Loopy Pro: Create music, your way.
What is Loopy Pro? — Loopy Pro is a powerful, flexible, and intuitive live looper, sampler, clip launcher and DAW for iPhone and iPad. At its core, it allows you to record and layer sounds in real-time to create complex musical arrangements. But it doesn’t stop there—Loopy Pro offers advanced tools to customize your workflow, build dynamic performance setups, and create a seamless connection between instruments, effects, and external gear.
Use it for live looping, sequencing, arranging, mixing, and much more. Whether you're a live performer, a producer, or just experimenting with sound, Loopy Pro helps you take control of your creative process.
Download on the App StoreLoopy Pro is your all-in-one musical toolkit. Try it for free today.
Advice on avoiding cliches in a love song?
So I'm trying to write a love song, but I can't seem to get it off the ground. I'm trying to avoid annoying cliches like "staring into your eyes", "we shared our first embrace", "my heart beats fast when I'm near you", "fly so high", and trite shit like that. However, these are the only phrases I've come up with so far in my "lyrics idea" document.
So the direction I want to take the lyrics is that of a straightforward love song without adding any twists, but I'm stuck. I've used Google to find some answers, but the only advice I've found from multiple websites is "when songwriting, try to avoid cliches". Gee, thanks, I already knew that.
So, could any of you out there lend me some good advice on how to write better love song lyrics? 
Comments
Same as writing anything. Think about specific things you feel, and write them down. Don't try to make it into lyrics yet. Don't try to make it sound "meaningful." The meaning will come from the truth of what you write.
Then use that as your raw material.
The downside of this is that you will be exposing some of your most private feelings/thoughts/opinions to the public.
Good luck avoiding clichés.
You'll need it.
You could try something a bit wacky, like say, comparing it to how much the mice love rice.
@jwmmakerofmusic Well, the post in itself is a 'love song' depending on how you look at it. Love is not always easy so...
@mistercharlie
This is where the problem lies. How I feel inside all fall into your stereotypical clichés, lol.
@tk32
Thanks mate, lol. I need all of the luck I can steal. "Mice love rice" sounds pretty funny, and I'll consider that.
@Samu
A very interesting perspective. I guess the original post is a cliché in of itself, because I'm just another number in a long line of songwriters who are frustrated with expressing their love and coming up with the same old shit countless others have expressed before me.
Like when I wrote "Deadline", I described a stereotypical cliched romantic scene and then subverted it into a song about being put off by the intended lover. I also made it neo-90s dance. I knew my exact vision for the song and knew what I was doing.
It's a 'theme' that is pretty popular though...
Chas and Dave - Wish I Could Write A Love Song (1982)
All love songs are cliche except those that play with the term love. So put some irony in it and you are okay
Some inspiration...
Sia before she became "happy"
Definitely not a cliche
I always love Ween's range of love songs. They can stomp cliche ironically or embrace it sincerely and it always works for me.
I usually toss out more literal stuff if my lyrics are sounding too generic and get more abstract with them
I find I write better love songs after being dumped. Have you tried that?
Make a list of a few cliché words.
Then go to thesaurus.com
Type in a word, then keep clicking on interesting synonyms while keeping a list of words that you like.
For example.....
I started with "Love", and clicking of various synonyms led to these words:
devotion, dedication, commitment, promise, vow
"Happy" led to:
can't complain, Walking on air, lovely, adorable, dear, treasured
Maybe having some alternate words might help inspire you?
😂
I have no idea if this will work, but instead of trying to avoid the cliches you might want to find out what happens if you run full speed ahead into them so obnoxiously that you break them into pieces that way.
Maybe that's how 10CC came up with I'm Not In Love.
Rhyme “truth” with “ vermouth.”
cf. Gang of Four on writing love songs.
@jwmmakerofmusic a few things to ruminate on:
1) A thesaurus is your friend. Maybe even a rhyming dictionary - helps me to find new ways of wording tried and true statements
2) Try saying the same thing with more words. Try saying the same with less. See what happens each time with the phrasing/rhythm/etc.
3) If all else fails, just use the "trite" line. People have been using these lines for years FOR A REASON - they work. Don't let something this small hold you up from moving forward. There's validity to your quest however you can also easily overthink things.
Just a few ideas.
Over-Thinking- yep. I’ve discovered love song lyrics when I take a dump. good luck. greenie
The best advice I can give you is to assume a character and voice that is much 'cooler' than you. He still feels the highs of love, but he doesn't get too treacly about it because he's been through it a million times. He's not blasé but matter-of-fact. Think a less misogynistic Rick Springfield.
This in my estimation is the greatest love song ever. There's plenty of cliche in there but it's embraced to the point where it's classic instead of stale.
https://open.spotify.com/track/5ggMp1ktrpM3K2MDRf89DN?si=SNe6-91qRiytJgqtYZo_pA
Maybe you could listen to The Magnetic Fields '69 Love Songs'. Plenty of material there, from the most cliché to the most crazy type (aah punk rock love!)
Whatever else you do, please don’t use this line:
If love were a dynamite stick / I wouldn’t have enough to blow my... nose.
I’ve been working on this song for a year, and it’s all I’ve got so far. So please, i beg of you, no one steal it. 😄
Oh, yes. This song makes me cry every time. (“ How could there be ... such cruelty?” is devastating.) But Stephin Merritt is a pretty f—in’ high bar!
But I can suck a golfball through a rubber hose.
Skkrrrrt!
🤣 You seem to understand where this song needs to go, and know its true purpose.
It’s yours now. 🤗
But back on topic... about love song lyrics. Good question. Maybe try a “stream of consciousness” session and write down every thought and idea that enters your mind, without any filtering. (Not even a Moog filter. Also, a little herb might possibly help... cilantro, sage, or whatever. Lol.) Just let it rip with the free association and wild metaphors. Then go through the pile and see what you got. Most of it might be merely good for a chuckle, but there could be some memorable lines in there (after a little polish).
Basically, anything that gets the lyrics out of the deadlock of the purely personal, everyday realm. Even a dash of the transpersonal, the magical, or the “impossible” will flavor the soup just enough.
One of the greatest "love" songs of all time ... and totally avoiding cliches ...