keep the info coming
Well, how about types and usage of rhyme?
There are lots of different types, ranging from barely noticeable rhymes that slip by cunningly and are used for subtle decoration, all the way to bold, obvious rhymes that provide closure.
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One aspect of rhyming is how well the sounds of the rhyming words match up.
In a
full rhyme, only the opening consonant sounds of the stressed syllables differ:
can / man
bell / fell
no / throw
old / goldAll things being equal, full rhymes are the most satisfying type of rhyme as they "chime" the loudest. Not that you always want rhymes to be satisfying...
Homophones (also called
rich rhymes) are the next most satisfying. This is where the words sound identical but have different meanings:
threw / through
pail / pale
sharp (musically) / sharp (like a blade)Next we have
identities or
identical rhymes. This is just using the same word twice. For example, the word "again" is used as an identical rhyme in lines two and three of the first verse of
Just a Man.
In my opinion, the three types above can be broadly classified as satisfying. They give a sense of closure and questions answered. Interestingly, though, identities don't really work in comic songs. I hadn't consciously noticed this till I read it in the intro to Stephen Sondheim's
Finishing the Hat. But he's right: identities are for some reason not funny...
On the "unsatisfying" side, we have (debatably) two types.
The first is
partial rhyme (also called
half rhyme and
slant rhyme). Partial rhyme is actually a pretty big category and some experts split it into several distinct types - but essentially it just means when there is a noticeable similarity between the sounds of two words, but that similarity is less than full rhyme.
So in
Just a Man we have:
game / pain
wait / saveThese two pairs are partial rhymes based on
assonance: they share a vowel sound, but not consonant sounds.
And we also have:
go / throughwhere the vowel sounds don't match but are close enough that the brain seems to notice a similarity.
Another type of half rhyme is
consonance: sharing consonant sounds but not vowel sounds. Examples would be:
park / poke
type / tapeYou get a lot of this in rap lyrics.
The second type of "unsatisfying" rhyme is
eye rhyme. This is when the spelling of two words would indicate they rhyme, but they actually don't:
again / pain
through / thoughFrankly, eye rhyme is more useful in poetry, which we typically read from the page. In song lyrics, where we mainly listen, it's of limited value.
I've classified these rhymes as "unsatisfying", but that's by no means necessarily a bad thing. Unsatisfying rhymes chime audibly but with a slight discord that lets you know everything's not perfect. They're great when you want a sense of incompletion or searching or something like that.
We also have an example in
Just a Man of something that looks like rhyme, but which (as Boydie noted) is generally thought too weak to be categorised as such:
dying / prayingThe reason this is so weak is that the stressed syllables do not rhyme; only the unstressed syllables do. And as a fairly reliable rule of thumb, if a rhyme does not involve stressed syllables, it's not really a rhyme. So all those "-ing" words? Not much use, sorry.
To address
Just a Man specifically, while there's nothing wrong with using partial and eye rhymes - or even with not using rhymes at all - it kind of looks in places like you aimed for full rhymes and missed.
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Another classification of rhyme is into
masculine and
feminine rhymes.
Masculine rhymes end with a stressed syllable. All of the rhymes in
Just a Man are one-syllable masculine rhymes, but you can have more than one syllable too:
inflate / instate
reappeal / freer peal
condemn / on themThen there are feminine rhymes, which end with one or more unstressed syllables:
Flatterer / chatterer
eating / cheating
Fluorescent / opalescentAnd here's an example of a feminine rich rhyme (in this multi-syllabic context, it also gets called an identity):
Romania / nymphomaniaIt's a rich rhyme / identity rather than a full rhyme because the stressed syllables begin with the same consonant sound.
The main reason for knowing the difference between masculine and feminine rhymes is that you can sometimes get away with a kind of partial feminine rhyme like this:
parting / artistBut you can't really do that with masculine rhymes:
before / betimes***
Another factor that influences the effect of rhymes is their placement. Obviously there are
end rhymes that come at the end of the line, and
Just a Man is full of them. End rhymes are the highest on our "satisfyingness" scale.
But there's a cunning kind of end rhyme called
enjambment rhyme which uses the start of the following line to complete the rhyme:
Extra status!
That's essential
on my way to
C.E.O.This is somewhat similar to
offset rhyme, which ShinyThang's recent song,
Then Leave, used very effectively. Offset rhyme is where syllables at the end of a line rhyme with syllables in the middle or at the start of a different line:
Erase my memory of your smile
And I'll ... unlearn your name
After a hundred years of this
I might forget your kiss ... and refrain fromSubtle, innit? And the partial rhyme of name / refrain makes it even more so.
Then there's internal rhyme, where syllables rhyme with other syllables in the same line. I love me some internal rhyme, as it doesn't necessarily chime very loud but it comes across as clever. Musical theatre is full of it, as in Sondheim's:
an herb that’s superb for disturbances at seafrom his completely amazing show
Pacific Overtures.
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So with all these different types of rhyme, there's an extremely wide palette to choose from - all the way from full masculine end rhymes to partial feminine offset rhymes. There will be something in there to help you create the feeling your song needs.
Analysing rhyming lyrics can be a good way to get to grips with all this. So if anyone's interested, the following excerpt from one of my musical theatre songs has lots of different types of rhyme...
CAN YOU IDENTIFY THEM ALL???
Music!
Frequencies surging in time...
Patterns emerging, sublime...
Purging me, urging me I’m
Alive!
Music!
Reason and feeling made whole...
Freedom concealing control...
Wheeling and reeling,
Revealing and healing the soul!Matt
