[Sea]

l study a different songwriter each day , so far,

Kate Bush, Muse, and this weekend, its Led Zeppelin.

I'm finding it helpful to see how music structure is set as well as it being enjoyable in my study time looking at  past famous recording Artist. Later l will study modern day Lyricist.

l was surprised that Led Zeppelin's lyrics are Poetic writing ,and some of their songs don't even have a  chorus's ie 'Kashmir' and 'All My Love'. lm still reading through their lyrics from their Albums over the weekend.

l noticed as well,  this morning that the actual word 'Kashmir'  taken from their title, is only mentioned once in the whole of the song. That's very different compare to todays commercial songs which focus largely on chorus's imploying the title heavily.......and in most cases very strong rhyme.

So my question is.....Is rhyming lyrics in the verses ( l don't mean the chorus's, at the moment) old fashioned ,as the era's of songwriting form changes ?

So..do you write your all your lyrics in rhyme ?

lv been trying not to write my lyrics in rhyme, but l finding it really hard.

Every time l write , it comes out in poetic form (lv got a book full of my poems lv wrote already over months ), which l plan on making into song lyrics.

lm beginning to think to stop fighting it,  and to carry on lyric writing in rhyme, as its not coming natural to me not to.

What's your opinions ?

Is there any other  famous song writers that doesn't use rhyme much in the work, like Kate Bush ?..l don't think Enya 's Lyricist,  her co- writer , uses much rhyme either, l'll have to study that next.

many thanks to people who respond to all my posts......lm really interested in what people have to say and all the different view points.

[The S]

As in all work of creation, there's no right or wrong and that's as much a blessing as it is a curse for a lot of people.

A blessing because you're free to do whatever you'd like with your own piece of art.

A curse because there's no one that can tell you what you should or should not do.

In the end people can only tell you if they like it or if they don't. Ask a big enough number of people and you will surely find people on both sides.

A guideline:

If you want to write ol' blues tunes, then look to ol' blues tunes.
If you want to write modern pop songs, then look to modern pop songs.
If you want to be an artist writing in your own style, then look within to find your own voice.
Etc...

Pick from all your favourite styles and find your own style. Rhyme or not, writers have been writing in all kinds of styles through the years. Some songs need rhyme, some don't. Some need a strong hook, some don't. Some need a powerful and coherent narrative, some are just jibber-jabber.

I'm sorry buddy, but there really isn't any rules to follow here. You decide. We as writers decide. And that's the scary part isn't it?!? =) Wouldn't we all love it at times if there was someone just popping in with all the correct answers and telling us what and how we should do it?!! But we'd miss out on the fun then I guess?!!

Bottom line, if you write a song with no rhymes in it and tell me this is how it's meant to be, who am I or anybody else for that matter, to tell you you're doing it wrong?!?!

Peter

[Sea]

Thanks Peter, interesting read...and yes.. l agree entirely with you.

***lv just noticed lv been putting my questions on the wrong forum page..l should have posted this on the 'writing process page' ***

sorry about that

[rightly]

Yes. Well said Peter. You're one smart dude.
I'll sometimes break from rhyming, I like it when that happens.
 Usually I'll stick with rhyming, it gives me an anchor, yet at the same time invites a more sublime chaos.
Complete control would be boring.

Generally speaking, Peter has said it all.

Led zeppelin n Kate Bush are both thrilling.
I don't know muse.

[Pawy]

I can't agree more with the first user that replied. Everyone has their own style, and how you write those lyrics will also depend on the music genre. So if you naturally tend to write lyrics that rhyme, there's no need to force it, but of course it's great that you want to do something different. The best thing you can do, in my opinion, is keep reading lyrics from different writers (as you have been doing), and also try to find guides to songwriting, since some of them teach very useful techniques.

So the following is the chorus from a song called "Dig" by Incubus. I like the lyrics of this song because they don't rhyme at times but I just think it sounds right:

"If I turn into another
Dig me up from under what is covering
The better part of me
Sing this song
Remind me that we'll always have each other
When everything else is gone."

It's not the typical ABAB or AABB form, and I love that. I try to avoid them sometimes too when I'm writing a song, because I think a verse might be too predictable otherwise, or just to make the verse more interesting. That's just me and my style, so as long as you're comfortable with yours it should be fine :)

Good Luck!