How do I write better lyrics?
How do I write better lyrics?
read some poetry shit, preferably those that were written between the 15th and 19th centuries
yeah read good poetry and read about what makes good poetry good
If you don't have the artistic understanding to write good lyrics than reading poetry or even trying to write profound or meaningful lyrics is going to result in you sounding like a poser try hard.
Name your 3 favorite lyricists and I'll determine if you can write good lyrics.
(I have what some people call *clears throat* GOOD TASTE)
>Name your 3 favorite lyricists
Kanye West
Stephen Sondheim
I don't have a third
what the frick
What, I can't like rap and musicals?
Sondheim is brilliant.
I was tempted to say Stephen Schwartz for third because I love Pippin and The Prince of Egypt, but realized I pay more attention to the score for those than the lyrics. Same with Jason Robert Brown.
Sondheim is a good writer, no hate
listen to a lot of lil pump
having something to say helps
Huh. Maybe that's the problem.
I know what I want to say and what things I want to write about, but that's not necessarily the same as having something to say, right?
literally just stop trying. All my worst lyrics come when I actually think I have a message to say and want to convey it. Good lyrics are all about imagery and metaphors. Just use simple phrases that provoke imagery. Example from something I wrote recently:
Broken Mirrors
Empty Spaces
How do you fall in love,
Without falling?
basically I just take choppy phrases that don't really have to make sense right? But it sounds cool in the context of music. Let the music do the talking an the words don't matter. The more you try to focus on the words the more cringey it sounds IMO
>broken mirrors
>empty spaces
>how do you fall in love,
>without falling?
I didn't know this was a cringe thread user
Those lyrics aren't good user. I'm sorry.
yeah but I just wrote that shit in 5 minutes. Literally just come up with some cringey one-liners and string them together
All lyrics sound dumb written
sometimes i take a line from a song i like and use it as a building block for the rest of the song. When the song begins to take its own shape and theme, i remove or change the line i used.
wrong
>freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose
>nothing don't mean nothing, 'cause its free
Get your heart broken, live in misery
>basically I just take choppy phrases that don't really have to make sense right? But it sounds cool in the context of music.
I'm trying to write hip-hop though, and I just can't stop thinking/trying.
>freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose
she's literally just doing what I said to do here but better example:
literally has nothing to do with the rest of the song, it's just a cute phrase she probably spent a lot of time coming up with
Those are horrible, but you didn't quote the lyrics correctly.
>live in misery
Done, I hate myself and have clinical depression + anxiety.
>Get your heart broken
Never been in a relationship, but I've lost a lot of friends.
>I'm trying to write hip-hop though
NIGGA NIGGA BOOGA BOOGA
WHITE PUSSY
BLACK DICK
YING-YANG MOTHERFUCKER THAT REAL SHIT
SHIIIIIIIIIIT YEAH MUFUCKA WOOPALOOOPADEDOOP
That's a great idea, I'll try it, thank you.
tfw wanna post lyrics but scared someone will take them
>how to be insecure hater of black culture
no one's gonna take your shit lyrics
The best way to look at it is whether YOU like them.
Pop music: dumb it down to like 5th grade level, write about what teenagers like, love, texting, emojis, stickers
Non pop music: be really vague and poetic, less is more in a way, keep people in mystery, dont just blurt out "i love you, yeah yeah"
9gag: The Post
>broken mirrors
>empty spaces
>how do you fall in love,
>without falling?
What did he mean by this?
Mark Kozelek
Joanna Newsom
Phil Elverum
Except rap songs are usually about sex. Listen to any rap song this decade and I bet you there will be sex in it. He didn't even mention that hip hop was exclusive to black people
See; Eminem
>Kendrick Lamar - Most Of DAMN.
>Death Grips - On GP
>Danny Brown - Hell For It
But by in large, you are correct.
I respect you putting yourself out there, but those are laughably bad
Example from something I wrote recently:
Broken Condoms
Empty Refrigerators
How do you put your penis in a girl,
Without a penis?
kek
Stop caring about writing good lyrics and just write whatever comes to mind. It might not be deep shit about death and feelings and shit. It might just be a song about pants or sandwiches. Or it might be about feelings. I just find that the best stuff for me tends to be the stuff that comes effortlessly. And I happen to have a lot to say about SportClips and not that much to say about love or death.
kek
>user who has never heard of conscious Hip-Hop
whats wrong with talking about women and trying to fuck them anyways? you arent GAY user, right?
Hate capitalism, be misanthropic, be nihilistic, dont be in a relationship
Kek
I hate everything that comes to mind, it's absolute shit.
