Lesson 1: The Seven Basic Plots (Strategy)

Table of Contents:

Intro

Welcome to a plot-driven approach to songwriting.

Have you ever wonder what the exact elements of story plot in song are?

Wish there was a clear step-by-step approach for you to not only identify the story elements of hit songs, but also develop your own?

Wish you had a clear system to develop songs that, by design, connect emotionally better?

If so, you are in the right place.

In the spirit of transparency and objectivity for the course, I just grabbed the top three Billboard Hot 100 songs this month (4/27/21) and I also do a free write to show you the steps when I go through it.... so there is some adult language and adult themes that are present. Viewer discretion is advised.

The keys of a successful story have been around for a while.

Originally defined by Aristotle as conflict, climax and resolution.... the rising and falling actions were later added by Gustaf Freytag. Though they gave us a better idea of what's going on, they were still a little vague.

I've read a couple of really good books on this subject, but the one that really brought it home for me was the 2004 release 'The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories' by Christopher Booker.

In his book, he explains that there are seven basic plots the nearly every story fits into, as well as the character's motivation and each plot point on that traditional story arc that was defined by Aristotle.

The seven plots that we have to work with are:

1. overcoming the monster

2. rags to riches

3. the quest

4. voyage and return

5. comedy

6. tragedy

7. rebirth

Before we do any deep-dive analysis, let's take a quick look at each plot.

It's important to note that because songs are so much shorter than other forms of storytelling, they often just focus on the main emotion. The beginning or the end... just like two or three acts.

Sometimes they simply imply the things that have already happened or are going to happen and sometimes they use one or two lines to actually fulfill other sections and make a story more complete.

All choices, all artistic decisions.

The Basic Plots

Overcoming the Monster

Overcoming the monster.

A monster is threatening the community in and the hero must destroy him. The final battle often occurs in the monster's layer. Any Super Mario fans out there know this story well.

It starts with a threat of a monster being introduced. Then the hero is beckoned to confront the monster.

The hero journeys to confront and prepares to face the monster... and everything begins well.

The hero appears to be outmatched after coming face to face with a monster.

In a final confrontation with the monster. Everything seems to be hopeless.

And then the hero defeats the monster and escapes. He gains something.. a treasure... a princess.... a kingdom.

A good example of this in hip hop is 'The Warning' by Notorious B.I.G.

Rags to Riches

Rags to Riches.

Enter the hero... poor, common, drowning in wretchedness and seemingly miserable... but there is a potential for greatness.

Classic underdog story where the hero fulfills his potential and becomes happy, wealthy, important and successful.

A couple of cinematic examples would be 'Mr. Deeds' and 'Limitless.'

It starts out when we see the hero in a downtrodden, unhappy and humble state.

He is then called into a wider world where they enjoy the pleasures of higher status and experience initial successes, they may meet their true love who is someone that was previously above them.

The hero is then separated from their love as everything goes wrong.

Discovering their true strength the hero defeats their rival proving their worth...

And then obtains permanent higher status and wins his true love.

'Juicy' by The Notorious BIG is a good example of this type of song in application.

Though it doesn't move linearly from beginning to end. It does heavily embrace this concept and randomly grabs bits and pieces of these plot points for different lines throughout the track.

The Quest

The Quest.

A journey to obtain a great prize in a faraway land. Any of the Indiana Jones movies are great cinematic examples of this plot.

The story begins where life is oppressive or intolerable.

The hero then receives a supernatural calling or vision which shows that getting something in a faraway land is the key to making things better.

Traveling to the goal... the hero has adventures along the way encounters dangerous temptations, monsters, other quest seekers that have failed, live or dead and gains helpers.

Within arm's reach of the goal, a new set of horrible obstacles to overcome are presented to the hero.

The hero faces the final set of tests and his toughest fight. The hero then prevails and gets all the swag, the princess Kingdom the treasure.

A lot of inspirational songs tend to fall into this category.

You can take a look at 'On Top of the World' by the Imagine Dragons and see that in the chorus is obtained it and already won but talks about the calling that he got when he was a child.

