Music: Another definition of H.O.O.K?

Haarrr....Captain Hook? Noo.... it's neither about the fictional Peter Pan's character, nor about your Saturday's night hook up. (erm excuse me...it's not about sex at all!!) So rakan-rakan, we're going to discuss about MUSICAL hooks right now.

Ready.............Get set.................Go!

According to wikipedia.org , hook (music) means :

( A musical idea, a passage or phrase, that is believed to be appealing and make the song stand out. It is "meant to catch the ear of the listener". This term generally applies to popular music, especially rock music and pop music subgenres such as dance music. A hook can, in general, be either melodic or rhythmic, and often incorporates the main motif for a piece of music. )

(Characteristics of a melodic hook include skips in the tonal line; however, details of what makes a tune "catchy" are difficult to describe. A rhythmic hook can be equally catchy by employing syncopation or other devices, but there are still examples of rhythmic hooks which are very straightforward. )

Okay, bagi y'all yang tak paham jugak lepas aku korek meaning dari wikipedia tadi, takper..senang je tu..kejap lagi aku akan bagi contoh hook yang terdapat di dalam lagu-lagu "kita" yang y'all suke selame ni. Senang jer nak classify music yang ada hook. Dengar part chorus pun kadang-kadang dah memadai.

Tapi y'all kene ingat, niat aku bukanlah nak memburokkan komposer-komposer tanahair ( langsung tak terlintas pun!), tapi untuk share something yang aku rasa kita (pemuzik) patut tekankan dalam elemen muzik Malaysia itu sendiri. Lihat, dengar dan rasakan apa itu muzik sebenarnya. Barulah kita dapat bersaing dengan music dari seberang. Memang music mereka bagus! tapi takkanlah kita asyik nak telan jer lagu mereka sampai bila-bila. They're able to captivate our listeners with their songs. How? Using hooks lah..

Be proactive, sebab music Malaysia pun bagus!! Lepas ni, turn kita pulak suap lagu untuk diorang. Tak kiralah korang nak nyanyi solo, buat band, underground/mainstream, or jadi indipendent musician ke, yang pentingnya, the material is good enough to be presented for active listeners. Aku rasakan MOSTLY orang-orang Malaysia sekarang ini, suka dengar lagu yang light, catchy, sentimental dan taklah berat sangat dari segi mood penyampaiannya. Betul ke? Terpulanglah pada citarasa masing-masing, sebab rambut sama hitam tapi hati lain-lain kan!!

In any popular song, there is a hook. Either a lyrical hook or a musical one. Many songs are really "bad", but have great hooks, so people (like us) listen to them over and over again. A song composed entirely of hooks is called hip-hop. Each section, by itself, is addictive, but when put together, it becomes mind-numbing. The rest of the song is supposed to be made of chords, people. Not other drum beats. It was easily composed by combining a bunch of catchy notes and then become a worldwide hits in a glimpse of eye. Yeap..that's true. Sounds really easy kan.

I admit that this was a successful technique used by american hip hop composers to produce tonnes of hit songs today. But you tell me, does this type of "music" deserve the recognition/honor as Beethoven, Mozart, Bach and Vivaldi's work as well? Frankly speaking, i don't think so. Pemuzik-pemuzik classical mengasah otak mereka setajam-tajamnya, in order to compose a world class masterpiece, for us to listen and feel until now.

Ahaa.. It’s always nice when you gain access to an album of a singer or a band you already know. Sometimes you buy it, sometimes, you download it for free. Either way, it’s always nice to experience a whole style that you had only guessed at via a few songs previously. But we never analyze it carefully. We always got fooled by those hooks, not the real music. Y'all know, aku penah rasa tertipu time aku beli sebuah album international rock band dulu, ingatkan banyak lagu-lagu best yang dimuatkan, yelah, sebab ada 2 buah lagu diorang tengah top time tu. But unfortunately, the rest of the song included was totally rubbish....

I do think that HOOKS is a must in producing hit songs nowadays. An easier way for songwriters to produce a bombastic song by implementing/adding hooks in the melody line, just to make it catchier. Sometimes you'll know that the song is going to be a hit within weeks, when some parts of your body suddenly move along with the flow of the music, without realizing that it is the first time you heard the song.

Now, tell me what do you think of this songs:-

1) Rihanna - Umbrella

2) Avril Lavigne - Girlfriend

3) J.Holiday - Bed

Yup, it's full of hooks, from top to bottom. I'm done here. Thank you for reading this. - AD out -