Know your theme.

I was listening to Waiting On A Miracle from the Encanto soundtrack, and it got me thinking about the thematicism of songwriting as a whole.

In contrast to the rest of the songs in the soundtrack, Waiting On A Miracle was written in 3/4, symbolizing the divide between the Main Character and the rest of her family. This is great songwriting on Lin Manuel Miranda’s part, and it has me look for more songs with similarly subtle storytelling.

Which led me to two songs, Mr. Brightside by The Killers, and Day ‘n’ Nite by Kid Cudi.

An absolute classic that somehow holds up 20 years later, Mr. Brightside is a song written by The Killers.

The switch from the monotone verse to a much more melodic pre-chorus, the repetition breaking in the second verse, the unfinished melodic resolution of the song, it tells the story of getting over unresolved feelings.

I recommend watching 12tone’s video on Mr. Brightside. It goes into the deep music theory and thematicism of the song and it explains it better than I could.

Day ‘n’ Nite is a hip hop song written by Kid Cudi.

Rapping over a stripped down beat, Kid Cudi lyrically describes depression, and the way of coping from depression. What makes it a great track is that the theme isn’t explicitly shown through direct statements. It’s dripfeeding you throughout the entire track, with natural dialogue from an inside perspective, switching to an outside perspective.

If you want to go through the lyrics and see the meaning behind it, check the Genius page on the song.

All in all, knowing your theme, and knowing how to present it is extremely useful in writing a great song.