The verses pretty much just talk about the journey and the frustrations with a change of point of view. The first verse he talks about how we can do it and things will experience and then the second verse he talks about how he did it and how it felt.

Voyage & Return

Voyage and Return.

The hero travels to a strange world which at first glance things enchanting. Over time, the hero begins to feel trapped and threatened, pushing them towards escape and their homeland. The Wizard of Oz is a great cinematic example.

The story begins when the hero yearns for a new experience due to curiosity, boredom, recklessness, or other reasons.

They are then transported to a strange new world suddenly, where the hero explores the world becomes puzzled and fascinated, but it slowly becomes frustrating difficult, oppressive or alarming.

The hero's survival is seriously being threatened into an adrenaline-fueled escape and return.

The classic song 'Hotel California' by the Eagles is a REALLY good example of this plot structure in songwriting.

Comedy

Comedy....

Booker found that you can't apply the same structure to comedies, but does define them in a few ways.

1. A story that ends happily,

2. A story which is satirical or humorous.

3. A drama finding true love, usually young love which ends in marriage.

He goes on to loosely defined the three stages as...

1. The story starts in a community where the relationships between people are living under the shadow of frustration, confusion or uncertainty.

2. The confusion worsens to a crisis.

3. As the truth is revealed, perceptions are changed relationships are healed in love and understanding.

There's a pretty wide berth for cinematic examples for these but pretty much any romantic comedy falls into this category.

The Comedy plot structure is probably the least useful template for us through this lens.

It's not that the songs aren't everywhere, and they're not prevalent... it's that there's no real clear path to create the emotion.

You do have songs like 'It Was A Good Day' by Ice Cube, where the whole point of the song is it's happy and everything's going his way all day.

And then you also have satirical songs, like 'My Name Is' or 'The Real Slim Shady' by Eminem. Both really good songs, but all lacking any real fundamental plot structure.

Tragedy

Tragedy....

Like a comedy a tragedy is defined by its ending... the main difference, being, in a tragedy the goal is never achieved. The hero doesn't resolve their inner conflict in a positive way. A cinematic example being the movie Scarface.

A tragedy begins with the hero being unfulfilled and wanting more.

He finds an object of desire or course of action, which is usually forbidden.

The hero commits to obtaining this goal and things go really well.

They slowly begin to go wrong and the hero may resort to unwise and desperate actions that cannot be undone.

The forces of opposition close in as the hero loses control of the situation, and a piece of the hero was lost and he is destroyed in some way.

It's important to note this is probably the most common plot structure that I come across when analyzing songs I think for two reasons.

1. The tragic artists syndrome, where we find a lot of our inspiration, and most sincere work out of pain.

2. It embraces a complete love story arc.

The first three plot points really cover our emotional range for when we're meeting somebody and falling in love while the last three really covered the spectrum of how we feel when we're breaking up.

A good contemporary example in songwriting is 'Rapstar' by Polo G, which happens to be number one on the Billboard Hot 100 as of today, so we'll be taking a deeper dive look at that here in a few minutes.

Rebirth

Rebirth....

The story of the Phoenix, a very strong human emotion... rebirth is change.

Often used to portray dark characters in film like Golem or Darth Vader.

A rebirth story starts with the hero under the shadow of a dark power.

At first things go well as the threat seemingly recedes.

But as the threat returns the heroes imprisoned in a state of living death.

Seemingly the dark power has completely triumphed.

The heroes is miraculously rescued by someone or something.

'Montero' (call me by your name) by little NAS x actually fell into this category, and is number two on the Billboard Hot 100. As of me writing this, so we'll be taking a deeper look at it in a few minutes.

The Other 2 Plots

Mystery

Booker goes on to acknowledge there are two other very common storytelling plots. The eighth being a mystery, where a third-party person unrelated directly to the story slowly uncovers one of these predefined plots that we've already discussed.

A lot of detective novels are told in this fashion. As it relates to songwriting, I can honestly say I have not found one of these yet and analyzed it, though I think it would be interesting, and I'm sure there's a couple out there.

