The sweetness in the language of tragedy

My old advertising agency boss had a rule about copywriting for our clients.

No rhyming.

He told me on my first day:

Rhyming is corny and lacks credibility with audiences. Our ads can never sound like ditties, limericks or children’s songs. No rhyming.

Now, from a business strategy perspective, his point was well taken. He was the owner of the agency, and he knew our clients better than anyone. It was also my first day on the job. And he may not always be right, be he’s always the boss.

But his rule against rhyming always bothered me. Partly because I’m a songwriter and lyricist, and it’s hard for me not to rhyme. It’s just the way my brain has been trained. Everything is a song to me.

More importantly, from a communication standpoint, rhyming has been scientifically proven to work. Humans naturally pursue, learn from and enjoy patterns. Rhymes are easy to read, understand and can profoundly influence the way people think.

Aristotle himself wrote, the sweetness of meter and sound harmony in the language of tragedy, specifically in its sung portions, is one of the reasons why we can take pleasure from it.

It’s funny, though. Some people are basically allergic to similar sounding words. What’s behind that?

One reason is that they’re afraid rhymes will make dubious notions sound more believable. Smooth phrasing will lull people into assent immorally. The most commonly quoted example in popular culture being:

If the glove fits, you must acquit.

Simpson’s trial, despite a lack of evidence, showed that rhyming allowed the beauty of the defense attorney’s phrase to validate its truthfulness, even if it was false.

It’s the rhyme as reason phenomenon. Audiences perceive rhyming phrases as being more accurate descriptions of human behavior.

And so, there is a certain level of distrust around rhyming that is valid. Rhyming, like any tool, could be weaponized as a psychological bias and tool for evil.

But that doesn’t mean it’s not a powerful tool. If our job as creators is to communicate our ideas, then we should tap into the natural human tendency to prefer the rhyme as a pleasurable aesthetic.

There’s one group of cognitive psychologists who recently researched the hypothesis around rhyming. They believed meter and rhyme had an impact on aesthetic liking, emotional involvement and positive affect. In the study, participants listened to stanzas that were systematically modified with regard to meter and rhyme and rated them.

Both rhyme and meter significantly influenced liking, intensity, perceived emotion, with rhyming stanzas leading to a more positive emotional evaluation. They also discovered that besides the potential effect on aesthetic experience, rhymes also claimed to influence recall and comprehension of the words themselves.

How effectively do you using rhyming in your work?

Personally, I do it all the time. Not only in my songs, but on this very software platform as well.

One article on the importance of conscientiousness states, if it’s going to be painful either way, then why delay?

Another piece on the creative person’s struggle with loneliness and depression says, when you’re feeling blue, you don’t need more you.

Then there’s the post on writer’s block that lovingly reminds you, if there comes a day when you have nothing to say, that’s okay.

And let’s not forget my favorite zen productivity mantra, the right choice is the one you make, the right path is the one you take.

Hell, most of the fake inventions on my product development and innovation card game have rhyming taglines. It not only works, but it’s fun. How else are writers supposed to stay sane during the day?

Look, it may have been a long time since most of us were kids. But lest we forget, there’s a good reason nursery rhymes are used for brain development. Because they work. Repetition of rhymes is good for the brain. They help kids with speech development, reading comprehension, language assimilation, creativity development, culture preservation, coordination improvement and humor. My suggestion is, if you have a message you want to convey, rhyming isn’t something from which to run away. Do you believe rhyming makes dubious notions sound more believable, or makes people remember your ideas?