In songwriting, the chorus is the section that’s identically (or almost identically) repeated several times throughout the song. It’s sometimes called the refrain of a song, though the term refrain can also refer to any line or series of lines that regularly repeat in a song.
Due to its repetition, the chorus of a song tends to stand out in a listener’s memory more than any other. For this reason it’s important to ensure that a chorus bears repetition and contains material central to the meaning, mood, or story of the song.
There are no rules on what can or can’t be used in a chorus section, but here are some observations based on western pop music:
- The title of a song usually appears on a very prominent line of the chorus, such as the first or the last line of the section–sometimes both.
- In western pop music, the chorus melody tends to use a higher range of pitches than the verses. It’s also louder, may modulate into a different key, and may use a different rhythm than the verse sections.
- It captures the essence of the song idea, crystallizing it. If you want to know what a song’s all about, listen to the chorus.
- The lyric in a chorus section tends to be ambiguous so that each verse of the song can shade the chorus with different contextual meanings. One clever example is the Nashville classic “Don’t Take the Girl.”
