Bridge

[erwin]

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I'm embarrassed to say that I don't know what this means. Do all pop songs have bridges and middle eights? (I think I've got what a middle eight is, but does every 'perfect' pop song have to have one?)

Please. Examples.

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[Squid Ink]

Bridge

[erwin]

Bridge

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Thanks, Squink. I am now much the wiser.

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[linus]

Bridge

The bridge in a song is the short segment that links the main body to the chorus. It often happens to be the best part of the song, as it inherintly is a very dynamic segment, a transition point breaking the main song groove and leading to the chorus.

example: Blur's Country House

The "main body" is in plain text, the bridge underlined and the chorus italicized.

City dweller, successful fella
Thought to himself oops I've got a lot of money
I'm caught in a rat race terminally
I'm a professional cynic but my heart's not in it
I'm paying the price of living life at the limit
Caught up in the centuries anxiety
It preys on him, he's getting thin

He lives in a house, a very big house in the country
Watching afternoon repeats and the food he eats in the country
He takes all manner of pills and piles up analyst bills in the country
It's like an animal farm lot's of rural charm in the country

Some songs don't have bridges, others have bridges but no chorus. I think Kraftwerk's The Model falls in the later category (unless one considers the instrumental part towards the end as the chorus). I think the bridge in that song is perhaps the most beautiful 14 seconds of pop music ever made.

[erwin]

Bridge

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Thanks Linus! That seems clear now (although extra examples would also be welcome).

And where does the famous 'middle eight' come in? Does every 'perfect' pop song have to have one? Or is it an optional extra?

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[linus]

Bridge

you're welcome erwin.

I don't know what the "middle eight" is, but according to the wiki below, it is the bridge of a song that follows a common structure in pop songs called the 32 bar form.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty-two-bar_form

[linus]

Bridge

Another example, a similar song that probably inspired "Country House", Madness' "Our House". I am using songs with a simple structure and well-defined choruses that everybody knows.

The bridge here falls kind of late and after the chorus, as opposed to right before it, which would have been more typical.

the bridge here is at 2:44, the part where Suggs and co go "I remember way back then when everything was true and when we would have such a very good time, such a fine time,
such a happy time..."

[Crusoe]

Bridge

Can a song have just one bridge (like Our House), or is there another term for that non-instrumental bit that you sometimes get, often around two-thirds of the way into the song or before the final chorus?

[ad hoc]

Bridge

What do you call that terrible bit in "Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite" when the kind of swirly George Martin cut-up solo has to get back to the main melody, and they can't think of any way of doing it aside from doing this kind of crappy piano "ding-di-di-ding-di-ding-ding"?

[Guest]

Bridge

The middle eight's just the bit in the middle that isn't a chorus, a verse or a bridge and tends to introduce new chords. "And when I touch you I feel happy inside . . ." in The Beatles' I Wanna Hold Your Hand, for example. Doesn't always last eight bars but here's an example of a good one that does ("I bump into you . . ."):

Candy And The Kisses - Are You Trying To Get Rid Of Me Baby