How Long Is A Hook In A Song


How Long Is A Hook In A Song


How long is a hook in a song you ask?  Well it's not that long.  A hook in a song is roughly 8 bars long.  What many rappers do for their hooks is they will write a 4 bar chorus and then say the chorus twice.  This will equal out to a normal hook structure.

There are other rappers who do it a little different.  Some of them will actually rap out 8 bars and spit it straight through.  This becomes the chorus for that type of structure.  With this kind of hook it does not hold the value of the other kind of hook styles because lacks the repetition that makes a hook stick in your head.

Another chorus type has the same 8 bar length but it is a little simpler.  Some rappers will write 2 bars and repeat them 4 times.  This structure is similar to how Drake raps the hook in the song "Started From The Bottom."  He simply says the two lines and then says them again and again and then again.  If you are lazy with your hook writing or if you just get cant come up with anything else then try this hook method.

32 Bar Rap

32 Bar Rap


If you want to know what a 32 bar rap is then I will definitely tell you what it is.  No we are not talking about how to wrap 32 candy bars.  We are referring to a rap song structure type.  In a rap song there are rhyming lines.  Each rhyming line represents a sentence.  Each sentence represents a thought.  And each of those thought is a rap bar.

In a basic rap song structure of 16 bars every two lines will rhyme with each other.  The first line and then second line will rhyme and so on.  Once you have your 16 lines or rhyming sentences that makes up a verse.  In a 32 bar rap you have two verses.  The 32 bar rap song structure is not really common.  The standard rap song structure is three verses.

In order to not be so similar to other artists some rappers will attempt to refine the way they do their rap songs and they will often try new structures of a rap song.  Having a two verse rap song structure means also having two hooks as well.  The chorus will follow each of the verses.

Once drawback of a 32 bar rap is the song length.  By making the song 32 bars it will shorten the time of a typical rap song.  The length of an average rap song on the radio is about 3-4 minutes.  This kind of rap will vary from the normal 48 bar rap which is the industry standard.