The usage of metaphors is an very effective tool in lyric writing. Terry Pattison has a good description of metaphors in his book Publishing Better Lyrics. He claims "In its simplest type, a metaphor is just a collision between ideas that don't fit together." This is actually the refined description of a metaphor your British teacher is definitely looking for.
Quite simply, excellent metaphors link together the substance of two otherwise split up ideas. For example, in the Bravery's track, "Think" they open the track with the range "The faces all around me they don't really grin they just crack." The idea of somebody whose face is indeed rigid, that also should they attemptedto grin, their face would begin to fall is a great new method of taking a look at this. It is a collision of two ideas that don't otherwise fit together: 1. individuals who don't grin, and 2. the cracking of anything rigid. It found their frequent soil and attached them together nicely. Consequently, we get a really aesthetic range, which can be vital when writing lyrics, since it's an audible-only medium.
What's great about these lines is that they're giving people a brand new method of taking a look at something we would have never considered before. Some metaphors are very excellent, they end up being overused by Pal pal dil ke paas lyrics everyone. Consequently, they lose their meaning. Possibly the mother of most cliche metaphors in songwriting could be the term "damaged heart." All of us understand what it means, because we've heard it therefore many times, but because it's therefore common to people, we don't stop to look at the metaphor that is there. The idea of a genuine heart being split in half would be a quite great aesthetic when it wasn't therefore darn familiar.
Sometimes we only can't ignore applying cliche phrases. Heck, I simply applied the term "the mother of all..." within the last paragraph. So, I'm guilty of it sometimes too. Nevertheless when writing songs, you want to contain fresh ideas to keep your fans interested in what you are saying.
Think about the movie Inception. [*Spoiler Alert* - miss the others of the section in the event that you have not seen the movie] Watching a film where you will find out the conclusion might be a dream is certainly a cliche by now. The concept has been done countless occasions in films. But you might argue that Inception created an entire movie around creating the thought of a probable desire finishing absolutely work. It set a cool angle on an old idea.
Similarly in songwriting, if you are required to utilize cliche phrases in your lyrics, I'd recommend providing them with new meaning. "Properly just how do I do that?" you ask. Let us search at how this has been treated in a winner song.
