Pre-Choruses are ubiquitous in modern pop songs. If that’s what you’re writing, it’s likely your songs have them. They take us by the hand and lead us to the the Promised Land – the Chorus. When they work, the excitement builds (they used to call them ‘the ramp’) so that when we arrive at that Chorus we’ve had adequate foreplay and we’re ready to be fulfilled.

A straightforward example is Adele’s ‘Rolling In The Deep’ Pre-Chorus:

The scars of your love they leave me breathless
I can’t help thinking

Then when she hits the Chorus, “We could’ve had it all… Rolling In The Deep…”, it’s incredibly effective; a textbook example of what a Pre-Chorus can do – building the feeling into a thrilling payoff.

Sometimes Pre-Choruses are there out of habit, because most songs have them and the songwriter thinks their song should have one too.

But sometimes they’re not necessary. A Pre-Chorus’s main function is to enhance other sections. If it’s not doing that job it’s useless – no matter how pleasing it is by itself – and it can be dispensed with.

The other way to go into a Chorus – the ‘old-fashioned’ way; going directly into the Chorus from the Verse – is something you don’t hear much anymore in contemporary pop. The surprise of the Chorus is what makes this a potent approach. Since there’s no section put there specifically to build into the Chorus, you’re just suddenly… there.

This smash cut, this sudden shift of consciousness… its contrast can be just as effective, in a different way, as a Pre-Chorus.

Sometimes it’s worth giving another listen to your Pre-Chorus. Or, more accurately, giving it a non-listen. If you have any suspicion that it might not be essential, try leaving it out. See what the song sounds like without a Pre-Chorus. Every once in a while it’s an improvement.

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