What is a "bridge" in a song?

Question:What do I need to know about writing bridges? and How do i write a bridge?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: What do I need to know about writing bridges? and How do i write a bridge?

Neither of the above answers is correct. A bridge is just another name for the B section - most songs are constructed in AABA form. You compose an 8-bar section of your main melody. You repeat it. You write something that contrasts, yet blends - and often has different chord progressions, or is in a neighboring harmonic area, like subdominant (if you started in D, it would be in the key of G.) The end of the bridge gets you back into the setup for the return of the A section - often by using a double dominant or 5 of 5 chord. They you have the A section again - so a total of 32 bars, AABA form. Standard for all pop tunes since the earliest days of recoding - when you had to get it done in 3 minutes (old 78 RPM records).

Folk music is more likely ot have verse/chorus structure - each vers has different words, but the chorus is always the same. Form is ABABABABABAB. Easy for the crowd to join in.

a bridge is something that connects a verse to a chorus.

a bridge connects a verse to the chorus. and usually doesn't have the same beat and and tune of the rest of the song.

It's a segue between a chorus and the solo or after the solo and before the last verse.

Not all songs have one, but many do

As a classic example Steely Dan's Rikki Don't Loose That Number.

The bridge comes out of the guitar solo

"You tell yourself your not my kind, but you don't even know your mind and you can have a change of heart"

Then is ends out with a chorus

In the Beatles With A Little Help the bridge is the

Do you need anybody. I want somebody to love. Could it be anybody. I just want someone to love.

That's bridge

That whole Little Red Panties segue in Third Eye Blind's Semi-Charmed life is a bridge. It was edited out by many stations.

More songs I can think of don't have them rather than do have them.

When I Come Around doesn't have one.

In the Eagles The Long Run it's the

Did you do it for love, did you do it for money

That part is the bridge.

Verse and choruses are generally 8 bars each and bridges are typically only 4 bars

The "bridge" is a break in the pattern of verses and choruses. It often leads into a guitar solo, but not always. In "Every Breath You Take," the bridge is the part that starts, "Since you’ve gone, I've been lost without a trace..." Sometimes the bridge sounds like it is put in just because someone thought the song should have one.