What’s the definition of a hit song? DJ Euphonik asks. Earlier on this week, Euphonik received a tweet from an upcoming musician who had asked the DJ to listen to their “hit” song, this then leads to Euphonik asking what the definition of a hit song is, as he receives a lot of demos that are labelled as hits.
An individual whom we believe has a good ear when it comes to music is DJ Euphonik.
The man has released a number of hit songs himself and has probably figured out the musical recipe of what makes a hit song, even though at some point he probably didn’t consider some of his songs to be hits until he released songs to the public.
What's the definition of a hit song? 😕🤔 90% of the demos I get sent are lableled "new hit".
— Euphonik™♛ (@euphonik) December 10, 2018
So to answer Euphonik’s question of what constitutes a hits song, here’s a formula that has been followed by many songwriters who have either made or attempted to write a hit song.
A hit song is usually 3 to 5 minutes long:
Always take into consideration how long your song will be, but this duration is up for debate, after-all we have House songs that are well over 7 minutes.
Song structure:
This is another crucial element to consider when writing or producing a song that you would like to be a hit.
The song structure also includes a number of sub-structures that make it become a successful hit song. These sub-structures include the hook, melody, beat, riff, call and response and lead.
As you can see, there are many elements that are involved in making a hit song, it is a topic that can go on for days on end. But then again, sometimes the true definition of a hit song depends on how the public responds to that particular music.
There have been many stories about how an artist excluded a particular song from their album as they did not believe that the song was worthy enough to be a hit or to even be on their album.
However, after much deliberation with their producers and other songwriters involved in making the album, the black-listed song then eventually makes the cut and surprisingly becomes one of the most popular songs on the album.
So yes, the topic of what makes a hit song is quite tricky and sometimes unpredictable but following a certain formula does sometimes guarantee a hit song.
We hope we’ve answered your question as best as we can DJ Euphonik.
Source: ZAlebs