The One

The final basic plot that Booker defines is the rebellion against the one. This plot was summarized on the website how-to-write-a-book-now.com as this:

Rebellion against the one. A hero rebels against an all-powerful entity that controls the world until he is forced to surrender to that power.

The hero is a solitary figure who initially feels that the one is at fault and that he must preserve his independence or refusal to submit.

Eventually, he is faced with the ones' awesome power and submits becoming part of the rest of the world again.

In some versions, the one is portrayed as benevolent, as in the story of Job, while others as malevolent, as in 1984 of Brazil.

A common variation is to have the hero refused to submit and essentially went against the power of the one.

In the prisoner. The hero eventually earned the right to discover that the one is a twisted version of himself.

In the matrix, Neo's resistance eventually leads to a better world.

In The Hunger Games Katniss' continued rebellion eventually leads to the downfall of both the original tyrant and his potential successor.

As songwriters, the idea of the one is definitely important for us to have on our toolbox. But these don't generally follow any traditional plot structures that I've seen. Most protest songs really just embrace the two main ideas of this plot structure:

1. There is a power and injustice.

2. We refuse to accept it or comply.

I found one of these really boils down to us answering two questions.

1. What is the thing that we're against? which is our chorus or our tagline.

2. What are parts of that system, things that that system has done, or things that that system is doing that make us feel the way we do? Which is our verses.

To help illustrate this point, I'd like to take a quick look at a few different songs. I'll provide links to the lyrics if you'd like to take a minute and read them as we go along.

Elements of A Protest Song

In the Creedence Clearwater song 'Fortunate Son' John Fogarty uses the chorus to illustrate how he is not part of the patriotic and privileged system by going through the verses and illustrating figures that are a part of the system.

First a senators' son. Then a millionaire's son. Then a military son, and how he is not like any of them. He's not a fortunate son.

The Public Enemy song 'Can't Truss It' illustrates Chuck D's contempt for the systematic oppression of the African American people, first through original slavery, and then through the evolution into a modern corporate world.

The tagline 'can't truss it' very clearly illustrates his contempt and refusal to accept and comply with the system, the one.

In the first verse, He acknowledges that there is a systematic issue and drives home the fact that he refuses to comply with it and never will.

In the second verse, he goes back in time to original slavery to illustrate the origins. Then in the third verse, he comes back into modern time to illustrate the evolution of these issues and how they're still affecting the community.

He then wraps it up by repeating the first verse reiterating his noncompliance.

The final example we're going to look at is 'Only A Pawn In Their Game' by Bob Dylan.

This song revolves around the assassination of the American civil rights activist Medgar Evers. This song was written in a verse refrain style containing five stanzas, each one ending with the main idea and phrase 'he's only upon in their game' illustrating the presence and power of the one.

In the first verse, Dylan describes the actual assassination, but chooses to focus on what the killer was going through, ending the verse with 'but he's not to blame he's only a pawn in their game.'

In the second verse, Dylan describes a southern politician, that's capitalizing on the mentality of the poor white class by telling them that they have it better than the blacks, and they should be grateful for that. But the politician isn't to blame. He's just a pawn in the game.

In the next verse, He elaborates on this idea by pointing out other positions of power, that support this mentality to that group of people, and then empowering them to take accountability to protect their way of life.

In the fourth verse, He illustrates the extremes that this mentality creates by talking about the KKK and their activities.

Dylan then closes the song out by stating though Medgar Evans died today, the shooter's day will come, and his epitaph will read 'only a pawn in their game.

By looking at these three very different songs, we can see the commonalities between them.

All three heavily embrace the idea of the one...

• There's a system in place of power.

• They acknowledge and identify the system either through a personal belief or a general truth in the chorus or tagline.

• The verses illustrate specific characteristics, events or effects of that truth.

Now that we have a good understanding of each of the basic plots with some examples, let's take a deeper dive into some contemporary works.

The Top 3 on the Hot 100 as on 4/27/2021

At the time of writing this course, this is the Billboard Hot 100 top three songs.

