Your chances of having a hit will be substantially increased if you write a great hook that makes it easy for listeners to remember your song. But you still have to make sure you put the hook line in the right part of the song so that it will stand out and grab the listener’s attention.
A musical hook is usually a short, catchy melodic phrase that contains the song’s title. In more than half of all hit songs, the hook phrase is only about three words long. But what matters most is where you put those few words and notes in the structure of the song.
Most hit songwriters believe the hook should be the ultimate destination of the verse and pre-chorus, both lyrically and melodically. That’s why, in the verse- chorus format of most of today’s pop songs, it is usually placed in the first line or the last line of the chorus. It is rarely located in the middle of the chorus, or in the verse, where it is much harder for a hook line to stand out.
Melodically, the hook should cover a wide interval—perhaps a fifth or more—to give it greater impact. And it must be repeated several times throughout the song to make sure it gets inside the listener’s head.
If you carefully analyze some of today’s hit songs, you will spot the phrase in each song that really stands out and is familiar to you by the end of the song. That’s the hook. Look at where it is located in the song. Is it in the first line of the chorus, or the last line? Is it also the title line? Is the title placed at the beginning or the end of the line? How many times is the hook repeated throughout the song?
By dissecting and analyzing hit writers’ songs in this way, you will quickly learn how great hooks work. And you’ll soon begin to know instinctively where to place your own hooks.
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