Welcome to the APME Memphis 2025 conference. Here, you’ll be able to register for the conference and update your Sched profile. The conference schedule will be available in late spring 2025. At that time, you can view the schedule and select the presentations you’d like to attend. If you have any questions, please visit our conference website or contact us at conference@popularmusiceducation.org We look forward to coming together as a community June 4–7, 2025.
This presentation shows how hit songwriters and producers create musical focal points or “hooks” in pop songs. Numerous chart hits (spanning 1955 to 2024) will illustrate specific focal point devices, covering all aspects of music, including rhythm, melody, harmony, form, and timbre. Of particular interest is the musical quality of tension and resolution. Tension typically builds at the end of one section (verse or pre-chorus), grabbing the listener’s attention. This highlights the resolution at the beginning of the next section (usually a chorus), helping us remember whatever musical elements or lyrics occur at this point. The presentation starts by discussing short “hook phrases” (both instrumental and vocal), then the larger variety of hooks called “focal points,” starting with simple devices that help highlight or mark the chorus. Following this are five categories of focal point devices — 1. Rhythmic Tension/Resolution devices, including stop time (before chorus or song title phrase), suspension of the main groove, and moving from disjointed to solid rhythm patterns. 2. Harmonic Tension/Resolution devices, including the V to I cadence (verse to chorus), and the avoidance of the I chord. 3. Repetition devices including repetition of a single pitch in the melody, and the repetition of a short melodic phrase. 4. Ascending pitches in the melody. 5. Contrast in melodic contour. The entire presentation can be found on my website learnpoptheory.com. Just see the free sample for my book, "The Art of the Hook," (“Look Inside” button in the middle of the home page).
