Tips to Enhance Your Commercial Quality
Somewhere along the way to writing our best songs we consider the commercial quality of our creations. But the word “commercial” pertains to industry, describing the parameters of a song that put it within a familiar boundary of sound. For instance, verse-chorus songs are more prominent than verse-refrain songs. Songs about human relationships are more prominent than songs about cheese. It’s common sense.
When we desire to write more commercially, what we’re really describing is a desire to use structure to make our ideas more readily accessible to our listeners. We shouldn’t confuse the word ‘commercial’ with ‘ordinary.’ I’ve heard plenty of ordinary songs, some of them my own, that are sadly not commercial at all.
So what elements do commercial songwriters employ that the experimental artist does not? Well, quite simply, boundaries. No, not the ones you fail to set with your mother. I’m talking about parameters that allow our ideas to be heard and understood.
I’ll go over a few of the parameters that describe commercial structure and let you define some of those specifically to your genre and style.
Establish A Clear And Singular Message In Your Chorus Lyric. Ordinary songs may have some good lines, but commercial songs clarify which line is the absolute bottom line. Make sure your title is clear, and don’t shy away from using repetition so the listener takes it in without a doubt or difficulty.
Write A Strong Melodic Motif For Each Section And Repeat It Often. Each section of the song should have a defined melodic theme, called a motif. Even small changes to the melodic motif early on in a song section can make it difficult for the listener to recall it. Go ahead and repeat yourself, over and over, and over again.
Contrast Your Melodic Motifs Between Each Section. As strong as your melody is in the verse, go ahead and do the opposite in your chorus. Change the lengths of your notes, the pitch you start on, and the position in the bar you start singing. Change the lengths of your phrases, too. All these changes give your new section its new identity, and keep your listener engaged. Commercial songs use lots of contrast between and even within sections, after ample amounts of repetition, of course.
Establish a Singular Message with Your Chords and Groove. Tom Petty, among others, knew just how much one can do with three chords. Limiting our chord choices in the verse means greater contrast in later sections of the song. A concentrated chord progression and groove in one section gives us freedom in another to introduce a new chord, or change chords more or less often.
Write What You Know. It can be tempting to limit our lyric ideas to those that characterize the genre we want to meet. However, just matching the genre expectations rarely, if ever, results in anything other than what’s already out there. Strive to be the best version of yourself, which means writing like you speak and writing about people and themes that are meaningful to you. Remember, your listener doesn’t know you, so your job is to let them into your world. Write what you know and then stand vehemently behind it. Your people will be drawn to what you create when you’re not trying to please anyone but yourself.
Another way to enhance your commercial quality is to learn how to Write Songs With Killer Hooks.
Stay Creative,
