Subjects for Songs: Come Up With The Best Topics for Your Lyrics

To many songwriters, having a theme gives their piece purpose. In this article, together we’ll dive into some of the most common subjects for songs, and provide popular examples of each category. I’ll also give you some ideas for more complex emotional themes, and ways to level up your game lyrically. 

Coming Up With Themes 

To many songwriters, having a theme gives their piece purpose. In this article, together we’ll dive into some of the most common subjects for songs, and provide popular examples of each category. I’ll also give you some ideas for more complex emotional themes, and ways to level up your game lyrically. 

Let’s get inspired! Here are some ideas and prompts from The Rap Coach to nip writer's block in the bud before it ever begins.

Common Subjects for Songs

As The Rap Coach was going down his list, you might have noticed something. Most of the ideas fell into these 4 categories:

• Sad Songs

• Love Songs

• Religious Songs

• Happy Songs

Next we’ll look at some popular examples. I’ll also give you a handful of tricks along the way. 

Sad Songs (Explore Minor)

“Tonight I can write the saddest lines. I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.” - Pablo Neruda, Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair 

Oftentimes minor, meloncholic tunes never go out of style. From Bruno Mar’s “Talking to the Moon” to Greenday’s “Whatsername” and the jazz-infused and despair-filled “u” by Kendrick Lamar” there’s a flavor of woe for everyone. 

Love Songs (Decide Which Kind of Amour to Infuse)

When making a song romantic, carefully consider what kind feelings that love is laced with. The Greeks used to say that there are 8 different types of love: encompassing mania to old love, flirty affection and even family/brotherly love. 

When you start a love song, consider which you’d like to sonically capture.  Do you want the wise longing, like Celine Dion’s “The Power of Love”, or a more youthful and fun “You and I” (Ingrid Michaelson) type song? 

Love songs and sensual songs often intersect, but they don’t always. For example, “The Shape of You” by Ed Sheeran is mostly just sexy, wiht a pinch of loving. 

Religious/Worship Songs: Pen Your Calling

As humans, our beliefs often gives us a sense of belonging and hope. There’s the universal/ pagan-feeling “Hekate” and “Walpurgisnacht”  by Faun, or the heartening Christian “Take You At Your Word” by Cody Carnes. If something is pulling at your soul, get out your pen!

Happy Songs: Pep Up the Tempo

“Happy” by Pharrell Williams is the most on-the-nose example I can think of at the moment. Happy-Sensual-summertime songs tend to do extremely well in the charts…just look at “Despacito”!  When drafting a happy song, prioritize rhythm/percussion and keep up the tempo. 130 is a great BMP to start at. 

Overused Themes & Song Titles

While any subject is up for grabs, one has to be careful to not choose a title or lyrics that are too generalized or ‘canned’. David Bennetts’ “Most Overused Song Titles” video provides some laugh-worthy examples of overused titles and words, such as…

• Without You

• Home

• Breathe

• I Want You

• Stay

• Hold On

While all of the songs in the video are good songs, their titles leave something to be desired. If you find yourself with one of the following titles, perhaps reconsider. The same goes for the basics: Sober, Closer, and Sorry. Also keep in mind that if you are going to choose one of the above examples, it’ll be harder for your song to stand out in search engines.

Clichés: How to Turn Basic Ideas into Poetic Ones

Say you come up with the idea for the song: Say it’s called “Hold On”. Then you choose the lyric “I’m strong, I will hold on”. Now...Hear me out, these ideas are by no means good. But what you shouldn’t do is crumple up the paper and come up with new ideas, because it’s just going to happen again, and you’re going to get frustrated (and probably give yourself writer's block). 

 Let’s take the word strong and replace it with something more flavorful. How about “I am resilient” and then come up with a half-rhyme to fill out the line?  “I am resilient despite your abhorrence” feels much haunted and Evanescence-y. It’s far less corny than before. You can write any cliché you want- Life is a party (put your hands in the air) or, you broke my heart (and now I hate you). Just hide it under a few layers of complex language or metaphor. Generic ideas or cliches are like blank coloring sheets, they’re simply not done yet.

It’s All In the Details

Say you have some plain pasta, now we need to make it into lasagna. So how do we add “the sauce”? 

