There’s a cliché in writing classes about clichés – never use clichés! While it may be well and good to avoid what feels like cheating, and to come up with your own metaphors and similes, in songwriting, messing about with clichés can make a song more memorable, singable, and relatable. You have to know what you’re doing, though, and approach with caution.
To showcase this, let’s use the Cliché Mistress herself, Madonna, and her song “Deeper and Deeper” co-written with Shep Pettibone and Anthony Shimkin, is probably my favorite dance track, to help us figure out how using words you’ve heard before can give a song new meaning. First, I’m gonna annotate the lyrics:
Aphorisms and Nostalgia
“Deeper” is laden with aphorisms – catchy one-liners with nuggets of wisdom. Most people remember at least one thing a parental figure has said to them about love. Madonna is choosing to remember them all, and to couple these aphorisms to the memory of her mother and father, which is trés clever. The melody is even reminiscent of a children’s song, or something you’d hear a child hum while playing.
To amp up the nostalgia, Madge calls back to iconic songs like “Can’t Help Falling In Love,” (another song rife with cliches), “Do Re Mi” and her own verse from “Vogue.” Some might call it stealing, but I call it knowing your musical nerd audience.
Vowels
It’s really refreshing to sing a song that pays attention to vowels. The [i] vowel in “deeper” and “sweeter” is the one that makes you smile when a camera is pointed at you, “Say Cheese!” and Madge uses it to great effect here. Not only is the [i] vowel one singers use to warm up their voices, the words themselves are hedonistic.
On longer and higher notes, the [ɔ] vowel from “wrong” and “song” get you singing louder, opening that mouth up, while keeping it nice and resonant with the [ŋ] nasal consonant of “ng.”
Finally, “told me” and “mold me” are recalled in the bridge, as if it were planned to then rhyme with “hold me” right before the big turn.
The Big Turn
All throughout “Deeper,” Madonna is remembering the optimistic and romantic aphorisms her parents taught her about love. This is why she can’t help falling in love!
But no! There’s a twist. “Someone said that romance is dead” (another great internal rhyme) is a cynical aphorism. And she believed it. That is until she met someone who brought those childhood memories rushing back. This is why we’re here singing about musicals, chanting rhymes, and proclaiming our openness to love – to remind us to never hide our feelings again!
The end is just an extended cathartic exaltation with a Flamenco dance break, throwback to Vogue, and a neat little button in the final verse. Thanks for not just fading out!
—
You see why I love this song? It could be argued that the verses don’t take you anywhere or advance the story, but they’re not meant to. They’re meant to hammer home the nostalgia, culminating in the bridge. So don’t be afraid to use some clichés in your songwriting. Just make sure they add up to something deeper and deeper.
Now dance!