You need to provide that variation to keep the listener engaged.вЂќДЇor bridge purists, there is hope to be found in a few of the biggest pop hits of 2021: most notably, Olivia RodrigoвЂs Billboard Hot 100-topping вЂњDrivers License,вЂќ whose bridge towers so mightily over the rest of the song that it even got specifically shouted out in the February SNL skit centered around the song.В вЂњA bridge is a great example of taking a song thatвЂ™s really good and making it great,вЂќ Rodrigo says. Because otherwise, the song can wind up being too predictable, or too one-dimensional. вЂњBut in some manifestation, will always serve as a role. вЂњIt might not be as pronounced as it was in the past,вЂќ Penn says of the future of the classic storytelling bridge. As the song length of the average hit continues to shrink, there may just not be the same kind of room for the bigger bridges of earlier pop eras.

In the more clipped era of streaming and TikTok, though, the fully fleshed-out, narrative-oriented bridge - what Penn and Hit Songs Deconstructed refers to as a вЂњstorytelling bridgeвЂќ - might be a somewhat endangered species. The 100 Greatest Choruses of the 21st Century вЂњYou have to provide that departure, you can do so much with itвЂ¦ itвЂ™s such a component to pop songwriting that I donвЂ™t see it going anywhere at all.вЂќ

вЂњI think it is such a key part of pop song form,вЂќ says David Penn, co-founder of Hit Songs Deconstructed, which provides compositional analytics for top 10 Hot 100 hits. Not totally, of course: Pop songs will almost always have opportunity for a late-arriving breakdown section that offers some sort of new element to contrast from the first couple verses and choruses, before hitting you once more with the main hook. If nothing else, itвЂ™s the most singular part of a song, appearing after the second chorus like a late-breaking curveball and usually not returning until you go back and play the song all over again.Д«ut in contemporary pop music, the bridge might be disappearing. But very often, itвЂ™s the part that ends up being the most revealing, the hardest hitting, the least shakeable. ItвЂ™s not the most immediate part of a song, nor usually the stickiest or most recognizable - in fact, it might be the toughest part for you to remember at karaoke. The bridge holds a special place in the hearts of music fans.

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