Hair band song structure

[mollyringle]

I heard Aerosmith's "Angel" on the radio today--a favorite of mine when I was in high school, I admit with some blushing. In fact, I listened to Aerosmith, Poison, Bon Jovi, and similar bands so nearly-exclusively that for a while I thought all rock songs were required to follow this structure or they'd get disqualified somehow:

Verse
Chorus
Verse
Chorus
Guitar solo
Bridge
Chorus (repeat and fade out)

I had to undergo something of a mental shift when I later encountered pop songs that didn't have a bridge or a guitar solo, or any instrument solo at all; and that simply ended the song instead of fading out. Imagine such innovation!

Comments

[travels-in-time.livejournal.com]

...there are structures other than that? *is dumbfounded*

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

Who knew, right?

Now that I think of it, the Monkees and Beatles used that structure a lot too, before branching out into their psychedelic phases.

[travels-in-time.livejournal.com]

And most contemporary Christian. And country!

Well, country is prone to this structure too:

--verse about childhood
--chorus
--verse about adulthood/love/marriage
--chorus
--verse about death/heaven (verse about having kids may be used instead. Odd that those two are interchangeable.)
--chorus

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

Hehehe. Awesome. That last verse might also feature prison...

[polygonia.livejournal.com]

Dir en grey doesn't even always follow formulas like that. Their lead guitarist said he doesn't really like guitar solos.
Sometimes they will do
verse
chorus
really cool part
verse
bridge
verse
chorus

or whatever. They are such an awesome band. They'll sometimes end a song abrutly or fade out with stylish guitars on one song
i really like that band too much.

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

I'd probably have loved them in my heavy metal phase. :)

[narniadear.livejournal.com]

Oh my gosh. You have a Monkees icon. *dies of fangirly goodness*

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

*high five for Monkee fandom*

They were probably my first big fandom, in fact. Reruns on Nickelodeon in the '80s, you know.

[(Anonymous)]

Anything that doesn't go
Chorus
Verse
Chorus
Guitar solo
Bridge
Chorus (repeat and fade out)
isnt a Rock song. It may be a ditty, but it's not a song.
Tracey

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

Hee. I may have inadvertently posted fightin' words! :)

The pattern does fit most rock songs. But what about several by, say, Led Zeppelin, The Who, or the Beatles, when they were all getting experimental and different? Surely they were still rock songs?

[naill-renfro.livejournal.com]

Brave, very brave.

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I need to administer humility checks to myself. It's the former Catholic in me, I guess.