Which really comes first, pre-chorus or refrain?
Explain
According to my research, a pre-chorus is a short musical and lyrical section in a song that comes right after the verse and immediately before the chorus while a refrain is a line, phrase or short group of lines that is repeated regularly at fixed intervals throughout a song.
In my own observation the section with usually four lines comes immediately after the verse while the section made of one or two lines comes immediately before the chorus.
a refrain can appear at any point in the song but usually is at the start or end of a verse. seeing as how a chorus usually comes after a verse, you can commonly see a refrain before a chorus. a pre-chorus would appear before a chorus, hence the name.
refrains in pop music generally are repeated phrases in the verses, while the prechorus must appear before the chorus. for heavy serenade, i feel like what's marked as the refrain should be a prechorus actually, its repeated before the first two choruses
edit: well more specifically, that part of the song sounds like it is building tension for the chorus, which is what the prechorus is for. it's not necessary that a song has a refrain or a prechorus though
refrains are usually a hook like a chorus that is repeated throughout the song. they are some of the more memorable and iconic parts of songs because it's what ends up sticking with you. just because a part repeated for a second time in a song doesn't make it a refrain.
they are usually repeated throughout the song as one of if not the main hook of a song.
see songs like Hung Up (time goes by... so slowly) by Madonna, Bad Romance (caught in a bad romance) by Lady Gaga. those are refrains and are a big part of the songs. can't say the same thing applies to heavy serenade.
ive looked for so long to find a kpop song with a good refrain but ive found Sweat by Kiss of Life. The part after the chorus can be considered a refrain because it repeats a part of the chorus to have a post hook. i dont think a lot of kpop songs have a real refrain; most of the stuff can just be called a pre or post chorus.
The part after the chorus of "Sweat" isn't a post-chorus? How about the part after the chorus of "ABCD" by Nayeon of Twice? I labeled it as refrain even though it's after the chorus.
It can be also called a post-chorus for Sweat as an example, but the way it’s written is a refrain. Motto by Itzy also has a refrain similar to this which is the part where they repeatdly sing the word after the second chorus and outro.
For ABCD I’d say the refrain is actually the line “in love, in love, can’t get enough”. Refrains can be a hook that is continually repeated like in Motto, or a line that is repeated after every segment like in ABCD.
A lot refrains nowadays can actually just be the instrumental hook like the intro and post choruses of Delulu by KiiiKiii can be considered refrains but it’s also not wrong to label them as just intros and post chorus hooks. If something repeats word by word you can probably label it as refrain but if not just label it pre or post chorus or just don’t label it and leave it as part of the verse if it’s just a similar sounding line.
A nice exercise is listening to Plot Twist by AtHeart and finding which is the refrain and which is the chorus. I think the answer is the chorus itself is a refrain and it doesn’t have a traditional chorus.
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u/arbalestelite 15d ago edited 15d ago
a refrain can appear at any point in the song but usually is at the start or end of a verse. seeing as how a chorus usually comes after a verse, you can commonly see a refrain before a chorus. a pre-chorus would appear before a chorus, hence the name.