A number of years ago, when I was beginning to write my own songs, a fellow songwriter confronted me very seriously about my writing, telling me that I should have a go at writing more “traditional” songs. The advice was a little strange, because I think if you look at my catalog, and you apply a music theory lens, I do actually have a number of songs that draw heavily on traditional song structures. Oftentimes, I think people find me strange as a performer for other reasons, and project the strangeness into the content of the songs. But in any case, I suppose that my writing does depart from many singer-songwriters in at least two significant respects – the use of rhyme and metaphor. As such, I have a kind of suggestion inverse to the one offered to me by my fellow songwriter from those years ago.
Getting lyrics to rhyme or utilizing a metaphor in lyric-form can be an accomplishment of sorts, and for many, the use of rhyme and metaphor are what some people constitute “doing an art” in song. But there are artistic reasons to forgo both, unless absolutely necessary, when putting down lyrics.
Consider that in songwriting, regardless of what your aims are as a songwriter, all choices involve a mix of benefits and sacrifices. A great example of this is in the case of rhyme – after a line is written, if you want the next line to rhyme, you are boxed into a limited set of words to end the next line (even if you include alternative rhyme schemes), and then all prior words are boxed in, in order to make the last word in the line make sense, in the context of the stanza.
There is nothing wrong with this per se – perhaps there is a benefit that rhyming brings to the lyrics. But I would ask you to consider the value of what is forgone in favor of the rhyme (and especially where you’ve committed yourself to a certain pattern of rhymes in song). There is so much beauty in the sound of words, narrative posture, alternative vocabulary – certainly not all choices in these areas are precluded by introducing a rhyme, but certainly a lot of choices in these areas are. And if you’ve gotten used to the structure of a type of rhyme scheme, you may not have fully explored all the different choices that are available to you once you step outside of that box.
As part of this thought process, its worth also thinking about the actual benefit that the rhyme brings to the lyrics. There is, perhaps, the sense of technical accomplishment that it brings as a feat. And there is a certain sort of symmetry that rhyming can bring to a set of words. However, neither of these considerations are exclusive to rhyming. Interesting vocabulary choices can be just as much of a feat as forcing a rhyme, and symmetry can be manifested in more ways than just rhyme. On the symmetry angle itself, one reason to avoid the use of rhyme is that it is in many ways superfluous. Standard rhymes in song come at the end of musical phrases – but musical phrases themselves already exhibit plenty of symmetry in the music itself, both in chords, rhythm and melody. Is making the words rhyme on top of that a bit of overkill?
Many of the same reasons argue against employing metaphor in song. Surely metaphor has its benefits, but most (if not all) of its benefits are not exclusive to the use of metaphor. And I would say that in most cases where it is used (especially as the hook of a song), it doesn’t actually advance the goal of communicating what it is purporting to be a metaphor for. It serves at best as a technical accomplishment, which can box the songwriter into a structure that excludes many other choices available to the songwriter.
Oftentimes the use of metaphor in song can even serve as an obstruction to the listener. But for the most part, the artiness of a metaphor doesn’t lie in its being obtuse, but rather in its ability to vividly and viscerally communicate something that is more difficult to communicate in more technically direct prose. What happens so often when songwriters use metaphor in songwriting is the metaphor is wielded as a obstacle instead of a lens.
Regardless of what you may think of metaphor, I in any case beseech you to think about what the actual value metaphor brings to your writing – and more importantly, think about the wealth of possibilities that come from forgoing the restrictive structure of a metaphor. So that at the very least you can make a proper assessment when you evaluate your options when writing a song.
At the very least give it a try – just start out writing a verse without rhyming. As you reach the end of your second line, you will feel an inexorable pull to try and rhyme the word you chose at the end of your first line. But think instead of all the other things you want to say instead! When you finish your first verse, go back and sing through the verse, and you will at first feel as if something is missing. As a former smoker, I can tell you that that is the feeling of addiction. Practice singing through the verse, and you will find yourself adjusting your vocal approach, your pronunciation, and even your emotional stance. You will feel those adjustments, because rhyming can act as a crutch on a number of different levels, and you have to relearn how to sing without relying on the rhyme as a hook. And as you become accustomed to not-rhyming, the act of rhyming may suddenly start to appear a bit uncool, perhaps even cloying – like when someone sends a Christmas card with their family wearing all-matching pajamas. And, with not even a little bit of practice, you will no longer feel the inexorable pull to try and rhyme, which does not mean that you will never rhyme again. It just means that you now have the choice to forgo rhyming – a choice that, once you explore it fully, is actually a universe of possibilities.
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