Title

Songwriting Infobox

Song Model
Songwriting
Lyrics - Melody - Harmony - Rhythm - Form
Song Form
Title - Chorus - Verse - Prechorus - Bridge
v • d • e

Put your title in spotlighted positions: In chorus opening lines, closing lines, or both. in AABA form, at the end of each verse (modern) or at the beginning.

Titles should...

• Distill and express the central idea of the song.
• Be the target area that everything else in the song aims at.
• Be able to be developed as the song progresses, so that it gains more impact as we gain more information.
• Be engaging and interesting, either in themselves or in the ideas they are able to provoke.
• Specific rather than general

Kinds of Titles

DNA Titles

Contain meaning. "Black Velvet," "The Great Pretender," "The Tracks of My Tears," or "Cleaning Out My Closet."

Parasitic Titles

Need the context of the lyric for full effect. "And They Do," or "All I See is You?"

Finding Titles

• Transformed clichés
• Suggest or contain metaphor or simile.
• A clever turn on words, like "Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue?"
• Sonic bonding, either with vowels (assonance) or consonants (alliteration), or both.
• Opposites (wrong, right; sun, moon; dark, light; in, out; up, down, etc.)
• Repetition
• Repetition with Variation
• Double meanings
• Billboard signs
• Product slogans
• Book and movie titles
• Interesting things people say
• Songs, especially lines you misunderstand
• Thesaurus
• Dictionaries of phrases
• Rhyming dictionary
• Dictionary of alliteration