Literally just look around at random shit and then write a song about it. See a bowling alley? Write a song about bowling. It can be as dumb as you want and it will come out good. Do you think I wanted to write a song about God damn SportClips? No. I wish I could write a song about class struggle or some shit. But I saw a piece of junk mail from SportClips and wrote a song about it and it's the best thing I've ever done lyrically. I'm never going to write any other way again. It's just so much easier and better to write about McDonalds or whatever the fuck I happen to look at. I don't even know if I've been in love before, but I've probably eaten thousands of fries in my life. I'm like an expert on fries. I have tons of opinions on PF Chang's. Why would I write about anything else?
...
Search and read some berklee songwitring books and make the exercise until you get something good.
I could write a song about the damn Ninja turtles if the perfect one didn't already exist.
write when you're emotional. try to make yourself more emotional if you're not.
read literature and make obscure references to it.
study well-regarded lyrics and poems. aside from memorisation, one method is to create a parody or a pastiche (basically a non-derogatory parody) while maintaining the basic form of the original.
e.g. Two headed boy, with pulleys and weights, creating a radio played just for two, in the parlor with a moon across her face -> Six cornered star, which bullies and hates, inciting a racewar concocted by Jews, on a Chinese-cartoon site whose members lack brains.
it doesn't really matter if it's good or not, just as long as it's not complete nonsense. the process alone will make you more conscious of the rhythms, word variations, rhyme schemes, and other things which comprise eloquence but which largely go over our heads when we're listening casually. do it enough times and eventually your brain will start to assimilate the patterns into your unconsciousness, where they need to be if you don't want to sound contrived.
Trying to write a bass line
Drawing a blank
Like a gun with no bullets
Your mommas pussy stank
See? Meaningful lyrics don't have to be intricate
Almost all lyrics look bad when they're written. It's about how you translate them into melodies that matter.
>How do you fall in love,
>Without falling?
this line is actually pretty cool. You could work with this. I don't think the broken mirrors/empty spaces bit fits in though
capitalism is the root of all emptyness user you have to know that there are ways to fill the void with meaningless things before you can express to others that the void in you exists you must embrace it to push it away is to deny that the void exists at all
get your rhyme schemes down first and the rest is creativity
Rhyming is overrated desu
Here's the dealio. Take drugs, write about your trips. example:
All around, the silly sounds
That almost seems to breath
They are for worse or better
Filling spaces in between
It's alright I found the time
The time to try to find
But some things are forgotten
And others never die
Alternatively, find out what genre of music you're r writing and see what the original artists of that genre wrote about. If you like lo-fi indie stuff, it's probably about being a young teenager or how bored you are with everything or some sleepy love song.
Learn some basic forms of structure. ABAB AABB. That sort of thing.
NEVER SAY EXACTLY WHAT YOU MEAN! Lyrics are interesting because you are representing something in a creative way. There is nothing creative about "my life sucks, she won't talk to me". If that's your point, sell it to me. Make me feel it. Maybe zoom in on why it sucks. Maybe it's bland and uninteresting like rice. Well then write about rice. Obviously rice is kinda silly but you see the process.
Good lyrics desu
Would write sadboy indie rock to
Biran Wilson
Peter Gabriel
Joanna Newsom
>all memes
...
Elaborate
Thanks.
The trick with lyrics HONESTLY is just to write all the time. 65% is chance until you get really good. Every once in a while you will make something good but most of it is cheesy garbage.
You should look at life and try to see the deep allegories in things. If you get anything, write about it.
bob dylan
captain beefheart
bruce springsteen
Do you write music too or are you Bernie Taupin style?
>write when you're emotional. try to make yourself more emotional if you're not.
I'm always emotional, I have clinical depression. But it's really hard to communicate those feelings, especially when the depression makes me almost completely apathetic to anything but wanting to kill myself violently.
Same rules apply, if anything its easier because so many mediocre rappers do just say the same thing in different ways and not only that but you can hop from subject to subject from line to line
I'm writing hip-hop though.
Well, hiphop has its own form of melody called flow, yo
Also next time you realize youre just idly wasting away on the internet, waiting in line or whatever, write instead. posting some throwaway lyrics
Grain can make bread or it can make liquor
Two ways to force feed your problems and make them get bigger
youre cheaper than free cutting down dads apple tree trunk we flunked failed to fix amends but were drunk uncle sam wants to throw me in the slam but we dunk no prohibition in this kitchen is there a ship in this bottle my feet are bound as the sea sunk pleading guilty free speech treason this trials so out of season i tried as hard as i could and im giving you every reason
Did you really pull yourself up by your diamond studded bootstraps
Maybe if we kiss enough ass we can earn a few food scraps
When i think too much i vomit so pass me that gin that tonic yes im just so damn ironic wear my che t shirt with the price tag still on it
>if anything its easier because so many mediocre rappers do just say the same thing in different ways
hey, hey, don't mean to come off as a cunt, but did you consider that I don't want to be a mediocre rapper? Or do you think me actually trying will stand against people like Yachty that don't try at all? Probably, but I don't want to be another J. Cole.
