A Failsafe Formula for a Chart Topping Pop Song
By David Falkenau
Tell your version of the story.
- Your song’s story should have a beginning, middle and an end – or like an essay, an intro, body, and conclusion. Split your song up into three parts.
Use the recipe… only add to it after you’ve mastered the original! Then you can spice it up!
Two chart topper “pop” formats are:
- Intro/Verse/Chorus/Verse/Chorus/Bridge/Instrumental/Outro
- (I/V/C/V/C/B/i/O)
- Intro/Verse/Pre-Chorus/Chorus/Verse/Pre-Chorus/Chorus/Instrumental/Pre Chorus/Chorus
- (I/V/PC/C/V/PC/C/i/PC/C)
Don’t make it too long… and don’t make it too short!
- Four minutes to four minutes and thirty seconds is the ideal length (4:00 – 4:30).
- Thirteen seconds (:13) is the ideal length for an intro, and no more than fifteen to twenty seconds (:15 - :20) at the longest.
You need a well balanced beat / tempo / time-signature.
- Chart toppers are usually mid-tempo grooves or up-tempo dance tunes.
- 4/4 time is ideal (4 whole beats per measure… one, two, three, four…).
If you’re fishing for listeners, set that hook!
- Your song must have a “catchy” melody in the int
- Your melody should build-up, or rise in action (like a plot diagram in a novel) through the verse and pre-chorus on its way up to the chorus.
- Your melody should climax, or reach its “peak” at a point in the chorus where it all seems to come together.
- Let your hook stand out or be known as set apart from the rest of the song.
- Give it a different rhythm that clearly “hooks” your listener’s curiosity or attention.