they sure do have the power to summarize the message in one clean swipe.

So, my message to songwriters everywhere is to keep dairy in as part of your diet—but only part. Cheese, alone, is only going to lead to bloated songs. But part of a balanced, sensory diet, cheese can be a fine touch that quickly gives the song a familiar and accessible message.

Stay creative,