“Rock isn’t art, it’s the way ordinary people talk” —Billy Idol
A common mistake among many new writers is their use of over-elaborate imagery and ‘poetic’ lyrics in an attempt to show how clever and creative they can be. Far from being impressed, though, music publishers and A&R reps are more likely to see unnecessarily flowery language as a sign of inexperience.
Trying too hard to be ‘different’ and artistic can often result in lyrics that simply sound pretentious and self-indulgent. If your lyrics don’t come across as genuine, listeners may find it hard to connect with your song.
To be successful, a song must be able to reach out and touch listeners and make them feel something. This means your song needs to be about something that everyone is familiar with—and your lyrics should be honest, believable and heartfelt so that people can easily relate to them.
One way to achieve this is to write as if you’re having a one-on-one conversation with the listener. It’s okay to separate contractions, or leave out unimportant words such as ‘that’, if it makes the line sound like it could be spoken naturally.
“I try to write conversationally,” The Eagles’ Don Henley once said. “I try to write like people speak and put the emphasis on the right syllable.”
This musical ‘conversation’ requires lyrics that, ideally, should be simple, straight- forward and contemporary. As Don Henley showed in many of his songs, you can still create powerful imagery through devices such as metaphor, simile and personification, but there should be no forced rhymes and no tangled and complex phrases or sentences that don’t make sense to the listener.
As Emeli Sandé sees it: “You have to be honest and true about what you’re writing, and then that way it resonates with people.”
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