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There is rhythm to any writing. Poets and songwriters make that aspect plainly evident. Rhyme, figures of speech and phrasing influence rhythm. But not all poets and songwriters approach rhythm in the same way.
I decided to explore Canadian-American singer-songwriter Alanis Morissette's songwriting craft through her lyrics. I looked at her hit, Thank You, from her 1998 album, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie (what a great name!) and here’s what I found.
Thank You, one of her most popular hits, is an introspective song where Alanis gently offers a new approach, to herself and others, in dealing with patterns of behaviour that may not serve them well. To analyse the song, I put the verses together, then put the chorus and the bridge.
As we do with poems, we expect words in songs to rhyme. In Thank You, the lines do not rhyme, that is, they do not end with the same sound, but Alanis achieves a sense of rhyme and rhythm in the beginning of each line by repeating the phrases 'how ‘bout' in the verses.
Each 'how 'bout' is a request to look at ways in which she, and we, may help ourselves. The first verse has an interesting phrase - transparent dangling carrots (highlighted in pink). I interpreted that as temptations you can see through, that is, temptations you know are temptations. A search on the net revealed another opinion - that it refers to motivations that don’t seem like motivations, in a positive way.
For the chorus, she uses the same repetition technique, with the words 'thank you' at the beginning of each line. However, her chorus stands out head and shoulders above the verses because the words following 'thank you' are not the usual things we are grateful for - terror, disillusionment, frailty and consequence. This juxtaposing makes the chorus stark and memorable.
I have two favourite parts in Thank You. The first is the way her voice rises when she sings the word 'disillusionment'. It is a multi-syllable word, where she stretches each syllable as she sings. In fact, as I delved into the lyrics further, I found that Thank You has a number of multi-syllable words (highlighted in blue). If I had to rate my top three, I’d follow ‘disillusionment’ with ‘unabashedly’ and ‘consequence’.
My second favourite bit is the bridge. In the song, its the part sung after the second chorus, where the song takes a different turn. Here she sings about how being free from behaving in a particular way can be a turning point. She pairs phrases: 'let go' with 'got more', and 'jumped off' with 'touched down' (highlighted in green).
For those who haven’t heard Thank You before, I encourage you to listen to Alanis to see how her words and her message turn out when layered with music and her vocal choices. Here’s the link to a lyrics video. For those who have heard it before, I hope it’s playing in your head now with a different perspective.
Although Thank You was a worldwide hit 24 years ago, it will still sound fresh to those who recognise it and it will probably sound undated to those who haven’t heard it before. That is in no small part to the fact that its lyrics will always strike a chord with the listener.
Let me know in the comments what your thoughts are on songwriting in general and Thank You in particular.
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Until next time,
Michelle
OMG! This is one of my most favourite songs. I even posted the lyrics on my FB a few weeks back. Loved the way you deconstructed it:)
Thank you! It's one of my favourites too.