1. Rapstar by Polo G.

2. Montero by little Nas X.

3. Leave the Door Open by Bruno Mars Anderson Paak and Silk Sonic.

As a bonus, I'm going to quickly cover the story arc of 'Shape of You' by Ed Sheeran in the review at the end of the course.

Contemporary Case Studies

#1 Rapstar by Polo G

Rapstar by Polo G.

After reading through this song a couple of times I came to the conclusion that it's a tragedy. The song opens up with the chorus. Let's take a look at the lyrics now.

Copped a BMW, new deposit, I picked up another bag like

" Fxxk it I'm a count when I'm in it."

I hear planes flying, crowds screaming, money counters, chains clanging

Sh!t I guess that's how it sounds when you winning.

I ain't joke'n, do it sound like I'm kiddin'?

I've been making like 2000 a minute

So high up in the clouds. I was swimming,

I'm probably gon' drown while I'm in it

I bet she gon' get loud while I'm in it

And we might have a child when I'm finished.

We joined Polo G here in the midst of his success. He's already found a prize to chase and he's achieving it... things are going really good for him.

Though he alludes that they're probably going to go bad with the line 'I'm probably going drown when I'm in it.'

Right now. Things are going great! He has everything that he wants. This fulfills that temptation and the dream of a tragedy.

Rapstar verse one....

Uh. I wont love a hoe. after we fxxk she can't get near me.

Only b!tch I give a conversation to is Siri.

my pants Amiri, Yes, I'm winning clearly.

I'm the chosen one see my potential so they fear me.

Lately I've been praying, God I wonder Can you hear me?

Thinking 'bout the old me, I swear I miss you dearly.

Stay down till you come up, I've been stickin' to that theory.

Every day a battle, I'm exhausted and I'm weary.

Make sure I smile in public, when alone my eyes teary.

I fought through it all, but that sh!t hurt me severely.

I've been getting high to hide behind my insecurities,

taking different pills, but I know they ain't gon'.

Before I dive into a plot analysis of this first, I think it's important to mention that there's an arrangement decision that was made in this particular song. In this and in the second verse.... there's 12 lines in both of them, which generally create an uneasy feeling and a listener.

These ideas are mentioned in the elements of lyricism ebook (free with my e-mail list), so I highly recommend you take some time to read that if you haven't.

As a general example, for this idea, when you think of blues music, and how it's generally sad, well most blues music is written in 12 bar blues.

We can also see one other very important lyrical element at play here that we need to consider as songwriters, if we have commercial aspirations, and that's that... at the beginning of a verse, we really need to try to do something that is shocking and attention getting so that we can retain a listeners' ear.

Knowing that we can see that the first four lines of this verse were really designed to fulfill that song need, so they're related to the concept overall, they're really void of any plot progression.

Through the next eight lines, we can see how things are starting to spiral out of control for Polo G. He's praying to God, he's having to fake his happiness when he's out. And he's even resorted to taking drugs to try to hide the pain.

These lines deeply embrace the frustration phase of a tragedy where things begin to go wrong, and the hero may resort to unwise and desperate actions that cannot be undone.... like drug abuse.

Rapstar verse two.....

They say I'm Pac rebirth, never put out a weak verse.

Homicides when we lurk, I'ma step 'til my feet hurt.

Weren't puttin' them streets first, white tees turned burgundy t-shirts...

looking for something real... he stuck in a deep search.

Anxiety killing me. I just want to leave Earth.

When they ask if I'm okay, it just makes everything seem worse.

Trying to explain your feelings, Sounds like something you rehearsed.

Stabbed me in my back with a clean smirk.

Look so deep in your eyes, I can read your thoughts.

So shut the X up. I mean, please don't talk.

Don' been through too much. And I don't need another loss.

Put that on every war score, for every battle I fought.

When we look at the first four lines of this verse, we see the first two are really heavily focused on that shock and attention-getting aspect. While the next two just kind of expand on it a little bit and introduce a very important idea to the rest of the plot of this... and that's the idea of loss.

