Are there even any songs out there besides opera and story type songs that don’t follow this theme?
In: 2
they don’t have to, really. theres lots of conventions in music that are based on things that work. im sure theres pro song writers out there who might be able to answer properly though.
i think ya referring to a Bridge.
[Yes](https://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/10-amazing-songs-without-choruses-762322), there are quite popular songs that don’t follow this structure.
However it is true that many songs do follow this structure. This is just the way art works. A particular artistic culture will develop conventions, and people work within those conventions to create art. A lot of popular music also uses the 12-note scale and 4/4 time signatures, but these are not inherent properties of music. Many other musical cultures differ from these quite a bit, and even in USA pop music there are plenty of exceptions.
The part you don’t know the name of is called the bridge. The only other parts in a song that weren’t mentioned are the intro and the coda (outro). In short, it’s a pop music algorithm. It’s a mix of what won’t take up too much airtime on the radio and using math to figure out the most popular order and timing for those parts of a song that you named. There are plenty of contemporary artists that don’t follow this algorithm, but you’re not likely to come across them on the radio. The further back in time you look, the more likely you are to find songs that don’t follow this algorithm. Edit: a word
I would just like to say thank you to everybody who has replied! I’ve read what I could through the notification tab, but when I open my post it won’t load the comments 🙃
Thanks also for telling me its called a bridge lol that was definitely bugging me as well
Well, “the “solo” type thing I don’t know the name of” is called a “[bridge](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridge_(music))” or “release”, or else a “[break](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Break_(music))”, and the reason why songs follow the same flow is simply because people respond well to patterns. They make songs easier to remember, easier to follow, and therefore easier to understand, and easier to sing along to (or at least listen along to). They become popular.
Here’s an overview of organizational structures that are [common in popular music](https://www.musical-u.com/learn/anatomy-of-a-song-the-three-most-common-song-forms/). It mentions AABA format. AABA format is essentially two interleaved phrase structures; you can’t really define either as “the chorus”. It gives “Yesterday” by the Beatles as an example.
And if this seems like “oh, it’s not really different, though the B section is just a chorus, and the A section is just a verse type”, well, you can totally think of it that way if you want. But you’re the one doing the meaning-making then; you’re observing the repeating pattern and assigning it the name, and then any different section that the musician puts in, you assign the name of “bridge” or “break”. So then if you ask why musicians repeat elements, well, see above: people respond well to patterns, they make songs easier to remember.
So the question then, is to ask; what kind of music would not have repeating patterns, interleaved, with one bridge intervening?
* There’s music out there that you could interpret as having “multiple bridges”. One of my own favorites is CloZee’s [*Symfonia*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRtt897etDM).
* There’s music out there that keeps the listener on their toes the whole time. Queen’s [*Bohemian Rhapsody*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ9rUzIMcZQ) is a great example; but arguably that fits under the “operatic” or “story” description you already named.
But honestly? I’d say that the best pointer would be simply to “larger-scale works in general”. I don’t want to say “classical music”, because I’m not just talking about hour-long orchestral works by people who’ve been dead a hundred years, I’m also talking about pieces *like* *Bohemian Rhapsody*, since Queen there gave themselves leeway *to play with* longer structures *by* extending the song out longer than was typical.
But as long as I’ve said classical music, yes; even if you don’t think you like classical music, sit down sometime and block out an hour (while you’re doing something else, if you want, sure, feel free) to listen to Holst’s [*The Planets*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Isic2Z2e2xs) (edit: which has its own Wikipedia [page here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Planets)). If nothing else, listen to it because I’m pretty sure that every single movie composer has taken inspirations from it. You can see how the musical structure there — both as a whole, and in every one of its pieces — is more complicated and less-strictly cyclical. Longer works like this tend to use more complicated structures precisely *because* they’re aiming to hold the listener’s attention span for longer than five minutes.
First off, the verse – chorus – verse – chorus – breakdown (middle 8) – chorus format is mostly only prevalent in music from the last hundred years or so, and primarily in western pop music styles.
As others have already stated there are lots of songs that don’t follow this although that’s not entirely true. Other styles like classical still do this in another way by having a theme or musical motif that is repeated and or returned to from time to time throughout the composition.
But anyways, we’re talking about pop music.
Ya know when you listen to a song with a strong groove and you bop your head up and down? That’s rhythm. Life and nature are full of all kinds of rythyms. Day – night, the four seasons, tides, etc. A song would be super boring if you just did one thing throughout the entire song (though there are exceptions to everything) so modulating between verse and chorus is a way of imparting an internal rythym to a song.
This works well for many reasons, such as:
– the different sections can have different levels of emotional intensity, typically with the chorus being more intense. This can really crank up the excitement especially when there is a good build up to the chorus. Lots of rock songs do this well.
– lyrically this works well because the chorus can anchor the main idea of the song’s lyrics in a simple, strong, catchy, highly repeated set of phrases. The verses can contrast this by being less structured but more exploratory and or abstract with respect to the song’s topic. The breakdown (or middle 8) is often used to provide an alternative perspective on the song’s topic that could completely change the meaning of a song (like the twist in a movie) or just do something else completely different to add interest.
BAH… Have to take the dogs out… Might write more later if I can.
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