5 Reasons Why We Remember Good Stories and Songs

Good stories compared to catchy songs: why some stick with us forever

My name is Merit Visser, and I’m a songwriting and storytelling enthusiast. I break down lyrics and analyse aspects of language to discover storytelling tools. In this article, I break down five reasons why songs stick in our heads — and how to link that to storytelling.

Why do some songs find their way into your mind and set up camp there? Here are five reasons why you sing along to the chorus of a song and five ideas to make your story more memorable.

1. You Can Relate To The Catchphrase

The chorus of the song is where the core message is revealed. This is the most important part of a song.
Let’s take ‘Love Me Harder’ by Ariana Grande.

’cause if you want to keep me
you gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta love me harder

The message of this song becomes quite clear in the chorus: if you want me, I want you to work for me. I want you to want me. It’s a crystal clear catchphrase AND it’s resonating with almost every girl or woman. Who doesn’t want to be chased and desired? From giggling high school girls doodling hearts in their schoolbooks to middle aged housewives daydreaming about Jane Eyre — we recognize this message.

2. Save Your High Pitched Notes For The Chorus

There is a unwritten rule that has to do with melody, and I’ll link this melody to verbal storytelling. If there’s one ‘trick’ that I’ve learned in my years as a songwriter, it is this: make sure your chorus has a big interval in its melody. This often means: save your high notes for the most important part. If you turn on the radio for a couple of hit songs, you’ll often notice that the highest pitched notes in the melody are the in the chorus. Also, often the melody is a bit more stretched out here; words and syllables are longer.
Why? Because this is the part that needs to be emphasized.

‘And I will always love you’ — Mariah Carey
‘Near, far, wherever you are’ — Celine Dion
‘Would you please have mercy on me’ — Shawn Mendes

In your verbal storytelling, for instance if you’re giving a keynote speech or presentation, your ‘chorus’ might be that one sentence that wraps it all up, the summary of what your whole talk is about. Changing the tone and tempo of your voice here can already do the trick to get a chorus-like effect.

3. Repeat Repeat Repeat

What’s the main characteristic of a chorus? It returns! The second time a chorus hits, it’s already a little familiar, and if the catchphrase is simple, relatable and has a memorable melody, chances are people might remember it. Then enter the third chorus and expect some humming, whistling or shameless blurting along, especially if there is repetition within the chorus:

‘So beat it, beat it, beat it, beat it — no one likes to be defeated’ — Michael Jackson
‘Gimme gimme gimme a man after midnight’ — ABBA
‘She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah, she loves you yeah, yeah, yeah’ — The Beatles

Clearly, repetition helps to get people to remember a song, or your story. But another very important aspect of returning a part of a story or song is the oh so interesting Expectation Game.
I like to compare a song or story to a wave. It goes up and down in energy, and whenever it’s down (verses) you know at some point we’ll be up again (chorus). It’s the way you surf this wave that makes it interesting. Maybe you let your listeners wait a little longer for the next up or introduce one all of a sudden. In storytelling, you can do this as well: build up to the core message, then decorate it with details and detours, build up to the core message again but wait a little longer until you actually address it, or get back to it out of the blue… Playing with expectations like this will keep people on their toes. And people remember being kept on their toes. They do.

4. The Build-up and The Details

A song is not a chorus alone. Without a build-up, it is nothing. The intro and verses set the mood, melodically and lyrically.
You can compare the melody of a verse to the way you verbally deliver a story. Is the music calm, sad, mysterious? Do you speak softly, with a lot of energy, slow or fast?
What details do you use to describe the scenery of your story? Where are we, at what time, who are we with, who is telling the story?
The place for all these details is in the verses, the in-betweens of the choruses. This is where the catchphrase, or your core message, finds its context. Setting the right mood lays the foundation for a memorable chorus. And even though the verses are probably not the parts you sing in the shower, they are needed to get the chorus the attention it needs.
Check out ‘All Of Me’ by John Legend for example. The catchphrase is very simple: all of me loves all of you. The detailed verses decorate this.

What would I do without your smart mouth?
Drawing me in, and you kicking me out
You’ve got my head spinning, no kidding, I can’t pin you down
What’s going on in that beautiful mind
I’m on your magical mystery ride
— ‘All Of Me’ by John Legend

5. Surprise Us (And Yourself) By Disregarding The Rules

I’m Dutch, and in The Netherlands we have a New Year’s Eve tradition revolving around music. There is a particular radio station that has a yearly Top 2000 of all time hits that people can vote for, and starting from Christmas Day it counts down until it reaches the number 1 by midnight, January 1st.
For years on end now, there is one song that has come in first place and it is…
Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen.
This is a song that has no clear chorus, way too many parts, way too many messages and nothing is simple — and yet, here we are. The voted for number one. For years now.

What can you learn from this?

Dare to be different. Be aware of the rules, but know when to break them. Nothing is set in stone and there’s a first time for every new invention.
If you do something totally unique, out of the ordinary and outstanding, it just might get the deserved attention too.

So what to do if you want your story to be a song everyone sings along to?

• Have a relatable catchphrase or core message;
• Emphasize the right message in the right moment and in the right way;
• Repeat the message!
• Don’t underestimate the details, setting and mood;
• Disregard the above.

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