[00:03] lyrics repeat. >> Why? Why? Why? Why? >> Okay. So, if it's not the bit where the lyrics repeat, then what is it and how do you write one? By the end of this video, you'll understand what a chorus
[00:18] is. You'll have a set of templates for how to structure the chorus so that it puts neon lights around the most important part of your song. and you'll also have a list of ways for how to go about writing lyrical hooks that land.
[00:36] Let's dive in. So, a chorus is not just the bit where the lyrics repeat. If we think or describe a chorus like that, it's a bit like saying, "Yes, my favorite TV show is the screen where there are people
[00:52] describes what's happening on a very superficial level, but doesn't tell us anything about the contents and doesn't tell us anything about how to go about writing a good one. So, let's talk about what a chorus actually is and talk
[01:07] through some tried andrue ways to approach writing lyrics for the chorus. approach writing lyrics for the chorus. The job of a chorus is to deliver the central message, the core idea, the peak emotion or the main metaphor or image of
[01:24] the song. Most importantly, the chorus is not just another idea. It's not even is not just another idea. It's not even a summary idea. The chorus of a song is
[01:36] a summary idea. The chorus of a song is a response to the problem that is exposed and explored in the verses of the song. The central idea is usually expressed in its most concentrated way inside the
[01:52] hook. The hook of a song is often a single line. Sometimes it's a single word. It might occasionally be more than one line. Whatever it is, the hook is often encased inside the chorus. And it's the hook that is the lyrical and
[02:07] it's the hook that is the lyrical and musical centerpiece of the whole song. musical centerpiece of the whole song. One really important thing that totally distinguishes the chorus of a song from the verses or other sections of the song
[02:22] is the internal structure. What we see when we scan hundreds and thousands of songs, which I have done on your behalf, songs, which I have done on your behalf, is that we almost always see that hook
[02:35] is that we almost always see that hook or title line repeat inside the chorus. This internal repetition of the hook is true today in popular contemporary music, but it is also true when we dip in and look at other popular songs from
[02:51] decades past, both of which we are going to do. so that you can see how choruses are structured and how songwriters convey ideas that makes sure that a listener walks away understanding what the central idea of the song is. So,
[03:08] let's take a dip inside the top 50 charts today. So, I've opened up the top 50 in Australia and even though I know we're all the way down here, the top 50 chart here tends to represent the US top charts and even the global top charts.
[03:21] Okay, so on this day today, which is October 2025, the number one song in the top 50 is The Fate of Ailia by Taylor Swift, we see the title repeat, and we see it repeat halfway through the chorus and then again at the end of the chorus.
[03:36] This is a fairly wordy, lyric heavy chorus, but it's tied together through chorus, but it's tied together through the repetition of the hook. And I get to this song, Man I Need by Olivia Dean. So if we look inside these lyrics, what you
[03:51] see is the title right there in the first line and then we see it again at the end of that main section of the chorus. This is a strategy called title bookending. And it's so effective at spotlighting that main idea, the
[04:06] centerpiece of the song, because it's putting it in the two most spotlighted positions in the chorus, the first line and the last line. What we also see looking at this section which we might call a post chorus is that the title
[04:20] repeats again inside the post chorus the hook repeats. She's also introducing a secondary hook in talk to me. So now we have two hooks playing with each other repeating repeating. She's really simplified the lyrics and all she's
[04:34] doing actually at this point is repeating the hooks. And because this is repeating the hooks. And because this is 2025 we cannot look past the song Golden 2025 we cannot look past the song Golden by EJ. So, this absolute phenomenon of a
[04:46] song. And if you want to know a little bit more about some of the kind of exceptional, interesting, extraordinary things going on in the melody, you can check out this video right here where Benny does a bit of a breakdown of the
[04:58] we're talking about chorus structures. This is a really nice, very simple pop chorus. What we really see is it's a chorus in two halves. And we see the title, that word golden, golden repeat as the third line. and the last line
[05:13] again halfway through and once again at the end. What we also see in this chorus is she has a secondary hook which is the first line going up up up and that also repeats in exactly the same position in the structure. So we see two hooks both
[05:28] repeating first line third line and then again first line third line of that second half of the chorus internal repetition. At this point you might be thinking eh modern pop that is for the youth I am more sophisticated. Well,
[05:41] let's look at some other songs from a bit deeper in the last several decades. actually just something that great songwriters know. Whether it's an intuitive knowledge or whether it is an explicit knowledge, we see it again and
[05:56] again. So, let's look at everyone's favorite song, Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen. What we actually see when we look in this song is this is an almost extreme version of what we're talking about. This isn't a line. This is a
[06:08] single word repetition chorus. one word that repeats and repeats and is actually that repeats and repeats and is actually a beautiful counterbalance to the amount of words and the wordiness and the detail included in the verse section. So
[06:23] the simplicity and the repetition is actually necessary in this case and it's an extreme version of that. And just to reinforce the idea that this is not the domain of pop music, let's look at something like a slow folk ballad. This
[06:38] is one of my favorite Raila Montaigne songs, rock and roll and the radio. And here we have the chorus and we see the repetition not only of the title line as the last line and then repeated as a tag essentially. We also see a second line
[06:54] repeating internally. Are we strangers now? So we have this internal repetition happening on both the title line and also a secondary line. And in fact this strangers now? The most important thing is that we really observe that the way
[07:08] that this songwriter is approaching the chorus differently than the verse is to ask the central question and then repeat it so that we as listeners really really
[07:21] understand what the primary emotion is of the whole song. So three key takeaways at this point before we move on to talking about approaches to actually writing the lyrics. The takeaways are this. Your title or hook
[07:36] should probably repeat somewhere inside the chorus. The second takeaway is that there are many ways to do this. You can achieve this through bookending, first line and last line. You can achieve this through symmetrical repetition. The
[07:49] title could be the first line and the third line or it could be the halfway line and the last line. You can also achieve this repetition through tag repetition. So the title appears at the end and then repeats again at the end as
[08:01] many times as you like. The other critical observation is that the other lines in the chorus that do change that are not the repeating part of the are not the repeating part of the chorus, those lines do not introduce
[08:14] competing ideas or details. They are simply there to reinforce the idea contained in the hook. Their job is to support, not to distract or dilute.
