is it just me, or is true that in most mainstream, verse-chorus songs, there is a bridge, which seems like a good idea to break up the repetition, and yet, the bridge always sucks. what pop songs have great bridges? what rock songs, even? when are you like "yes! the bridge!" ok maybe in a james brown song, or if it's your favorite guitar soloist or something... but so, so often, it's just like"oh. yeah. that part." supposed to be a climactic point, seems like it should and could be and yet never is. never delivers.

i find it funny how on police songs like "when the whole world is running down..." and "synchronicity ii", the bridge is barely any different -- they just fade in a hum or add a little reverb. it actually works better in a way.

You have to do it right. A lot of people just get lazy and throw in a bridge because oh, that's what you're supposed to do. No, fuck that. A bridge has to move, and move somewhere.

I love when James Brown has a bridge, they hype it up for thirty seconds, and it's just a chord change.

my favorite song structure is verse-chorus-verse-chorus-BRIDGE and never came back. so, perhaps, it´s not really a bridge, it´s just another part altogether.
and there are good bridges, but some 'average' ones, just work to do some tension for the last chorus, and that´s ok.
sugar´s 'the slim' has a great small bridge. hefner´s 'good fruit', good too.

I voted Crap, as a bridge is such a dull tool to use in a song structure. It's been used so many times before, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but you get sick of it after a while.

Why not just come up with another verse?

Lazy.

I prefer the middle eight.

trilonaut wrote:
i find it funny how on police songs like "when the whole world is running down..." and "synchronicity ii", the bridge is barely any different -- they just fade in a hum or add a little reverb.

Also "Sexyback"

chairman_hall wrote:I voted Crap, as a bridge is such a dull tool to use in a song structure. It's been used so many times before, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but you get sick of it after a while.

Why not just come up with another verse?

Lazy.

Because just coming up with another verse is the lazy move, you knopper. Like we want to hear the verse four fucking times? A good bridge can really "move" the song elsewhere, as Antero said. And, you still might hear another verse anyway. Bonus!

Yeah, why would you write another verse? That's just asking for trouble - too much repetition can destroy even the best compositions. "Lily, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts" would be completely intolerable if the lyrics weren't so interesting.

I'm fond of verse-chorus-bridge-verse-chorus. A perfectly constructed pop hook that only repeats a few times is an incredibly strong pull, makes you want to hit rewind. If you don't need a bridge, keep it short and to the point.

Jose Luis Perales wrote:my favorite song structure is verse-chorus-verse-chorus-BRIDGE and never came back. so, perhaps, it´s not really a bridge, it´s just another part altogether.

That's called a coda.

Generally, Pop music sucks for bridges. I can't really name one that I liked. Tool has some great bridges, making the song better. Not all songs warrant the use of bridges, but some can really be good if they're done well.