Big Messages, Small Moments: How to Write Songs That Say Something Real
There are a few things in life we’re told to avoid at dinner with family, namely religion and politics. As it turns out, those same topics tend to trip up us songwriters, too.
It’s not that they’re off-limits, but that they’re big. Writing about them well requires subtlety, specificity, and a deep sense of our listener’s experience while listening. Most often our “big message” songs, those career-defining tunes about justice, faith, or societal change, end up feeling undercooked, overly idealistic, or emotionally shallow.
But that doesn’t mean we should avoid them. It just means we need the right entry point.
Start with Something Small
When a message feels too large to grasp, we can start by narrowing our focus. Zoom in on a specific, real-life moment that brought your message into focus for you. That moment is your way in. It’s the image or experience that gives your listener something to connect with before asking them to care about the larger idea.
Here is an example from John Mayer’s “Waiting on the World to Change:”
Me and all my friends
We’re all misunderstood
They say we stand for nothing
And there’s no way we ever could…
These lines don’t start with a political stance. They start with feeling unheard. That’s something most people can relate to, no matter where they stand. The power of the lyric lies in its universality and in the personal, conversational tone that pulls us in without telling us what to think.
Point of View Matters
One of the easiest ways to shift the tone of a song is to change the point of view.
“I” can feel reflective, confessional.
“We” invites connection and a sense of shared experience.
“You” can be intimate… but also accusatory if we’re not careful.
“They” tends to place blame—and can create distance from the listener.
When we’re writing loaded message songs, we can always try experimenting with the POV. Different POV’s have profound effects on the perception of the singer by the audience member, landing us in a more neutral or approachable space where the message feels more like a conversation than a lecture.
Use Specific Characters to Say Something Universal
A helpful strategy is to frame our songs around someone else—a “she,” “he,” or “they”—to carry our message. By writing about a specific character or experience not our own, we gain credibility to speak to the bigger idea in our chorus:
I know a girl
She puts the color inside of my world
Then use the chorus to reflect something much broader:
So fathers be good to your daughters
And daughters will live like you do
When done well, this approach allows our verse to show while our chorus tells. The listener trusts our message because they’ve seen what led us to believe what we know is true.
Trim the Generalities
Big message songs suffer most when they stay too vague for too long. Try this trick:
Write your verse and chorus. Then make your original verse your second verse. Write a new, more grounded first verse that sets up the song with more texture and detail. This gets the general stuff out of our writing systems, and makes space for the specific.
Don’t Assume Agreement
When we’re passionate about a subject, it’s easy to assume our listeners will be, too. But our job as a writer isn’t to argue someone into our perspective, or to assume they have the same perspective. Our job is to offer them a window into our world in a way that might touch something in theirs.
If your message is personal to you, include yourself in the problem and the solution. A song that points a finger rarely changes hearts. But a song that admits, “Here’s what I’ve lived. Here’s what I’ve learned,” that song has power.
One Last Example
Listen to how this lyric from Twenty One Pilots anchors a generational message in something personal and grounded:
Sometimes a certain smell will take me back to when I was young…
I wish we could turn back time to the good old days
When our momma sang us to sleep, but now we’re stressed out…
That opening line could have been written in anyone’s journal. It quickly becomes a gateway into something larger, something nostalgic, and honest. Suddenly, we’re all remembering our own “good old days.”
Big message songs are immensely challenging to write well, but immeasurably worth writing. When we lead with real moments, honest reflection, and humility, we make space for real connection. This idea is one of many tools I reach for when I’m trying to find my way into a difficult song. In The 30-Day Songwriter, we explore this approach alongside 29 other small, specific steps that help turn big ideas into songs that truly connect.
Stay Creative,