The rest of the verse, He first takes a little bit of time to reiterate the gravity of the internal conflict that he's going through, how high his anxiety is, and how much he wishes he could just escape from it.

He then introduces a recent betrayal and his anger at the situation.... concluding that he doesn't want to have to suffer a similar loss that he has in the past.

To fulfill the rest of a tragedy, we would need:

• The forces of opposition to close in and the hero lose control of the situation.

• A piece of that hero to be lost in some way.

In this case, I feel like the betrayal element does a really good job of fulfilling the nightmare in the simple fact that we cannot do anything about anybody else's decisions. They are completely out of our control.

In the last few lines, he really makes it a point to illustrate that he has been through something like this before, and he doesn't want to experience it again. He has already lost something in the past that he'll never get back, which fills the final driver need of a tragedy,

At this point is pretty safe for us to assume that at some point in his life act one has happened. He was unfulfilled and wanted more. That's what got him to the place where he has it.

It's implied by the point in time that we join his story.

I'd like to take a second to point out something that you're going to notice more and more, the more songs you analyze through this lens.

A song story arc will very often not start at the very beginning. Our choruses generally need to be the biggest, most impactful moment, which often lies (emotionally) somewhere in the middle of a traditional story plot.

No matter where the course ends up falling in a storyline..... The rest of the song, the verses and bridge usually develop in a linear fashion.

In this case, by moving into Act Three and Four with verses one and two. Or in a reflective song, the chorus may land in Act Three or Four, and then go back to the earlier acts and drivers to explain how they got there.

#2 Montero by Lil Nas X

Number two on the Hot 100.... Montero (call me by your name) by Lil Nas X.

For context, I was reading an interview where Lil Nas X explains his inspiration for this song.

The idea of calling me by your name was inspired by a movie about two gay lovers. The idea being that calling somebody by your own name is the most loving thing you can do. He then goes on to explain how this is about a relationship that he has with somebody who isnot yet out of the closet, hence, they're living in the dark.

After reading through this a couple of times I came to the conclusion that it's a rebirth story. Let's take a look at the lyrics.

(verse 1)

I caught it bad just today.

You hit me with a call to your place.

ain't been out in a while anyway.

I was hoping I could catch you throwing smiles in my face.

romantic talkin'... you don't even have to try.

You're cute enough to fxxk wit' tonight.

Looking at the table, all I see is weed and white.

baby you livin' the life but you ain't live in right?

This verse really just paints how bad of a crush that Lil Nas has on this dude who is still not open about his sexuality. Serving the Act One needs of a rebirth story. The hero is under the shadow of a dark power. (though we haven't been told how dark it is yet.)

(Pre-Chorus and Chorus)

Cocaine and drinking with your friends.

You live in the dark boy, I cannot pretend.

I am not fazed, only here to sin.

If Eve ain't in your garden, you know that you can....

Call me when you want. Call me when you need.

Call me in the morning. I'll be on the way.

Call me when you want. Call me when you need.

Call me by your name. I'll be on the way like...

oh, call me by your name.

Lil Nas X uses the pre-chorus to illustrate the fact that his love interest.... even though living a homosexual lifestyle.... is in the closet, and even has a girlfriend.

Lyrically, the chorus illustrates the main emotion of the song, the why he's telling us the story... in very general terms so that it's more relatable to more people.

Though I'll never know what it's like to have a thing for a guy that's still in the closet, I can absolutely relate to this main emotion and how it's written in my own personal life.

Because choruses generally need to serve our purpose of being catchy and relatable to the most amount of people, they very often don't have a lot of plot detail in them.

I like to think of them as a universal emotional synopsis for our songs. Just like the back of a book. It's a 3o second snippet that lets people know if it's for them or not.

Looking back to see how we got here, we see that he had a crush on this guy, the guy called him to hang out and they've been partying.... and now he feels this way where you can call me whenever you want.

To me it really feels like things are going in Lil Nas X's direction right now. Because of the trajectory of the story so far, I'm comfortable calling this an emotional fulfillment of act two things are going well and the threat has seemingly receded.

