Song Structure Writeup on Eurythmics - Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)
Song structure refers to how a song is organized, using a combination of different sections. A typical song structure includes a verse, chorus, and bridge in the following arrangement:
intro — verse — chorus — verse — chorus —bridge — chorus — outro.
This is known as an ABABCB structure, where A is the verse, B is the chorus and C is the bridge.
As an example, I have chosen Eurythmics - Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) and have done a break up of this song into different sections as I have perceived it.
Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) is a song by the British new wave music duo Eurythmics. The song is the title track of their album of the same name and was released as the fourth and final single from the album in early 1983. The song became their breakthrough hit, establishing the duo worldwide. Its music video helped to propel the song to number 2 on the UK Singles Chart and number 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100. It was the first single released by Eurythmics in the US.
This song is in the key of C minor and the tempo is 125 bpm.
This track is largely built from alternations between Verse/Chorus and Break Sections, with lengths that are (mostly) multiples of four or eight bars. Even though the song has a very repetitive structure, it is different from other tracks as this one opens with the Verse/Chorus itself and this is repeated throughout the entire song.
Song Structure:
The intro of the song begins with an arpeggiated synth melody and a floor on the floor beat which leads straight to the Verse/Chorus of the song. This is followed by Break 1 and only the first half of the Verse/Chorus is played. Next, we have Break 2 which then directly jumps into the Bridge Section of the track. An Instrumental solo on the Cello and the Second Half of the Verse/Chorus follows the Bridge Section. Then, we have Break 3 and the repetition of the Verse/Chorus with slight variations to the beat. The Verse/Chorus keeps repeating over and over until the Song finally slowly fades out to an Outro. In order to understand the song structure better, the timeline below shows the flow of the song in a simplified format.
