Elements of a hooky Chorus

[johnS]

OK you've heard the opening riff and you've chugged through two verses. Now comes the chorus--the biggest, coolest, most hook-filled part of the song!

What are your favorite strategies for making the chorus jump out and grab em?

Sure the drummer does a big fill then bashes the cymbals more, and you double up on the guitars, but is that enough?

What do you do in terms of arrangement and instrumentation?

What does the singer do?

Are there things you do right before the chorus to make the change even more dramatic/powerful?

[GearJunkie]

I usually just find a Ray Charles hook, plop it in there and then wait for my clothing endorsement deals.

[Chaorta]

Originally Posted by GearJunkie

I usually just find a Ray Charles hook, plop it in there and then wait for my clothing endorsement deals.

Puff Daddy is that you?!

[dagosto]

Transposing to the relative minor/major of the key is an easy pseudo-sophisticated trick.

[Bellringer]

Well you want to complete the thought that the verse is beating around the bush about or you want to shout out something that will attach itself to the listeners mind and the more times you can repeat a simple hypnotic phrase the better the chance this will stick in peoples minds (see Foo Fighters). You see it's a marketing trick. Everything is these days. If you can get something stuck in someones head, hopefully they will be hypnotized to buy. The other thing that can happen is you can drive them crazy with the repetition and they will avoid your song so they don't have to hear it.
So your chorus partially depends on your artistic integrity, your attitude toward marketing, or your passion to just rock out.
A few of my better songs don't even have a chorus. Sometimes vs. ch. vs. formula just gets too predictable. So do what you do and listen to it over and over. If you can imagine playing it night after night for people with a smile then you might have a good chorus/song. Or you might be insane.

[smopo24]

quiet/loud/quiet/loud; nirvanna rules! yea.....

[lukedavo]

I try not to get set into a pattern, alot of the best choruses I've written are ussually leftovers. Sometimes the best verses can be used as choruses, and vice versa. There is no set way or formula that I've found, that works every time. It is important in my opinon that the song has meaning or else it just becomes bland non-emotional 3 min borefest.

[mikegee]

i like contrast in my choruses, take the song out on a limb, shake it, keep it short and sweet, and jump right back to the trunk of another verse, or open the parachute and jump right into a bridge yeeeehawwww!

[johnS]

Or you could do like Malkmus and just announce that we're coming to the chorus now.

[mikegee]

haha! i like how he does that, but it is just so obvious! i like his song construction, it has a real "spontaneous" feel to it, IMHO