Interesting thread indeed. Song writing is something I very rarely did before joining the forum 12 years ago. My decades of playing in bluegrass bands was almost exclusively covers. BiaB allowed us to explore blues which we loved but had not played much. And after these more recent years of attempting to write I honestly haven’t given much thought to this topic. FWIW I think, to a less mentioned extent, engagement is dependent on the anticipated audience Here at the forum we hear genres we never listen to elsewhere. Perhaps arranging for immediate engagement and moving to a climax is necessary. But away from the forum, for us, we are preaching to the choir. Janice is fortunate to have many songs on some popular Spotify blues rock playlists. Folks coming to those playlists expect, well, blues. They know the genre and have notions of what to expect. There’s no “this isn’t my genre but.” 😀 One might think blues is so formulaic it doesn’t matter. I get that. But we aim for placement on these lists and it seems to work. FWIW After all that babble I do feel that a verbally catchy hook presented early is very effective in engaging us. And for us, fair or not, if we don’t feel the vocal has our notion of soul we don’t stay engaged. Vocally supportive instrumental fills are meaningful to us. And of course lyrics … I will say that mundane lyrics sung by a great vocals will engage us.

Bud

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