[Boydie]

I am gonna shake things up a bit by saying that almost all of the cliches posted in this thread so far could sit great within a lyric and I would have no problem using them for the style I am currently trying to write in - ie chart pop/rock

I think the term "cliche" has been muddled a bit with the term "corny"

As I said before I believe there are different degrees of cliche and a bit of cliche within a lyric can be great to build familiarity with the lyric - it can be very comforting for the average listner to have a nice obvious rhyme "resolve", in much the same way as a chord sequence resolves to the root chord

However, if you stray from cliche into corny than BAM! - the whole lyric is ruined as it is the corniness that jumps out at the listener (and sticks its fingers down the throats of other songwriters)

Discuss...

[Kafla]

I tend to agree Boydie

I am just being sarcastic with my posts 

I have no real issue with cliches , I have used baby in the past and if i am stuck I would definetly  ryhme desire with fire

I like to come into a song from an obscure angle but gravitate towards familiarity at some point

Plus some songs just need cheese - I am working on a song just now tha wouldn't work with metaphors & analogies - just some straight talking baby

[James Nighthawk]

I am gonna shake things up a bit by saying that almost all of the cliches posted in this thread so far could sit great within a lyric and I would have no problem using them for the style I am currently trying to write in - ie chart pop/rock

I think the term "cliche" has been muddled a bit with the term "corny"

As I said before I believe there are different degrees of cliche and a bit of cliche within a lyric can be great to build familiarity with the lyric - it can be very comforting for the average listner to have a nice obvious rhyme "resolve", in much the same way as a chord sequence resolves to the root chord

However, if you stray from cliche into corny than BAM! - the whole lyric is ruined as it is the corniness that jumps out at the listener (and sticks its fingers down the throats of other songwriters)

Discuss...

Oh Yes! Corny is always bad an makes me feel very uncomfortable. Corny is the lack of real emotion, instead using fake BS to attempt to connect. As such I feel it's effects like a slap round the chops!

I too think Cliches are fine if used no more than a song allows, interspersed with original lines, and not lifted wholesale line after line.

Contrast that to Damien rice - I can't take my eyes off you - cheesy as hell but the delivery really connects with me every time I hear it 

Vital point!! SINCERITY! If it is a cliché BUT it is actually relevant, use away! When Mr Rice sings this line, you believe him! Furthermore, there is beauty in simplicity, and, to employ a cliché, there is no need to constantly reinvent the wheel. Here he is saying something uses 1000 times before, but it works.

I am just being sarcastic with my posts 

Never!!

[Kafla]

Ah ha James - I see what you did there , reverse sarcasm-ed me

[andy5544]

I always thought the obvious thing to rhyme with Desire was car hire ?
Who's that woman who rhymes ghost with toast 

[Dutchbeat]

hahaha, what a cool thread!

and there is a song contest in here as well, who can make make the best cliche song

James already started working on it, he already had chords and everything planned

and as for Daimian Rice, he is great, isn't he (off topic), do you know that song in which a head of a woman is on a string like a balloon
9 crimes it is called,...that video
it is beautiful and worrying and unpleasant at the same time (the video), but no clichés, i think
you probably all know it, but it seems that nobody in the Netherlands...
or in Europe outside the UK has ever heard of damien Rice (i only know about the existence of damien Rice via a music friend in the UK)

oh well, since i am this far off topic already, i might as well add that link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgqOSCgc8xc

[James Nighthawk]

Continuing off topic...

Lisa Hannigan is the lass that sings the female parts on Damien Rice's songs. She took her sweet time but is now an artist herself. I have her debut album, Sea Sew, and keep meaning to pick up her new one. She has a great voice and the instrumentation is luscious. She has seen little publicity but her first was Mercury Music Nominated

Best Cliche song sounds as brilliant as it does soul destroying! 

[Kafla]

I watched an interview one night with Richard Ashcroft from the Verve

They asked him who he looked up to and if drugs inspired him

He said there was no singer more on the edge than Karen Carpenter - going thorugh anoxeria and eventually dying

He listend to the Carpenters music in this context and said it really touched him hard

Made me think about context ,perspective and of course what you would consider to be cliche

[andy5544]

Also anything really over the top affects me -

You raise me up so I can Stand on mountains - how weird would that be , I don't even know if that would be good - what would you do on the mountain plus why are you in love with some giant

Flying without wings - I would definelty be shitting it if that happened 

Life is a rollercoaster just go to ride it - mwahuhhuhuhuh - can you believe that the guy from the new radicals wrote that - probably 

Contrast that to Damien rice - I can't take my eyes off you - cheesy as hell but the delivery really connects with me every time I hear it 

you'd probably relate to this then,

[relativityEmA]

Oh man, 'Girl' and 'World' are the worst, since they don't even rhyme.
'Friend' and 'end' are a close second.
'Kiss you' and 'miss you' would be the third place

[SimonOlder]

I don't know if this is a cliche or just bad but I hate that song with the line 'I'd catch a grenade for ya, jump in front of a train for ya' and all the rest.

I don't get it, it's like love song self harm. What's wrong with 'I'd hold the door for ya, possibly buy a large white wine for ya'. I think if you actually told a girl you'd jump in front of a train for her she might find that a bit over the top. Also, ending every line with ya is just lazy. worst lyrics I've heard in a long time.

[Boydie]

Hmmmm that is an interesting observation and I must admit I myself have gone from not liking Bruno Mars to becoming a bit of a closet superfan

To be fair the "ya" at the end of the line is not solely being used for a lazy rhyme - it is also the "a" sound in the grenade and train

The song is saying "i'd do anything for you" in a completely new and different way to generate impact - as well as taking a bullet right through the brain - so I applaud the lyric for that

I am not sure "I would hold the door open for ya" would have had quite the same intensity   

I do get where you are coming from and it is a shame that some songs/artists need such graphic lyrics to catch attention (although it could have been much worse  )

For me, I like the way he has said the same old, same old, in a new way

[Schavuitje]

Someone mentioned, over the top. Those Bruno Mars lyrics for me are terrible. It bugs me so much I can't listen to it.
I'd catch a grenade... Yeah course you would.
Jump in front of a train... Why would anyone require you to do that? I can't see in any way that might be helpful.
I really hate them 
It must be another Marmite song 

[The Corsair]

I thought 'The Lazy Song' was kinda cool, it was a little bit clever and just about being fun. I actually find that the only two songs of his I have a legitimate dislike for are his first two singles (Grenade and that other one about someone being amazing just the way they are...)

[andy5544]

Did anyone watch this , it sums up everything thats just been said , and is very funny

&feature=youtu.be