Montero verse two.....

I want to sell what you're buying.

I want to feel you're a$$ in Hawaii.

I want that jet lag from fxxckin' and flyin'

shoot a child in your mouth while I'm riding.

Oh, oh, oh, why me? a sign of the times every time that I speak.

a dime and a nine it was mine every week.

What a time an incline God was shining on me.

Now what can leave now I'm actin' hella elite.

Never want the n!gga$ in my league.

I wanna fxxk the ones I envy, I envy.

These first four lines do a really good job of creating impact for me. He moves from an internal conflict, to an external conflict, to an internal conflict, to an external conflict... to really just re-illustrate how bad he's gonna for this dude.

I find this next line to be really impactful from a plot perspective, where he internalizes the conflict saying 'oh, oh, oh why me?' really illustrates how dark of a situation he's in.

The next couple of lines are very reflective, almost looking earlier into the story, an Act Two idea of when things were going good. Talking about 'a dime and nine' It was his every week, referring to the 19 weeks that old town road spent in number one.

The way he closes out this reflection with the statement 'now I can't leave and now I'm acting hella elite' really solidifies that he is in an imprisoned place.... act three of a rebirth plot.

The last few lines of this verse really drive home the idea that there's nothing he can do, it's out of his power. He doesn't want the things that he can have the only ones the things that he has to reach up and chase.

These last couple of lines really drive home the concept of an act four rebirth for me. He has acknowledged that there's nothing he can do against this power.

Montero bridge....

tell me you love me in private.

call me by your name.

I don't care if you're lying.

And what we have here is his complete surrender to the power. He doesn't even care if he's a sidepiece or if he's being lied to.

His complete surrender to the situation provides him solace. And this solace in acceptance relieves them of his conflict. He's essentially rescued from it. (Rebirth Final Driver)

And what we see here something very similar to Rapstar by Polo G. The chorus falls with the main emotion closer to the middle of the arc (act 2)... the more important and climactic moments of a story.

But the rest of the song develops in a very linear fashion from beginning to end. The way we've been telling stories for thousands of years.

#3 Leave The Door Open by Bruno Mars, Anderson Paak & Silk Sonic

Leave the Door Open by Bruno Mars, Anderson Paak and Silk Sonic... number three on the charts....

Verse one...

what you doing? (what you doin?)

Where you at? (where you at?)

Oh, you got plans? (you got plans)

don't say that (shut your trap)

I'm sipping wine (sip, sip) in a robe (drip, drip).

I look too good (look too good) to be alone (woo-woo)

my house clean (house clean) my pool warm (pool warm)

just shaved smooth like a newborn.

we should be dancing, romancin'

in the east wing, and the West Wing

of this mansion was happening.

After reading through this a few times, I came to the conclusion that the song as a whole falls into the first few movements of a tragedy plot.

I'm really glad that we got one of these in the top three to take a close look at because, in a creative art form like songwriting and music, there's really no rules.... and sometimes (often) it's okay to focus on one or two emotions heavily, it can be very effective.

From a plot perspective, what we have lyrically here is the hero being unfulfilled at home and wanting more (1). He finds an object of desire in this girl that he wants to come over (driver). And then we get kind of like a variation or mash-up of two and three, in the fact that he commits to obtaining her (2), but it's kind of going wrong, in the sense that she has plans (3).

Leave the Door Open pre-chorus and chorus.

I ain't playing no games.

every word that I say is coming straight from the heart,

So if you're trying to lay in these arms....

I'ma leave the door open (I'ma leave the door open)

I'ma leave the door open girl (I'ma leave the door open, hopin')

that you feel the way I feel

and you want me like I want you tonight, baby

tell me that you're coming through.

This pre does a really good job of reiterating his internal conflict and how he's going to try to resolve it with one external action in the chorus by leaving the door open.

As we've already seen in Montero, choruses often don't contain any real plot progression. What we have here is just a reiteration of things we already know. That he's committed to obtaining his goal and things aren't really going his way. The same mashup of act two and three that we've already seen.

verse two....

