Outside of Tool (who have been known to write lyrics based on the Fibonacci sequence), most songwriters are content to come up with rhymes.
Slate magazine has come up with this analysis of the most common word-pairings when it comes to rhymes in the lyrics of popular songs. If you’re into the guts of songwriting, you’ll find this fascinating.
At least the dreaded sin/gin combo didn’t make the cut.
Going a little deeper into the article is an interactive chart that shows the favourite rhymes of specific artists. It may not come as a surprise to Depeche Mode fans that their most common word combos are me/see, do/you and mind/time. For U2, it’s do/you, away/day and rhyme/time. And for Nirvana, it’s too/you, myself/yourself and mind/mine.
This is a pretty good timesuck. Enjoy. (Thanks to John for the link.)
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