Off (Or On) The Hook
The elusive “hook” - something almost every songwriter wants to have in their work… but do we even know what a song’s hook is?
Like most folks (I think), I always thought of the hook as that catchy line - a combination of lyric and melody - that gets in your head and is the first bit of the piece that comes to mind when you sing the song in your head.
Exhibit A: “Celebrate good times, come on!” (from Kool And The Gang’s perennial favorite played at weddings, graduation parties, etc. aptly titled "Celebration”).
Exhibit B: “We will, we will rock you!” (from Queen’s sporting event anthem, also aptly titled “We Will Rock You”. BTW, check out this vintage video. Gotta get me a pair of Freddie Mercury’s sunglasses).
And lest you think the concept of a hook is far too pedestrian for something as cerebral as folk music, allow me to introduce…
Exhibit C: “This land is your land, this land is my land” (from the aptly titled… OK, you get it. Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land". Of course).
Folks, we have come to a point in our civilization where almost everything and everybody has a Wikipedia page. As does the concept of the musical hook.
A song’s hook is thus Wiki-defined as a short riff, passage, or phrase, that is used to make a song appealing, i.e., to catch one’s ear. The hook is almost always part of the chorus but doesn’t have to be.
OK, so I was pretty accurate in my own definition of a song hook even before I found it catalogued in Wikipedia.
That said, do most songwriters consciously insert a hook into their compositions as they are writing a song? Or does the hook enter the song “organically”, i.e., without much forethought? These are not arbitrary questions: I’d really like to know!
About a year ago, I was reviewing a recently written song (“There's No Remedy” from my 2022 album “Like A Luna Month”) with a well-known folk songwriter. As she was offering her critique of the song, she pointed to the start of the chorus (“I would do anything to please you”) and pronounced “there’s your hook.” I kind of blinked in surprise at that declaration. I hadn’t written the song with the idea that I needed to embed a hook. But there it was. Thus saith my seasoned songwriting coach.
Since then, I must say I’ve become a little - dare I say - self-conscious(?) about hooks in my songs. I’m still (usually) not trying to make a line “hook-y”, but I do try to apply good songwriting techniques (e.g., letting the chorus “soar” melodically, elongating its vowel sounds lyrically, etc.). And when I do that, sometimes a hook is born.
Huh. Whaddaya know.