songbut

Songbut is a term used in contemporary music discourse to describe a songwriting and lyric-writing approach in which a contrasting turn is introduced by the conjunction but. The device seeks to create a pivot in mood, perspective, or narrative between sections of a song, most commonly between verse and chorus or bridge and chorus. The term is a neologism that emerged in online discussions of lyric design in the early 2020s, and its exact origins are uncertain; it is not part of formal music-theory nomenclature. In practice, a verse may establish a somber premise, followed by a chorus that acknowledges that premise but reframes it with a different emotional stance, often highlighted by a pivot in melody, harmony, or tempo. The word "but" can be used as a lyrical cue, a melodic pivot, or both.

Character and usage: Songbut is characterized by deliberate contrarian turns and a visible rhetorical hinge. It is applied across genres including pop, indie, and hip-hop, and has become a point of analysis in discussions of storytelling in song lyrics and structure. In computational creativity, some lyric-generation models use a "but" pivot as a controllable parameter to simulate human-like concession or contradiction in narratives.

Examples: A hypothetical example: verse: "I walk the line alone at night." chorus: "but then I hear your voice, and I know I’m not alone."

See also: lyrical device; contrast; concessive device; bridge (music); song structure.