Oh, you're so sweet (so sweet),

so tight (so tight),

I won't bite (ah-ah) unless you like (unless you like),

if you smoke (what you smoke),

I got the haze (purple haze),

And if you're hungry, girl, I got fillets (woo-woo),

or baby don't keep me waiting.

There's so much love we could be making (shamone).

I'm talking kissing and cuddlin'

rose petals in the bathtub,

girl, let's jump in is bubbling.

From a plot perspective, what we get here is really more of the same of what we've already been getting. It's him committing to getting that one thing.... her to come over.

I want to take a second here to really drive home the fact that a plot-driven approach or the fulfillment of a plots needs are not always necessary in this thing that we do.

This type of plot approach I would say is about equally common to having real plot weaved into a song. Where they give you just enough to make that main idea relevant and then just keep pushing against that main idea.

These are some of my favorite songs to really start breaking down because when they move in this way and hit a wall and stop developing from a plot sense.... there is almost always one or two or three other lyrical elements that are being used to really drive home the emotion.

I don't want to go too far down this rabbit hole. That's what the ebook's for because I feel like it takes away from me being able to paint a very clear, concise picture of how you can use this now. That said I'm going to quickly brush over a couple of lyrical elements that I see in this song that in my opinion, really do a great job of keeping our interests and developing the emotion.

Both verses start off with a call and response approach. 'Oh, you're so sweet, so sweet, so tight, so tight.' They then move into a more traditional lyrical delivery with very unstable, both rhyme schemes and line structures (counts). And then the pre and the chorus also utilize the contrast between these lyrical tools.

From a lyrical information perspective, in the first verse, He pretty much focuses on him and what he's doing. While in the second verse, he starts to focus on his love interest.

This type of small variation of subject matter is extremely common in these types of songs.

Writers will often spend one verse talking about you, and then one verse talking about them. Or maybe another verse talking about him or her... saying the same thing basically. Another very common variation that you'll see is they may just move forward in time and reiterate the same points that they've already made.

Bridge....

La-la-la, la-la-la-la (I need you, baby)

La-la-la, la-la-la-la (I gotta see you, baby)

La-la-la, la-la-la-la (girl, I'm tryna give you this)

Ah-ah-ah-ah, ah-ah

Unsurprisingly, we get pretty much the same thing from a plot perspective out of the bridge. He really just reiterates the gravity of his desire.

We've got a couple of things at play here that keep the idea feeling fresh and new moving into the bridge.

For the first time we're receiving the backing vocal upfront. And the main lyrical idea as a response to that. This is all for the first time that we received this call and response relationship and the three-line setting. To top it off, it ends with the most blunt sexual line of the song, creating impact.

Conclusion

Now I have zero idea if these artists are considering these things when they're writing these songs. I do know that there has been plenty of artists that openly admit to taking this type of approach, not only towards single songs, but for larger story arcs over whole albums.

Whether these artists were thinking that way or not, we can heavily see the presence of these elements in these songs. They are the building blocks of a good story, whether we know we're using them or not.

Now that we have an understanding of all of the basic plots we have at our disposal, and we've seen how they apply to songs.... let's take a look at how to develop these ideas in our own writing.

The writing tactics portion that covers how to utilize this paradigm in our own writing is available for free at the link below.

When you opt-in you will receive instant access to the rest of this introductory coursework as well as:

• The Elements of lyricism e-book. All the fundamentals we should consider in a writing session.

• 14 free for-profit chill & trap beats with YT-ready animated videos for you to practice the writing approach on.

• The basic plots PDF's featured here as well as the interactive writing cheatsheets for the rest of the class.

• A detailed lesson plan to help you cement this into your toolbox.

• 9 plot-focused writing prompts designed to fit the mood of the tracks and provided videos.

• and more!

If you enjoyed this lesson bookmark this site as I'll be releasing more classes that dive deeper into this thought process. Through the rest of 2021 I will be diving deep into application of other traditional story elements we can consider as we analyze a hit concept album and then apply what we learn to writing a plot driven 4 song EP!