Form

Form in pop songs are very standard. You have a verse, a chorus, and maybe a bridge. But it can be fun to look at what the top of the charts do that may be different. 

Stitches

Stitches by Shawn Mendez is very simple and basic. The ingredients are: Verse which is either reflective or telling some sort of story, Chorus which emphasizes the main point and is really catchy(the part that always gets stuck in your head), and bridge which is a catch phrase repeated over and over. These ingredients are done in a certain order that goes like this, verse- chorus- verse- chorus-bridge-chorus. Stitches follows this form exactly without any change. This is what we are use to hearing in pop songs so Stitches is following the successful form without trying something new. Personally I like to be surprised when an artist does something new, but at the same time I find this song oddly catchy so it doesn’t bother me.
Verse1: 0:25
Pre Chorus: 0:53
Chorus: 1:06
Verse 2: 1:33
Pre Chorus: 1:58
Chorus: 2:10
Bridge: 2:42
Chorus to close: 3:07

Drink You Away

Drink You Away by Justin Timberlake follows the same form as stitches but with mild differences. The basic format of this song is Verse- Chorus- Verse- Bridge- Chorus- Part of the Chorus- Full Chorus. Something that is interesting though, is each section (verse and chorus), is divided into two sections. The second half of the verse can actually work as a pre-chorus because it is building in intensity and has the same lyrics every time. This “Pre-Chorus” section starts with the words, “I feel it in the morning.” After that, the chorus comes in with the very catchy, “I’ve tried Jack, I’ve tried Jim, I’ve tried all of his friends, I can’t drink you away.” The second half of the chorus is when the lyrics are, “Now tell me baby, don’t they make a medicine for heart break.” I separate these two parts because the second half sounds like it is winding down from the upbeat chorus. This is interesting because it creates an over all flow of the song without sudden jumps from verse to chorus.
The bridge is exactly the same as in Stitches: A catchy phrase repeated over and over with some vocal expressivity.

In general JT follows a very basic form, but at the end changes it around. He also uses different “sections” to each verse and chorus to create a flow between verse, chorus, and back to the verse which is interesting an makes complete sense.
Verse 1: 0:19
Chorus: 0:55
Verse 2: 1:35
Chorus: 2:13
Bridge: 2:56
Chorus 3:30

Sorry

Justin Beiber follows the same form… kinda. The most interesting thing Justin Beiber does is uses “Ahs” to connect between each section and the same “Ahs” are played on top of the chorus and bridge. (See motive post). Another thing that Justin Bieber does is he repeats some things. For example his form is: Verse- Verse- PreChorus- Chorus- Verse- Pre chorus- Pre Chorus- Bridge- Chorus. It almost would threw me off when the pre chorus was played twice before the bridge. It was totally unexpected and in my opinion unnecessary. I didn’t quite understand why he chose to do that.  Another interesting thing I noticed was that I found myself recognizing the pre chorus rather than the actual chorus because there were more lyrics to the pre chorus. Honestly I didn’t find the chorus to be all that interesting, the word sorry gets old after a while, but he made up for it by having an interesting pre chorus.
Verse: 0:09
Pre Chorus: 0:48
Chorus: 1:06
Verse2: 1:30
Pre Chorus: 1:51
Pre Chorus again: 2:10
Chorus (twice): 2:32

Hello

Adele is very unique in how she uses this “Pop Form.” The basic form for Hello is: Verse, Verse, Chorus, Verse, Chorus, Bridge, Chorus, Chorus. She, like Beiber, has two verses at the beginning of the song. But she also has a chorus that could actually be seen as two choruses repeated. This is why it gets stuck in your head so fast because each time you hear the chorus you hear the same music twice! Her Bridge is quite different than normal though. She doesn’t have some catch phrase that repeats, but is showing off her vocals on vowels. So in general she follows the exact same form as everyone else but emphasizes the chorus way more often than most and changes up the purpose of the bridge.
Verse: 1:19 (verse 2sih: 1:46)
Chorus: 2:20
Chorus... 2: 2:45
Verse 2: 3:14
Chorus: 3:51
Bridge: 4:42
Chorus to close: 5:05

Like I'm Gonna Lose You

Meghan Trainor also uses the basic form but each time the verse or chorus comes back she changes something up. For example the first verse and sung by her, while the second verse is sung by John Legend. The first chorus is her solo, the second chorus is both together, and the third chorus is highly embellished on both vocal parts. So even though she is using the exact same form precisely she is making it interesting by doing something different each time. This is fun to listen to because you can always tell which verse you are on depending on who is singing and how embellished it is. Meghan Trainor also uses a prechorus but it is hard to spot because it sounds like part of the verse. I hardly even want to call it a pre chorus but it does come back in between the verse and chorus every time so I'll probably call it a pre chorus.
Another interesting thing Trainor does is she doesn't have a typical bridge (catchy phrases repeated over and over...). But instead the instruments solo for a little bit.

Overall I find this one of the more exiting songs to listen to as far as form goes because  it is slowly increasing intensity each time it enters a new section.
Verse: 0:05
Pre Chorus: 0:32
Chorus: 0:43
Verse: 1:23
Pre Chorus: 1:52
Chorus: 2:03
Instrumental Bridge: 2:44
Chorus: 2:50

In general the form of pop songs is very basic and just listening through a song once it doesn't sound very interesting. But sometimes an artist will change it up a bit (not too crazy though!) and it is fun to catch those small differences. 

~Becca