{"id":216,"date":"2009-12-07T15:43:40","date_gmt":"2009-12-07T23:43:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/irenejackson.com\/songblog\/?p=216"},"modified":"2012-11-09T15:18:35","modified_gmt":"2012-11-09T23:18:35","slug":"songs-that-break-the-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/irenejackson.com\/songblog\/songs-that-break-the-rules\/","title":{"rendered":"Songs That Break The Rules"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><center><\/p>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!--\ngoogle_ad_client = \"ca-pub-9055632105156461\";\n\/* Half Banner for Blogs *\/\ngoogle_ad_slot = \"8550216682\";\ngoogle_ad_width = 234;\ngoogle_ad_height = 60;\n\/\/-->\n<\/script><br \/>\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"\nsrc=\"http:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/show_ads.js\">\n<\/script><\/p>\n<p><\/center><br \/>\nAs soon as we start using the word &#8220;rules&#8221;, a lot of songwriters coil in disgust at the thought of having to conform to anything.\u00a0 So actually, I wrote that title to grab your attention in a negative way, but at least I know I&#8217;ve probably got your attention :-).<\/p>\n<div class=\"zemanta-img\" style=\"margin: 1em; display: block;\">\n<div>\n<dl class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"width: 250px;\">\n<dt class=\"wp-caption-dt\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/10533549@N08\/4011469179\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"New Discovery!  Silicone Molds...I'm hooked!\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3636\/4011469179_d18f20e557_m.jpg\" alt=\"New Discovery!  Silicone Molds...I'm hooked!\" width=\"240\" height=\"180\" \/><\/a><\/dt>\n<dd class=\"wp-caption-dd zemanta-img-attribution\" style=\"font-size: 0.8em;\">Image by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/10533549@N08\/4011469179\">HA! Designs &#8211; Artbyheather<\/a> via Flickr<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The examples of songs I&#8217;m going to present in this article simply jump out of the mold, so to speak, and do things that aren&#8217;t conventional, but still work.\u00a0 In some cases, they are subtle, in others, not so.<\/p>\n<p>My first example is of a song that breaks out of the song form mold.\u00a0 It&#8217;s a song by <a type=\"amzn\">Sheryl Crow<\/a> called <a type=\"amzn\">Soak Up The Sun<\/a>.\u00a0 Here is a rather standard song form, where &#8220;A&#8221; is the verse, &#8220;B&#8221; is the chorus and &#8220;C&#8221; is the bridge:<\/p>\n<p>A A B A B C B<\/p>\n<p>There are many variations of course,\u00a0 but while Sheryl&#8217;s song starts out pretty standard, with an intro, verse, chorus and then another verse, but she changes it around and instead of repeating the chorus, she throws in a bridge first.\u00a0\u00a0 She goes back to the chorus and then another verse, but throws in the bridge again before the next chorus.\u00a0 So her song form looks something like this:<\/p>\n<p>A A B A C B A C B<\/p>\n<p>Below this article is a player where you can have a listen, it&#8217;s a great song worth listening to anyway.<\/p>\n<div>\n<center><\/p>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!--\ngoogle_ad_client = \"ca-pub-9055632105156461\";\n\/* Half Banner for Blogs *\/\ngoogle_ad_slot = \"8550216682\";\ngoogle_ad_width = 234;\ngoogle_ad_height = 60;\n\/\/-->\n<\/script><br \/>\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"\nsrc=\"http:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/show_ads.js\">\n<\/script><\/p>\n<p><\/center><\/p>\n<p> The <a type=\"amzn\">Beatles<\/a> were notorious for breaking all kinds of &#8220;rules&#8221; and still having huge hits.\u00a0 They loved to throw in an odd chord change or <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Time signature\" rel=\"wikipedia\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Time_signature\">time signature<\/a> change, and their lyrics were often off the beaten track.\u00a0 I&#8217;m sure the haze of drugs had something to do with that :-).\u00a0 As an example, here is <a type=\"amzn\">All You Need Is Love<\/a>.\u00a0 Have a listen below and just try counting the time signature and you&#8217;ll see what I mean.<\/div>\n<div>\nAlso below is what some might consider a &#8220;novelty&#8221; song, but it was written by a prolific songwriter named <a type=\"amzn\">Harry Nilsson<\/a>.\u00a0 This song was #8 on the <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Billboard (magazine)\" rel=\"homepage\" href=\"http:\/\/www.billboard.com\/\">Billboard<\/a> Charts in 1971 and what makes it unique is the fact that it has only one chord.\u00a0 The bass alternates, but essentially it sits on the same chord for the entire song, letting the story in the lyrics take the main stage.\u00a0 It&#8217;s called &#8220;<a type=\"amzn\">Coconut<\/a>&#8220;:<\/div>\n<p>These are only three examples where breaking out of the mold works very successfully, and I&#8217;m sure you can think of some others on your own.\u00a0 If you do, post them here!<\/p>\n<p>And, remember, you don&#8217;t have to write like anybody else \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<p><center><object width=\"320\" height=\"265\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7ivz7cqXHKc\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/r4p8qxGbpOk\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/aA9OqUuA6a0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><noscript>&amp;lt;A HREF=&#8221;http:\/\/ws.amazon.ca\/widgets\/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&amp;amp;MarketPlace=CA&amp;amp;ID=V20070822%2FCA%2Firenjackssong-20%2F8005%2Fe86cb190-34e5-4511-b3da-c868614c2e1e&amp;amp;Operation=NoScript&#8221;&amp;gt;Amazon.ca Widgets&amp;lt;\/A&amp;gt;<\/noscript><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As soon as we start using the word &#8220;rules&#8221;, a lot of songwriters coil in disgust at the thought of having to conform to anything.\u00a0 So actually, I wrote that title to grab your attention in a negative way, but at least I know I&#8217;ve probably got your attention :-). Image by HA! Designs &#8211; [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,41,47,6,3],"tags":[146,166,318,320,104,68,49],"class_list":["post-216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lyrics","category-muses-news","category-music","category-opinion","category-welcome","tag-art","tag-billboard","tag-lyrics","tag-music","tag-sheryl-crow","tag-song","tag-songwriter"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/prwoq-3u","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/irenejackson.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/irenejackson.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/irenejackson.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/irenejackson.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/irenejackson.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/irenejackson.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/irenejackson.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/irenejackson.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/irenejackson.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}