Creating a Song Title

Creating a song title can be a daunting prospect. The empty page looms before you, filling you with it's nothingness, draining you of every creative thought you've ever had and branding them cheesy.

The best solution is of course to write, but write what?

This article introduces the basics of creating a song title, and the purposes that song titles should fulfill.


Purposes Of A Song Title

Song titles have to fulfill a number of purposes. Ideally they should

• Be Evocative
• Be Interesting
• Be Memorable
• Arouse Curiosity
• Hint at Something Original
• Refer to Something Universal
• Not Reveal Everything
  
• Be Imaginative
• Use a Small Amount of Words (5 0r less if possible)
• Be Reflected in the Main Lyrics Hook (depending on genre and perspective)
  

This is difficult to achieve in 5 words or less!


Brainstorming Title Ideas

For all your title should ideally fulfill all of the above, don’t think too much about coming up with the perfect title. Once you have your topic come up with several draft titles by brainstorming, work out what you like, what you don't like, why one works and another doesn't etc

There are various brainstorming techniques you can use including:

Lists

Write down long lists of nouns and adjectives, mix them up to create word pairs. Same goes for verb-verb and noun-noun pairs. Select ones you like to develop or to help take your word lists in new directions.

Research Other Media

Read online articles, newspaper articles, magazine articles etc to generate base ingredients of titles and song lyrics. Researching other media for songwriting suggestions is described here in detail

Prose On A Topic

This is a technique I sometimes use. I select a topic I am interested in writing a song about. I then proceed to write free flowing text on that topic, exploring the emotions and emotional perspectives, scenarios and conclusions. I then use that text to create phrases and word pairs as the seed to creating a title.


Creating The Title

Using words and phrases you’ve written down and that appeal to you (selected from your trusty notebook or from brainstorming exercises like those described above) combine them to create a phrase that reflects the premise of your song.

To select the best for purpose, try measuring it against the checklist of purposes a title needs to fulfill near the top of this article. Depending on genre and other factors some may be more or less important, but each should at least be considered.

This at least gives you one or more working titles to choose from. Not only do you have the title but you also have some phrases you can use in your song, a better idea of the theme, a fuller idea of the message you want to send, and perhaps your chorus hook.

Now that wasn't too difficult was it?