July 31, 2024
Creating a Modern Pop Song From Scratch Using Kits AI
Sam Kearney
This week’s experiment takes us into the world of chart-topping pop. As someone who typically occupies the indie rock world, I was excited to push the boundaries and explore territory I don’t typically tread. I’ll cover common tempos, instrumentation, lyrics and melody ideas you can apply within your own pop productions.
Starting with the Basics
Choose Your Tempo:
Though songs often begin by finding a chord progression to launch inspiration from, I also like to use tempo as a jumping off point. It may be me, but when I sit at a piano or pick up an acoustic guitar, I find those instruments sometimes lead me towards downtempo tracks. This is why it can be fun to start with a drumbeat or percussion loop to get out of rhythmic habits one might routinely fall into.
Typical pop songs usually inhabit a bpm range of 100 to 130. For the purpose of this experiment, I’m going to land in the middle at bpm of 115 as my jumping off point. This tempo provides enough energy for a danceable groove while still allowing melodic and lyrical nuance.
Selecting Instrumentation:
Drums and Percussion: I, like many, enjoy making a racket behind a drum kit, but in no way do I consider myself a drummer. To start building the rhythmic elements of my track I leaned on the royalty-free sample library Splice to fill in the gaps and found a couple samples that fit the vibe stylistically. Pop songs generally have a punchy kick, snappy snare and crisp hi-hats as their rhythmic backbone. Because I was going for a contemporary sound, I wanted to try blending both electronic and acoustic elements into the rhythm section of my track, landing on a mix of more traditional electronic pop elements and more organic drumline sounds.
Bass: A deep, driving bassline helps carry the energy of a track and provides crucial melodic information for memorable higher melodies to flow over. For this track, I combined punchy, staccato synth stabs with a sustained sub-bass.
Synths and Keys: Layered synth pads, plucks, and leads can all play a part in providing the harmonic foundation for a pop track. Take care not to create moments where the instrumentation and vocals fight each other; leave enough space for both to shine. Here was another example where I found it interesting to combine synthetic and organic elements.
Guitars: Adding both acoustic and electric guitars to your track can bring an especially human and organic touch. Consider adding subtle effects like reverb and delay, which can help guitars blend seamlessly with more electronic elements. Here the delay on the plucky guitars helps add another rhythmic element to the track and keeps things flowing.
Vocals: Lastly and most importantly, a great pop song needs a great vocal. At the end of the day, it’s always the vocal timbre and performance that will leave the biggest impression on a listener. What if you aren’t a great singer? Thankfully, using tools like Kits AI, you can now transform your voice into a wide variety of excellent singers until you find the perfect match for your track.
As I mentioned earlier, pop is not a genre I typically write within, and on top of that, I wasn’t born with an especially strong voice. Since Kits offers a wide selection of singers from an array of genres, it's never been easier to audition voices that can provide the most appropriate match for your song, regardless of musical style.
Another exciting Kits addition is the most recent selection of Verified Voices. With the Kits Earn feature, singers now have the opportunity to generate a new revenue stream by uploading models of their own voices and earning passive income as their models are used by other creators. With all the current chatter in the music AI space, it’s nice to know Kits not only trains all their models ethically, but is also developing new ways for musicians to make money off their individual talents.
Creating Memorable Lyrics and Melodies
Crafting Lyrical content:
The term “pop” is short for popular. Considering this basic concept, lyrics in pop music should be highly relatable. Keeping things straightforward with themes like love, relationships, and other common human experiences will help a wide audience relate to your song. As someone who recently began a new relationship, it seemed like the obvious theme to draw from for the lyrics of my song. Here’s a step-by-step approach to consider when crafting your own pop song lyrics:
Concept: Find a central idea, theme, emotion or message you want to convey.
Verse: Use this section of the song to introduce the narrative. Try keeping it conversational and relatable.
Chorus: Arguably the most important piece of the puzzle. A great pop chorus will have a strong vocal hook both melodically and lyrically. Use repetition to help drive memorability.
Bridge: Use this section as a slight departure and as a moment to offer a different perspective to keep the song interesting.
Creating a Melody:
A memorable melody is key to a successful pop song. Here are some tips:
Keep it Simple: The best pop melodies are often the simplest. Try to find catchy, singable phrases.
Repetition: Don’t be afraid to repeat melodic ideas. Using repetition is the best way to help a listener remember the song.
Contrast: Using contrasting melodic ideas in the verse and chorus will help keep the listener engaged. Consider using different pitch ranges for both, staying in a lower range with a more relaxed performance in the verses, and exploding with higher energy and range in the choruses for more impact.
Finding the Right Voice With Kits AI
With my musical foundation laid and vocal melody and lyrics written, it was time to find the right vocal match for my song. Though my track wasn’t near the pop masterpiece of Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used To Know”, using that as inspiration, I thought it could be cool to have a female vocal come in for the chorus of my track. With this duet in mind, my demo vocal featured me switching to falsetto in the chorus to reach the range of the female part I wrote.
After bouncing my individual vocal stems, I began by selecting Convert from the menu on the left.
I then dragged my lead vocal stem into the “Input” box.
After my track was uploaded, I was ready to begin auditioning male pop singers and I clicked on the “+” next to “Select a voice.”
To narrow my search options, I selected “Male” from the Gender drop down menu, as well as “Pop” from the Genre option. By hitting the play button next to each singer, I was able to quickly audition each and then chose my top five options by selecting the square in the top right corner of each picture.
With my top selections ready, I hit the “Continue” button, followed by the “Convert” button, and in a few short moments, my lead vocal was transformed into five different singers. I then repeated these steps but with female vocalists for my chorus.
After importing my Kits vocal tracks back into my DAW, I soon discovered that using a combination of singers for my double-tracked vocals provided increased depth and character. My final selections included a combination of both Kits Voices and Verified Voices.
Conclusion
One of the things I enjoy most about being a composer for film and TV is when I am asked to produce music outside my typical wheelhouse. Not only is it fun and exciting, but it can also be a very freeing experience to embrace trends and production choices that I sometimes purposely avoid. I’ve found that allowing yourself to tread into uncomfortable places often leads to the discovery of new ideas and approaches you might not have otherwise found. Creating this pop idea was one such experiment, and using Kits AI proved to be an incredible tool for encouraging such exploration.
Listen to the results of my experiment below, which includes a version of the original with all my vocals, an entirely Kits-based version, and lastly, a combination of my vocal and the Kits female vocal accompanying me.
-SK
Sam Kearney is a producer, composer and sound designer based in Evergreen, CO.
