Lyrics
Lyrics are the words sung or spoken in a song, considered separately from its music. They can convey narrative, emotion, ideas, or sound patterns.
Prosody: The patterns of stress, rhythm, and intonation in speech and verse. Lyrics fit spoken stress and phrasing to musical rhythm and melody.
Song structure: The arrangement of sections such as verses, choruses, and bridges within a song. Section placement determines when lyric ideas recur or develop.
Storytelling song: A song whose lyrics narrate events, characters, or a sequence of actions. Narrative lyrics turn a song into a compressed story.
Instrumental music: Music performed without a sung or spoken vocal part. It conveys musical ideas without lyrics.
Lyric poetry: Poetry that presents a speaker’s thoughts or feelings, often in a musical or songlike mode. The shared name reflects a long exchange between song and poetry.
Rhyme: A correspondence of sounds, usually at the ends of words or lines. Repeated end sounds give many lyric lines structure and memorability.
Melody: A sequence of pitches perceived as a coherent musical line. Melody carries syllables through pitch, contour, and phrase length.
Protest song: A song that expresses opposition to political, social, or economic conditions. Lyrics can make a grievance memorable and shareable.
Vocalise: A vocal composition or passage sung on vowels or syllables without words. It uses the human voice while leaving semantic lyrics aside.
Broadside ballad: A topical song printed on a single sheet for public sale and circulation. Printed lyrics helped songs spread beyond live performance.