The best songs highlight their titles with choice words peppered throughout the entire lyric. It’s a great way to reinforce the point of the song, both directly and at a more subtle level.
Supporting (or ‘weighting’) your title boosts the impact of your song on the whole. Listeners enter a microcosm the song’s created, and are held there by linguistic choices the songwriter has made. This keeps us connected to the emotional transformation provided by the song.
Check how Olivia Rodrigo and her co-writer/producer Dan Nigro supported the title of their smash hit, drivers license, with their strategic, deliberate choice of words: one of very few chart-topping songs that don’t have a titular chorus, drivers license has its title reinforced with consistent language cues throughout the lyrics. Listeners are given specific sense-bound details from a suite of imagery, like an artist’s palette, that relate to the title.
This conjures what the singer sees and hears, ultimately leading us to what the singer feels. In this case, 'drivers license' links a classic teenage rite of passage – getting your license – with the sorrow and hurt of a bittersweet break up. Got the license, yay, but lost the love – ouch!
This type of word selection in lyric development has been described as writing in a particular ‘word key.’ Much like certain notes are related within a musical key, certain words are connected within a song’s topic or metaphor. Here’s how 'drivers license' uses the technique:
Firstly, although the song’s title isn’t in the chorus, it does appear in another very important spot for any song: the opening line. This is a useful alternative to setting up your song’s title; as a first-line impression.
Secondly, the first verse and the chorus both repeat various forms of the verb ‘to drive’ (drive, drove, driving) and marries it with different locations the singer is going to without the ex-lover. (“Up to your house,” “through the suburbs,” “alone past your street,”). Verbs are powerhouse words within songs. By hearing the verb repeated – and especially with variation of form – we are under no illusion what the singer is doing.
Thirdly, there’s a cool connection with a visual internal rhyme between “drove” and “love,” neatly tying the poignancy of getting the license but having no one to share it with. Subtle, but further support for the title.
Fourthly, in the bridge, the imagery (and title reinforcement) is really cranked with all the things (nouns) one sees when driving around: “red lights,” “stop signs,” “white cars,” “front yards,” “sidewalks we crossed,” and the things one hears: “your voice in the traffic.” The bridge also uses the repeated verb differently in a new context because the singer “can’t drive past the places we used to go.” It’s a terrific new spin and further develops the metaphor.
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The final chorus has another tweak with a further repetition but this time it’s a whole line: “now I drive alone past your street.” Much anticipated, but it’s a hollow victory.
These word choices are cumulative and combine to underscore the title by repetition of a relevant verb (drive), repetition of that verb in variations, repetition of the closing line (now I drive alone down your street) and using sense-based imagery to relay the places the singer sees and the sounds she hears.
All these choices keep us experiencing (or easily able to imagine or remember) what the singer feels, just as if we’re in the car with her.
To apply this to your next song, try brainstorming a collection of related words (or phrases) that directly connect to your song’s title. Then see what happens as you construct the lyric, whether any of them could illuminate different facets of the song’s idea to support the core message held in the title of your song.
drivers license
I got my driver's license last week
Just like we always talked about
'Cause you were so excited for me
To finally drive up to your house
But today I drove through the suburbs
Cryin' 'cause you weren't around
And you're probably with that blonde girl
Who always made me doubt
She's so much older than me
She's everything I'm insecure about
Yeah, today I drove through the suburbs
'Cause how could I ever love someone else?
And I know we weren't perfect but I've never felt this way for no one
And I just can't imagine how you could be so okay now that I'm gone
Guess you didn't mean what you wrote in that song about me
'Cause you said forever, now I drive alone past your street
And all my friends are tired
Of hearing how much I miss you, but
I kinda feel sorry for them
'Cause they'll never know you the way that I do, yeah
Today I drove through the suburbs
And pictured I was driving home to you
And I know we weren't perfect
But I've never felt this way for no one, oh
And I just can't imagine how you could be so okay now that I'm gone
I guess you didn't mean what you wrote in that song about me
'Cause you said forever, now I drive alone past your street
Red lights, stop signs
I still see your face in the white cars, front yards
Can't drive past the places we used to go to
'Cause I still f*ckin' love you, babe (ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh)
Sidewalks we crossed
I still hear your voice in the traffic, we're laughing
Over all the noise
God, I'm so blue, know we're through
But I still f*ckin' love you, babe (ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh)
I know we weren't perfect but I've never felt this way for no one
And I just can't imagine how you could be so okay now that I'm gone
'Cause you didn't mean what you wrote in that song about me
'Cause you said forever, now I drive alone past your street
Yeah, you said forever, now I drive alone past your street
source: Lyrics on Demand
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Charlotte Yates is an independent New Zealand singer-songwriter with a growing catalogue of seven solo releases and fourteen collaborative projects. She also provides a songwriting coaching service, Songdoctor.
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