Subject Of My Song ~ What Is It? Songwriters, Welcome to Song Tip Tuesday. My song tips are a way for you to think about your songwriting in different ways. They guide you to focus on a particular part of the craft of songwriting. They are free and for you to use. Today's song tip is a question that all songwriters should ask of the song they are writing: What is the subject of my song? What is my song about? Songs can be about any subject: animals, sports, science, politics, social issues, people, products, events, and of course the subject of love. Regardless of the subject, the basic rule of thumb is that a song should be about one subject. Why? Because the basic pop song form isn't very large and, for the most part, can't handle more than one subject's worth of information. Too many words, not enough space. A song succeeds when the listener can quickly hear what the song is trying to communicate. Think about it this way. A song is made up of between 16 and 36 lines of lyric, with the CHORUS taking up perhaps four lines that usually repeat multiple times, leaving you only a few extra lines of lyric to work with. A song is not a dissertation. It is a focused emotional communication. You can write a song about more than one subject, but a likely response from a listener will be confusion. They will zone out. Songs about more than one subject often fail to create a strong HOOK because the listener is not sure what the song is asking them to feel or remember. Here is a very basic example: A song is about a relationship breaking up, which is established in VERSE 1. Then VERSE 2 speaks about finding a new love. Yes, they are closely related, but losing a love and finding a new love are two different feelings and two different subjects. In fact, they are two different categories of love songs. Subject one is a lost-my-love song. Subject two is a found-a-new-love song. When a song tries to do both, the emotional focus can become blurred. Suggestions 1. Tell one story, not many. Describe one moment, not many. Ask the question: What is the subject of my song? What is my song about? 2. If you sense that your song isn't focused in any way, ask the quest