How Pop Song Structures Have Changed over Time

​Song Exploder is a podcast that provides listeners with insights into the songwriting process. Songwriters sit down with creator and host Hrishikesh Hirway to discuss the creation of a single song. They provide relevant biographical information before detailing the writing, demoing, recording, and performing processes. Song Exploder is the perfect podcast for aspiring songwriters interested in traditional pop song structures, as well as songs that connect with listeners despite eschewing traditional songwriting formats.

While the term "pop music" is often associated with specific genres, such as bubblegum pop, the term actually means "popular music" and can be applied to any genre, musical act, or song that has been designed with a mainstream listenership in mind. The Beatles, for example, are often cited as one of the most successful and influential pop groups of all time, even though their discography encompasses a wide range of rock, folk, and experimental genres. Over the last few decades, rock and roll, rap, hip-hop, and electronic dance music have all enjoyed success as popular mainstream genres.

In the early days of pop music, virtually every song followed the AABA format. Songs using this format begin with a verse, followed by a nearly identical verse with a few lyrical changes. The song then segues into a contrasting section, before culminating with a final verse that is very similar or identical to the opening verses. Elvis Presley and the Beatles recorded many songs using this format, such as "Yesterday" and "From Me to You." Although the format has fallen out of fashion, more modern songs that use the AABA format include "Friday I'm in Love" by the Cure and "Don't Know Why" by Norah Jones.

Pop music gradually shifted to a structure more familiar to modern audiences, known as the verse-chorus structure. These songs begin with a verse followed by a chorus. Also known as refrains and hooks, choruses typically feature a song's catchiest, most memorable melodies. The first chorus is followed by another verse and chorus.

Unlike in the AABA format, second verses in verse-chorus-structured songs are usually notably different from the opening verse. They typically contain all-new lyrics and may feature different musical arrangements, such as a drop verse. A drop verse peels away several layers of instrumentation and production, allowing the following chorus to sound bigger than the first chorus.

Almost as soon as musicians such as Michael Jackson popularized the verse-chorus format, artists began experimenting with it. Some artists would follow the second chorus with a brief musical interlude, followed by a final chorus or a double chorus section. Other artists composed an entirely new section after the second chorus, often referred to as a bridge. As radio stations began playing longer songs, artists would include third verses after the bridge and before the final chorus, with songs ending with some kind of outro.

Other notable pop songs embrace structures that are harder to describe. Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" begins with a lengthy acapella introduction followed by multiple ballad verses that last for several minutes. The song then transitions into a multipart operatic passage, a hard rock section, and finally a coda. The coda echoes certain previous elements of the song, but for the most part, "Bohemian Rhapsody" does not repeat any sections or feature a recognizable chorus.

"Stay (I Missed You)" by Lisa Loeb, one of the most successful independently released pop songs of all time, similarly does not repeat sections. This contrasts with Frank Ocean's popular R&B song "Nights," which begins with a lengthy verse, followed by a brief experimental interlude, before culminating with another extended verse that is sonically, lyrically, and tonally completely different from the first verse.

Rick Tsakalios

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