Hooks.

[Cheiron]

Do you like them in your music or not? Some metal fans seem to criticize bands when they 'have no hooks.' Other times you'll hear (sometimes from the same people), that the songs are filled with hooks and thus they don't like it!

Personally, I want the hooks to be something that makes me remember a song by. Does it mean a regularly repeated chorus? Not necessarily. It can be something that just makes a flat out statement. That defines the song from the other songs the band does.

On this forum though I wonder how others receive hooks. Do they make you think that a band is going for too 'poppish'/accessible/radio friendly of a sound and isn't true?

 

[AnTz0r]

if you do it badly, yes/

if you do it like dan "mr hook" swano, no

 

[Helm]

All the music I love has hooks on some level. They might not be pop hooks, but they are stuff that sticks to mind and makes me want to re-listen.

If music has hooks but no substance, I'll like it at first and then eventually grow out of it. If music has substance but no hooks, it's very likely I'll consider it an aesthetic experiment more than actual music, and will therefore be informed of its existence and meaning but not listen to it much at all.

 

[Scourge of God]

Define 'hook'

 

[Cheiron]

A hook is a musical idea, a passage or phrase, that is believed to be catchy and helps the song stand out, it is, "meant to catch the ear of the listener" (Covach 2005, p.71). This term generally applies to popular music, especially pop music.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hook_(music)

 

[Scourge of God]

Obviously any music that has any sort of staying power has 'hooks' in the sense of elements (usually melodic) that remain in the memory. That said, most of the music that consciously aims to have 'hooks' seems to do so by pandering the the rhythmic and harmonic expectations of the great unwashed.

 

[Occam's Razor]

music without hooks is called post core, prog core or so...:Smug: