BUILDING BLOCKS OF A SUCCESSFUL RECORD

BUILDING BLOCKS OF A SUCCESSFUL RECORD

or…How to make people sit up and notice your music…

To understand the secret of any successful record, you’ve first got to know what are the key ingredients for creating a song. I think one thing many fledgling record-makers don’t really understand is the importance of creating a good HOOK. This article should help clarify what a hook is, and why you need one (and probably more than one) in your life.

Hooks alone make your song memorable. Everything else you do in creating your song is about supporting the hooks, and presenting them in a good light.

HOOKS, AND WHY YOU WANT ‘EM
When you play your music to your friends, they have a reason to listen to it. Maybe you’re the kind of person that has to tie them to a chair with a rubber-ball gag in their mouth to get them to hear it. What’s more likely is that they’re emotionally invested in it, because you’re a mate. Unless you want to go out and personally befriend a million people, you’re gonna need another way to get strangers to pay attention to your music. Say no to degrading acts of sadism and say hello to hooks.

NICE OR NASTY?
A hook is (in its basic musical definition) something which catches the attention of a person, and keeps their attention. The length of time the hook “stays” depends on the nature of the hook. Some hooks are nasty and difficult to extract. You know: that song you hate, but can’t stop singing.
Other hooks stay there because they’re finely crafted, sharp, went in smoothly and feel comfortable when lodged in your listener’s brain. Mmmm…hookalicious.

It’s up to you which type of hook you want to use. I don’t own any Village People records, but like Peter Kay’s dad, I feel that urge to get up to YMCA when it comes on at a wedding. So different approaches favour different results. You might want to punch the guy who made the crazy frog hook, but I expect he can easily afford bodyguards…

FOCAL POINTS
If you’ve ever driven across the Forth Road Bridge in Edinburgh, Scotland, you’ll know that it offers one of the world’s finest views. Look to one side, you’ll see the phenomenal feat of engineering that is the Forth Railway Bridge, running parallel with the one you’re on. On the other side, a wide and sparkling river receding into the hills. Look up and see massive suspension girders reaching into the sky. It’s an amazing and memorable experience. The main focal point is the other bridge, but the other views together also make it memorable.

To make a similarly powerful impression, a successful record needs a focal point. Something for the ears and emotions to latch on to. Your job is to create a quality focal point or two (or three), then craft a structure around it which supports it sensitively without distracting from it. The second part of that statement relates to arrangement and structuring, and I’ll maybe deal with that at another time, if anyone’s interested. We’re going to focus on the first part just now: the creation (or selection) of a hook or hooks.

THE PRIMARY HOOK
When you’re making your record, ask yourself “which bit is the primary hook?”. Is it the vocal? The synth riff? If it’s not easy to pin down, either you’ve got a few amazing hooks or none at all. Which is more likely?

Then ask yourself, “is this hook something I can easily sing to another person?” If it’s not, then it might not be the perfect main riff.

Now ask yourself: “will another person be able to sing this riff to me after hearing it?” If not, then it’s not memorable. This is the “Old Grey Whistle Test”. It’s not the exclusive judge of a good track, but if you can’t pass it, it’s probable that you’ve not made an enduring hit record.

RIP OFF
Now ask: “Does the hook sound too much like another song?” If so, people will get distracted by the thought “that sounds like x” and your credibility as a creative artist drops. (unless your hook is intentionally from another song, in which case, people think you’re clever if you’ve used it well).

Now ask yourself “Is my main hook pleasant to listen to?” That means it better be well-recorded. Is the melody too dull and uninteresting? Do the words make the listener feel positive emotions?

“If I took this hook out, would the song have lost its point?” If not, it’s probably not the main hook. Ask yourself whether it needs to be there at all!

So we’re still talking about main (or primary) hooks. It’s that part of your song that everything else is there to support.

HOW TO WRITE A HOOK
Creating this hook is something I can’t help you with. It’s something that comes from inside you, it’s a raw emotional thing. From inspiration, from memories, from chance. But it’s not so hard to get at one, so long as you don’t think “I’m going to write a song”, but instead you think “I’m going to write a hook”. It’s only a couple of bars of music. It’s the highlight point of the “chorus”. It’s probably the title of the song. It’s the line that helps summarize the rest of the lyrics, and the emotion of the song.

STUCK FOR HOOKS?
One suggestion I can make is try switching on a radio to a channel you don’t usually listen to. Then go into another room, so the radio is barely audible (ideally, you can’t hear what the song is). Chill out, maybe have a sleep or read a book. Every so often, listen to the music overtones that you hear. Then imagine what the hook of the song you’re hearing might be. Once one gets you excited, get to a recording device with a mic, then record yourself humming it, and any supporting parts you come up with. It’ll sound terrible when played back, but in your head, it’ll sound great. That’s a starting point.

TYPES OF HOOKS
Melodic hooks. The bit you sing “nah nah nah” too when you’re singing along.
Lyrical hooks. The words that you know.
Riff hooks. A subcategory of melodic hooks, but a riff is defined as a short figure which repeats, and usually re-appears throughout the song as a punctuation point.
Rhythmic hooks. These will rarely be primary hooks, but if the drums or maybe rhythm guitar play something that is there to be a “look at me” thing, then that’s probably a rhythmic hook.
Harmonic hook. This is when the chords do something that make you sit up and notice them.
Obviously the lines between these things blur a little, but it’s good to think in terms of these as separate entities. When creating your song, ask yourself if the song needs a melodic, lyrical, riff, rhythmic or harmonic hook.

Remember that all these things can’t happen at once, much in the same way as it’s impossible to focus on two things at once.

USE DEM LUGS
Why not go away and listen to ten records you own now, and identify the hooks. Write down what kind of hooks they use, whether they’re primary or secondary hooks. Think about where they appear in the song, and how often.

GET BUFF
Making good music is often not about what you add, but what’s left when you’ve taken away all the stuff you don’t need. Same applies for the hooks. Can that hook be slimmed down at all?

GETTING PAST THE HOOKS
It’s also good to remember that a song isn’t necessarily all about the hooks. In fact, if you want to make a record people love, you’ll regard the hooks as something that’s just a necessary part of the process. Maybe the lyrics will be where the subtleties of your creative expression occur. Maybe it’s the production that you’ll be proud of. But it’s the hooks that will make people notice the song first, more than anything else.

Once you’ve got your hooks, you need to start looking at how best to present them, using structuring and arrangement. These are areas I’ll discuss at another time.

[size size=75:23d7e77s]Greg de Blieck is the manager of Beatcave Productions, a UK production company based in Glasgow.
http://www.beatcave.co.uk [/size:23d7e77s]