What are the most overused song titles?
You can get carried away with creativity to the point where it stops being productive. Then it’s time to go back to basics and think about what, exactly, it is you’re trying to achieve. The next rock ‘n’ roll masterpiece? Or an honest, autobiographical reflection? Or maybe it’s a bit of both?
In music, this is a common challenge. A lot of the time, when artists make music, there’s a weird mindset they have to go into that either leans into their influences or detaches from them. Sometimes, they don’t even know what they’re doing if they’re not channelling something. But then that gets into another sticky territory, one that comes down to if you’re not thinking about anything in particular, what are you even trying to do?
Song titles are a strange place to start when looking at all this. Because most of the time they actually come last, or somewhere in between basic idea seed planting and fully-formed song. Sometimes, song titles aren’t even lyrics used in the actual song. And some are just way too long to even remember, no matter how iconic. Like for some reason, most emo bands in the early 2000s got off on extensively long song titles, like they had a point to prove. Panic at the Disco probably excelled the most in this department.
But it stretched into a few indie circles, too. ‘The Hellcat Spangled Shalalala’ is a bit of a mouthful (a great song though, mind). But that’s also pretty fitting for a band that often talks about erratic poetry in Alex Turner’s signature ramblings. But what about when we, like those scrambling artists in the studio, go back to basics? What about the short one-worders that say everything they need to without saying much at all?
What are the most overused song titles ever?
According to Billboard, the most overused song title in all of history is ‘Hold On’. John Lennon, Alabama Shakes, Jonas Brothers, Justin Bieber, Drake, Adele, Santana, Kansas, Wilson Phillips and countless others form a long list of artists who have used the title. And that’s not to even consider the ones who have used it in some kind of different variation, like ELO and Genesis, proving that the phrase itself has more than achieved its label as one of the most overused in music.
Beyond that, though, the list of others goes on. And most are probably you could guess in a heartbeat. Like, when you think of the most common theme in music, what’s the first one that comes to mind? Love or sex, probably, right? It’s no surprise then that these also cross over into some other overused song titles as well, like ‘You’, ‘I Love You’, ‘Believe’, ‘I Want You’, ‘Heaven’, ‘Dreams’, ‘Falling’, ‘You’, the list goes on.
But this isn’t necessarily something to feel bitter about, either. Creativity is key, of course, (unless it’s something like ‘Mystical Magical’, in which case…). However, music is a madly oversaturated art form, and there are bound to be crossovers coming in left, right and centre. So long as the music itself is actually good, it doesn’t really matter whether it’s called something obvious or not. If it’s good, people will flock to it regardless.
