why 52 bars??

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bigheadedpitbull

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I hear on tv from Dr. Dre or Pharrel about 52 bars. I remember snoop dogg talking about how dre taught him how to change his 84 bar rhymes in to 52. Why is 52 the magic number.
 
sorry im a total newb can you explain to me what is X bar ryhmes? plz
 
bigheadedpitbull said:
I hear on tv from Dr. Dre or Pharrel about 52 bars. I remember snoop dogg talking about how dre taught him how to change his 84 bar rhymes in to 52. Why is 52 the magic number.
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My guess is that 52 is not necessarily the "magic number" but rather it is just that 84 bars is too long and 52 (or something around that length)is a length that is long enough to get your point across and short enough so people don't get bored.

It is like... to make a commercial hit, you want to have your song be around 3:30 (or whatever)... you don't want a 10 minute guitar solo, or a super long intro or 50 different sections (there is a market for that, but not typically in the mainstream radio pop world.) The mainstream public has a short attention span and gets bored easily. The idea of 52 bars (or shorter verses in general) is to keep it short and sweet. Don't make it so long that people can't remember the words to sing along. Get to the hook quickly.
 
Why is it the "cool thing" for rappers to talk about bars all of the sudden??? I'll take Too Short over these wack radio emcees any day. His rhymes just don't stop. I prefer a good 4-5 minute song.
 
GoDown said:
Why is it the "cool thing" for rappers to talk about bars all of the sudden??? I'll take Too Short over these wack radio emcees any day. His rhymes just don't stop. I prefer a good 4-5 minute song.
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They've found out it actually means something else besides a place to get drunk at, and now are all stoked with their newfound knowledge.

;)
 
That's a new one for me... Time to check my lyrics and see if my favorite songs are 52ish...

-Donovan
 
52 bars is based on the premise of 3 16 bar verses and a 4 bar hook. This is the basic set up of most hip hop songs... 3 verses, can be 1 MC or 2 MCs passing the mic, generally the prevelent one getting the 2 verses, 3 MC with 1 verse each (think Wu), etc.
 
You can also make those shorter by adding pre-choruses and a bridge, which I love doin.

-Donovan
 
I just checked "Milkshake", cuz the first time I heard this song I was baffled by how tightly the song flowed together and loved the structure. It goes like this...

chorus 2
chorus 2
chorus 2
chorus 2

verse 2
verse 2
verse 2
verse 2

prechorus 2
prechorus 2
prechorus 2
prechorus 2

chorus 2
chorus 2
chorus 2
chorus 2

verse-2 2
verse-2 2
verse-2 2
verse-2 2

prechorus 2
prechorus 2
prechorus 2
prechorus 2

chorus 2
chorus 2
chorus 2
chorus 2

bridge 2
bridge 2
bridge 2
bridge 2

prechorus 2
prechorus 2
prechorus 2
prechorus 2

chorus 2
chorus 2
chorus 2
chorus 2

72 total

The song would've been 64 if it didn't start out with the chorus... If it would've been 52, it would've been about 2:40 seconds, but the way it is now it's 3:02, on the short end of radio singles.

-Donovan
 
if you take out 3 of those annoying repetitive chorus breaks it is 52 bars =). She sang that hook WAAAAY too much in that song for my liking, but i guess that is what made it such a huge hit and so catchy for mainstream radio peeps.

EDIT... We are both talking about the Kelis joint right?
 
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Kelis is Nas's new wife, and was the vocalist on the song "Milkshake".... not sure if we are talkin about the same joint.
 
LMAO I was just playin dude. I'm a Neptunes fan, I got all her CDs ;) I even remixed "Milkshake" when it just came out (check my soundclick)

-Donovan
 
Alabaster said:
52 bars is based on the premise of 3 16 bar verses and a 4 bar hook. This is the basic set up of most hip hop songs... 3 verses, can be 1 MC or 2 MCs passing the mic, generally the prevelent one getting the 2 verses, 3 MC with 1 verse each (think Wu), etc.
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8 bar hooks are actually more common, and the 52 bar thing doesnt take into account multiple choruses. 20 bars is also a very common length for verses.
 
What a producer is sayin is, gimme 52 bars and i'll build the song around it or here's the beat, u need 52 bars worth of written material to fill it up, just like alabaster was sayin'. even in most 8 bar hooks they repeat the chorus twice
 
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