You don’t want to hear a song on the radio that takes a long time before getting to the point”
—Robin Gibb
A common mistake made by many aspiring songwriters is to cram so much into a verse that it becomes way too long—and delays the arrival of the all-important melodic ‘hook’ and title line in the chorus.
After all, the chorus is the part of the song that is meant to get stuck in people’s heads. It is the section that really sells your song. So it’s important to make sure that a strong dynamic flow in the verse transports the listener to an emotional lift in the first chorus as quickly as possible.
A lot depends on the tempo of your song, of course, but an analysis of today’s hit songs shows us that you should ideally aim to arrive at the chorus around 30-45 seconds into the song—and certainly not later than 60 seconds.
There is a danger that an overly-long verse will bore listeners, and they may lose interest if they’re expected to sit through the intro and at least one complete verse before arriving at what is meant to be the most memorable moment in the song.
On the other hand, the time it takes to reach the chorus ceases to be a problem if you start the song with the chorus … and then go into the first verse!
When asked to describe the ideal structure of a hit song, Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl once quipped: “It’s chorus, chorus, pre-chorus, chorus, verse kinda, chorus, pre-chorus, chorus, chorus, chorus … In other words, don’t bore us, get to the chorus.”
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