[08:26] [music] Now that we've seen some templates for structures of choruses that contain that internal repetition of the hook or title, let's talk now about some ways that you can approach writing the lyrics
[08:41] to your [music] chorus. There are some clear patterns that emerge in the way that we can see songwriters who really know how to write great choruses approaching the type of language that ends [music] up inside the lyrics of a
[08:55] chorus. To help you work through this list as I go through it, I've also created a free PDF of this list that you can download right now in the video show essentially a worksheet that you can print out or have on your computer and
[09:09] actually they're structured as guide questions that will allow you to writing and come up with lyric ideas based on these prompts. Okay. So the first type of language we see again and again in the hooks and lyrics of
[09:23] again in the hooks and lyrics of choruses are statements of want, desire, or action-taking. Often we literally see a chorus start with the words I want or I'm going to. For example, let's look inside the John Legend song Wild. You
[09:37] can see I want to drive you, I want to love you, I want to drive you. The repetition of I want, I want, I want. In terms of action taking statements, we can see inside the song Chandelier by Sea, literally the words, I'm going to,
[09:51] I'm going to. We see that again and again in chorus lyrics. This action again in chorus lyrics. This action statement is a response to a problem, right? The verses expose some kind of problem. And the chorus is the response
[10:04] that I'm going to take based on this problem. What I'm going to do is this. The second type of language we see again and again is the language of realization or insight. So this is where the chorus lyrics are reflecting the songwriter
[10:20] coming to an understanding, coming to a key observation about the world or about themselves. Often a way into writing a chorus like this is literally to write on the page and so I realized dot dot dot and finish that sentence. We could
[10:35] look at the chorus lyrics to a song like Royals by Lord and literally put the words and so I realized before it and it makes complete sense. She's making a statement of realization or insight. A third type of chorus lyric is the
[10:52] language of command or advice. So this is the type of chorus that uses what we call the imperative form of a verb. The command voice. Go and do this. Take this. Walk that door. Shut the thing, close the blinds, take a bath. Okay, so
[11:08] that kind of command language appears again and again in the language of choruses. We see it inside the lyrics of the global smash hit Stay with me by Sam Smith. Very simple chorus. We see the title bookended and the language of the
[11:24] title is that command voice. Won't you stay with me, darling? Stay with me. Dialing back the time machine. a few years before that. This song was absolutely enormous. Put your records on by Karen Bailey Ray. Again, it's the
[11:39] Command Voice, Girl, Put Your Records On, Tell Me Your Favorite Song, Go Ahead. Go ahead. Right? So, we see that command language coming out in the chorus. Another type of language that emerges is questions. So, a response to
[11:54] a problem doesn't need to be an answer. That's not what we mean by response. Response is simply the way that you emotionally respond. And the appropriate response to certain problems or ideas or stories or events or relationships is a
[12:08] question. We see it in very contemporary pop writing like the song Love Again by the Kid Loy. Can we find love again? Is this the time to end? Question, question, question. A fifth type of language that emerges is a central image
[12:24] or metaphor. This is when the hook and the chorus and the song is centered the chorus and the song is centered around one image, symbol, or metaphor that really stands in for the central idea or feeling. In the classic Bruce
[12:36] Springsteen song, The River, one of my favorite songs, this is the lyric to the chorus. We'd go down to the river. Into the river we'd dive down to the river the river we'd dive down to the river we'd ride. So he's describing an action
[12:49] happening in the past, but the nature of the chorus is that he is building the image of the river as the centerpiece for the whole narrative around it. As the story progresses through the verses of the song, the characters return to
[13:05] the river and the river takes on an increasing symbolic weight. And of course, we see it in hyperpop like Firework by Katy Perry. You're a
[13:17] firework. You're a firework. This is a really fun type of hook where we really get to say something to someone and use some kind of metaphor or image to express or describe how we think of that person or how we feel about that person
[13:33] using an image or metaphor to convey that idea. And it's so powerful in a happen in a pop song. You could do it in any genre or style. But we certainly see this pattern come up again and again. Hooks and choruses that use a central
[13:49] Hooks and choruses that use a central image or metaphor as the hook and as the centerpiece around which the chorus is built and often around [music] which the entire song is built as well. Please go ahead and download that free PDF that
[14:03] has those guide questions mapping onto the list of different types of chorus language. You can download it in the video notes right now. And for more on chorus writing, you can check out this video right here. Happy songwriting,
[14:17] video right here. Happy songwriting, guys. See you soon.