Do you consciously try to make your lyrics rhyme ?

Whatever works yo get to the next line. If it rhymes or not is not that important to me but 9 times out of 10 it usually does.
 
rayc said:
I must have snooty written all over me - but then again I am a rhyming snob. For me perfect rhyming falls over when the writer doesn't really understand the correct meaning or syntax of the word. That's often the case with songs written/sung in English by non native speakers: Abba were the most famous though not always most obvious exponents of this. Not always the case though - & becoming less so. It's has also become more common with native speakers who raid rhyming dictionaries with only a glance at the Pocket Collins afterward or when Lou Reed rhymes vial & vile.
Sweeny Todd is great writing - and the cube performance from the mid 80's was it's peak for me.
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WORD RAY C. I'm a bit of a primitive. I just don't get Todd Sweeny. I'm not even sure why it's considered to be great. To me it just seems to have a lot of shit in it that is completely unnecessary to tell the story. That said, I do like Tod Sweeny. I like it for the blood, guts and gore. To me it comes off as a snooty way to glorify things I would like anyway. So, for me it's more comical than serious writing. Is it supposed to be a comedy? I guess it's a dark slap-stick comedy. They made the damn thing so goofy yet so serious and snooty at the same time. :)
 
The flow is much more important I think. However, as you already mentioned, rhyming became so wide spread that in today's music it is hard to avoid.
 
Yes, almost always. I use online rhyming dictionaries a lot when I am stuck.... sometimes a near rhyme is as close as you can get...like sheet and beach....both have the long E.
 
In most of my songs the lyrics have no meaning at all. To me it is the sound of the words and the associations evoked by words and phrases which matters. This can complement the music very well. And for me rhyme is an important part of it. Rhyme gives a feeling of completeness to the music.`
 
No and yes. I just write what I want to say, then move on to making it lyrics. Why all my lyrics are so wordy and I rarely have set choruses, I guess.
 
dobro said:
I consciously aim at near-rhymes sometimes. I like taking words that don't really rhyme but are sorta similar and bending the second one so it sounds like the first. The brain's clocking the meaning of the second word, but the ear's hearing the sound of the first word.
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Yup. This is what I try to do too. I prefer near-rhymes to rhymes.
 
Lyrics aren't poems. Sometimes rhyme is really important, other times concise meaning is more important. My personal tastes lead me to believe that predictability is something to be avoided. Rhymes can be too predictable.

I guess it depends.
 
Supercreep said:
My personal tastes lead me to believe that predictability is something to be avoided. Rhymes can be too predictable.
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Maybe, but there's also something to be said for when exactly what you'd expect happens, especially when it feels good.. Or establishing a pattern to set up the listener's expectations, then breaking it.. maybe just once.

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"Freedom is free of the need to be free." -Funkadelic
 
I usually do. The trick is to know when not to rhyme, which makes a particular line stand out more. Not sure if that can be taught.

EDIT: In other words, what above poster said ^
 
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