• Get specific, tell a story

• Write an actual poem and pull pieces of it into your song

• Add adjectives and sensations we can feel 

If you think about Taylor Swifts’ discography, remember how many times she tells a specific life story? “I closed my eyes and let the flashback start, I’m standin’ there, on a balcony in summer air”. Even if that particular style isn’t your favorite, taking a notebook and freewriting a poem can drum up excellent content for a song. Another easy way to level-up basic tropes is to make friends with a thesaurus.

Complex Songs Subjects to Level Up Your Game

“I think there is a song out there to describe just about any situation.”

― Criss Jami, Killosophy

Just because the vast majority of songs fall into the above 5 categories in some way or another doesn’t mean you can’t color outside the lines. Here are some more ideas for subjects. 

Bittersweet and Unsettling 

“Everything I do is bittersweet, you can tell me secrets that I’ll probably repeat” -P!ATD

One large sub-category of bittersweet songs are songs about the passing of time. It’s beautiful, sad, and nostalgic all at once. Mixed-emotion type of songs can also be the sort of “I shouldn’t have done that”. Fittingly Panic at the Disco’s “Bittersweet” is a coy example of a song that talks about someone doing things that they shouldn’t…but they’re still joyful about it. 

 If we take one step further into the darker side of things this subject can becomes…unsettling.

Bitter songs, dissonant songs, and horror movie soundtracks all have something in common. They’re unnerving! One example might be Nine Inch Nails “The Becoming” where a man turns into a machine. Transformation is an excellent subject for art songs. 

Revenge

“If you're horrible to me, I'm going to write a song about it, and you won't like it. That's how I operate.”-T.S

Then there’s revenge songs, which can be sweet and sassy, or dark and unsettling. “Before He Cheats” is a classic… and “Kill Bill” is a chart-topping eerie one. Digging into your psyche and doing some shadow work will help you out in this subject. 

Existential 

Philip Lieb’s playful “A TV Show Called Earth” dips its toes into existentialism. Then there's the 2010 “If I Die Young” which details life’s fleeting nature with a more dark feeling. Most of us fear our inevitable demise, so why not write a song about it?

Songs about History, Politics & the Environment

Corridos Tumbados tunes and traditional Corridos often tell stories of life as it used to be, and even the lives of famous drug lords. Similarly, songs about rebellion, and art that are commentary on socio-political events are often moving in a way that cuts through the crowd.  Think: Oliver Anothony’s “Rich Men North of Richmond”, or Goyte’s environmentalist “Eyes Wide Open”.

Never forget that your music can change the world. A hit tune can be the next step in saving the Great Barrier Reef or reveal the flawed government system a group of people are stuck inside. 

A Song Without A Subject: Is It Ok?!

One creativity time I once received from a friend is that “You don’t have to have a song title, subject or theme in mind to start writing- or even to finish the song”. 

Art comes out of our subconscious, inherently stitched with our own essence and meaning.

So just because you wrote a song with no subject in mean doesn’t mean it doesn’t have meaning. Perhaps you’ve just not discovered what you meant- yet. 

Subjects and Tonality: They’re Often Intertwined

If you don’t have a theme for your song yet, start with a chord progression instead. Sad songs often have pepperings of, if not comprised entirely minor chords, and major songs are oftentimes happy. Bittersweet songs commonly include a mix of intricate progressions with (what I like to call) spicy chords. Think: Suspended sounds, diminished, passing chords…

By writing or choosing an emotive progression, you very well may end up falling into a theme. 

Closing Tips

No matter what you decide on, be sure to choose a subject that means something to you. This will make your work more potent. 

Before I go, let’s address the elephant in the room: The are always going to be people who say that the theme of the song doesn’t really matter that much. Some art-rock tunes are made with no subject, and similarly, there are gibberish songs. Bu if having a subject helps you be creative, it is worthwhile. Another thing I will say is this:

• Your theme won’t matter much if your song isn’t cohesive (or poorly produced) AND

• No matter the subject, if the tune is mixed well, people will listen longer

As always, make sure you use all the tools at your disposal: EQing, effects, and tuners if need be. Luckily, inside cloud-based DAW Soundtrap, it’s easy to cultivate a high-quality sound. From there, you can make the feeling and theme of you song come to life. Check it out here!

About the author

Aleah Fitzwater is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, music journalist, and blogger from Temperance, United States. Aleah holds a Pk-12 instrumental music education degree. Her main instruments are flute, piano, drums, bass, and guitar.