The question is: what makes a chorus a chorus?
Sometimes this is obvious, for instance when one line is repeated over and over.
But musically, what makes a chorus a recognisably different thing from a verse? Sometimes the verse is the best part of a song, but it will still sound like a verse and not a chorus.
A stupid attempt at explanation of what I mean now. When Oasis first appeared, I thought that many of their songs were decent enough tunes until they got to the chorus. I thought their choruses were rubbish. Then I realised that, like the Beatles (of course), the songs in question didn't actually have choruses. The bits that I thought were supposed to be choruses were effectively middle eights. (An example: "Standing at the station / In need of education...", whatever song that is.) Once I understood this, the songs sounded fine. Now why would this be?
I'm looking for answers from musicians, mostly, who would be able to explain what I don't understand.
― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Wednesday, 18 September 2002 15:37 (twenty-one years ago) link
A chorus is a refrain repeated in between versus, written to make the song more memorable ('hooking' you in). Musically, I wouldn't say there any rules choruses follow, other than (in pop) usually mentioning the title of the song.
You point out Oasis not using a chorus, and this was in fact common practice pre-Elvis pop. Gershwin, Cole Porter, Rodgers&Hart - listen to how many of their songs actually have choruses (though they often did have intros which had nothing musically to do with the rest of the song -- when did that stop?).
― dleone (dleone), Wednesday, 18 September 2002 15:47 (twenty-one years ago) link
sixteen years pass...
That section kind of sounds like a pre-chorus/bridge that would lead into a chorus, but instead of a chorus it just goes back to the 3-chord chug.
I still think about choruses a lot.
― Eyeball Kicks, Friday, 21 June 2019 08:58 (four years ago) link