Anatomy of a Pop Song: Chorus

Often the loudest, catchiest, most lyrically memorable part of a song, the chorus is, in many ways, the centerpiece in most pop music.

A chorus (referred to as a “refrain” in the world of poetry) is usually the part of the song most likely to invite engagement or even participation from the listener.

One of the ways it does this is through repetition. If it doesn’t repeat itself, at least structurally and lyrically, it isn’t a chorus. Most pop songs will have three or four. A chorus will also tend to engage its audience through loudness, relative to the rest of the song, though it isn’t unheard of for one iteration of chorus to differ from the others in this regard. For instance, many songwriters will use a “quiet” version of the chorus to build tension near the end of a song before returning to the louder chorus the audience has become familiar with. The chorus can appear anywhere in the song, but often it will follow a verse or a pre-chorus, if there is one. This “verse/chorus” relationship is easily the most common form to be found in pop music.

One of my favorite songwriting techniques is to use a quiet chorus in the middle of the song. For instance, let’s say the song begins with an intro and a verse. The first verse is followed by the first chorus, full volume.

But after the second verse, we get a quiet version of the chorus that either returns to full volume halfway through or dumps us right into the bridge.

This helps to break up some of the monotony of the typical pop song without compromising the listener’s expectation for some repetition, particularly in regards to the catchiest part of the song. It also creates contrast and tension between the first and second choruses, so that by returning to full volume, the third and/or final chorus can give the listener some closure near the end of the song. Choruses are often the first part written of a song, and for good reason, as a pop song without a good chorus is no pop song at all.