50 Theme Ideas for Your Songwriting

You want to write a song and you have lots of time but no ideas? Coming up with an idea for a song or lyric can prove more difficult than you think. We've compiled a list of ideas to get you started, broken down by subject area:

From song themes to song ideas

A theme is the subject of your song; a song idea is the specific angle you take on it. "Heartbreak" is a theme. "Packing up the flat you shared, one box at a time" is a song idea. The lists below give you themes, so once one catches your eye, the next job is to narrow it into an idea you can actually write.

Here's a simple way to do that with any theme on this page:

1. Pick one theme and write it at the top of a blank page.
2. Ask who, where and when. Who is the song about? Where does it happen? Is it happening now, or is it a memory?
3. Find one concrete detail (an object, a place, a line someone said) that makes the theme feel specific. Our guide to painting a picture with lyrics shows how details do the heavy lifting.
4. Write the first line and see whether it wants to be a verse or a chorus. If you get stuck, try one of the approaches in 7 ways to start a song.

Ideas arrive faster than you can finish them, so keep a running list. 10 ways to manage your song ideas covers how to store them, and how to finish more song ideas helps you turn the best ones into complete songs. Still empty-handed? Coming up with new ideas when writing a song has more ways to get unstuck.

Love songs

• The joy of finding new love
• The pain of a recent break up
• The suffering of a relationship you can't get out of
• Jealousy over a former lover being with someone else
• Unrequited love for someone you can't have
• Interference from someone else into your relationship
• A description of your physical attraction to another
• Your dreams for the future of your relationship or future partner
• Your disgust at love and all that it represents
• Your hatred for other happy couples
• How you don't understand your partner
• Reminiscing over a former lover
• The love you have for your mother or father
• Your feelings towards someone who has lied to you
• Your plan to break up with someone
• The distance between you and a lover
• Telling someone you love them
• Your description of someone you admire
• The enjoyment you get talking to someone
• The monotony of your relationship
• Your apology to someone
• Your desperation for someone
• The virtues of the person you love
• How you'll always be there for someone

Your life

• Your love for a town, city or country
• Your love for a season or a country scene
• Your love for an animal/bird/natural object
• The wishes for your future
• The story of your life
• The lessons you have learnt
• Your admiration for a famous person
• A story about a person you once knew
• How a stranger has affected your life
• Your longing for freedom
• The story of your travels
• Your failures
• Your home
• A cry for help
• Your recovery from a setback
• Illusion and deception
• Your descent into despair
• Your hatred for someone
• Some advice you are able to give

Topical/political songs

• Your comments on the latest news
• Your protest about a current war or other negative event
• Your take on the nature of society
• How you don't understand why certain people have done certain things
• The different sides of an argument
• Your religious views or your love for god or other spirituality
• How history is repeating itself

How to choose from these themes for songs

Fifty themes for songs is a lot to choose from, so here are three quick ways to narrow it down:

• Start with what you feel strongly about. Songs about something you genuinely care about tend to be easier to finish, whether that feeling is joy, anger or nostalgia.
• Pick the theme that scares you a little. If a theme on the list makes you slightly uncomfortable, there's probably something honest in it worth writing.
• Combine two themes. A song about "the distance between you and a lover" and "your longing for freedom" is a different song from either one alone.

Whichever theme you choose, try to avoid the well-worn phrases everyone reaches for first. Five cliches to avoid in writing song lyrics will help you keep a familiar theme sounding fresh.

Want more subjects to write about? See 10 more topics for your songwriting, or find a co-writer to bounce themes off: browse songwriters looking for other songwriters on Verse-Chorus.