>you can hop from subject to subject from line to line
I actually have so much trouble with that. Most rap songs cover a multitude of topics switching from bar to bar, but it's about impossible for me to write lyrics without a specific overarching theme which is ironic considering I hate storytelling and concept music.
I guess that's true.
>yes im just so damn ironic wear my che t shirt with the price tag still on it
Rate my rap I wrote while smoking a reefer outside
Canada, my country, the only one for me
And I'm relaxin' here, in my degeneracy
The degenerate life, it's all I need
since I'm relaxin' here, degenerate and free
But one thing I'd love, is a degenerate wife
Picture me and my degenerate wife
Living our degenerate life, casually
Living degenerate, and living free
We could even generate some life, love
And never generate no strife, because
That's for those degenerates, who degenerate life
Instead we love and live degenerate, me and my wife
This
>Sondheim
you know what, okay
I accept this
count your syllables
I mean when I rap it it works fine
I heard some bro science that youre most creative when you wake up or before you go to bed so I've been writing before I go to bed every night for the past 2 months forcing myself to write even when I'm beyond lazy I've definitely gotten better comparing what I did at the start to now
basically
dubs dont lie
I wasnt implying that your goal is to be mediocre but that its pretty easy to be an average feature rapper if you just follow the criteria. If you follow the criteria loosely but actually have some insight and an ear for rhythm and melody then youre just as good as j cole or logic etc. Being able to focus on a concept or idea consistently is great but you also need to keep it interesting by approaching said concept in a non beaten path, like even if its just a verse from another persons perspective. Obviously you can get more creative than that too, i mean some kendrick songs are literally in an essay format
I'm such an asshole, you're trying to help and I can't think of a single nice way to respond to this post.
Rodger Waters
Frank Zappa
MF DOOM
Andre 3000
Frank Ocean
Mark Kozelek
Yeah man. I would be the biggest thing right now if I had a decent voice. I've been writing for a long time. It sucks to see yourself hit a wall because of something you have no control over though. I have a few basement tier recordings me and a friend did if your interested.
Mark Hollis
Bob Dylan
GZA
Eat my ass
All you ever was to me was a burden
One I couldn't carry
My arms are tired
There just wrote some lyrics right off the dome, what do you guys think?
Jeff Mangum
Mark Kozelek
Robert Pollard
Its chill, im just throwing ideas out cause o know theres at least a few people on here with a legit artistic vision but its just so easy to get pulled into a sea of self doubt, shortsighted scenes, halfhearted commitment and just plain laziness, and never reaching your potential or being heard or appreciated
Try it like this:
My ass
Eat it
All yoo-ou ever was to me-ee
Was a burden
A burden I couldn't carry
Too tired yeah
I said
I said my arms are too tired
Baby
Baby
Baby
Eat it
Eat it baby
How do you set lyrics meaningfully to a melody?
Listen to the melody first. What does it make you think of?
Usually the melody of someone's speech has certain trends. Like they will raise the pitch when they are saying the subject. Stuff like that will help the two things feel more unified.
You also should think about what sounds good when you sing it. Certain vowel can be weird in places. As far as coming up with stuff most people just sing the melody over and over throwing in words until something fits a little and they have something to build off of.
Sure I always like hearing music made by anons
Doom go to bed pls
if you can't make these lyrics work you'll never be a good singer
For shits and giggles I turned it into a poem.
I am that I am,
self seeking self,
A stubborn ram
Being past help.
I am that I am,
self seeking else,
Could I be a lamb
Without an ewe?
How do you fall in love,
without falling?
I was that I was,
Mind breaking mind,
not knowing because
shivering blind
I will be,
I will be,
another--
not me
How do you fall in love,
without falling?
Read some poetry
Listen to good music that has a lot of good lyrics.
A example would be Nas from 1991-1997
soundcloud.com
This is one I made a few years back that has always had a certain charm even though I have grown to dislike some of the lyrics. You should check out "nothing left to see" while you're at it. We recorded that while really high on weed and adderal and always refer to it as our masterpiece haha.
W R I T E
A B O U T
T H A T
I swear people don't listen to enough slowcore/DSBM/Screamo and Emo
lyrics don't matter, all that matters is the vocalist, the voice is just another instrument
Mark Kozelek
Sufjan Stevens
Johnny Cash