mjn | bass

Adam Schlesinger rockin' the Thunderbird

I was just flipping through a recent issue of Playback (ASCAP’s member magazine), and I was taken by the answer given by Adam Schlesinger (Fountains of Wayne, Ivy, Tinted Windows) to the question “is there a formula for writing a great hook?”

I don’t really know how to define a great hook, but you know it when you hear it. I do think that repetition is the key to hookiness and almost anything can become a hook if you repeat it enough times. When I’m working on a song, sometimes I think, “What part of this song would someone sing to someone else if they were asking them if they knew it?” That part is the hook.

I really like the last part of that quote. “The part that someone would sing to someone else…”. That’s a nice way of thinking about it, and gives the songwriter something slightly more tangible on the journey to “hookiness”. I’m going to remember that one.

How would you describe what makes a great hook?