Direct Address Explained
What Is Direct Address?
Also called second person, direct address is about a direct conversation between the “I” and some second person or “you.”
The pronouns associated with second person are:
Singular: you, your, yours
Plural: you, your, yours
You’ll often hear a combination of the pronouns I and you in a direct address song, so don’t let the I’s fool you – imagine the scene: does it sound like someone else is present?
The benefit of using direct address is the immediate immersion of the listener into a situation. The situation needs to hold enough drama to engage the listener, and the singer has to make sure the emotion of speaking to someone comes through during the performance.
Most Common Mistakes
- Talking at or down to someone.
- This is never an attractive song.
- No one wants a lecture during their leisure time.
- Using it when another point of view would work better
This is the easiest perspective to write in many ways because it’s conversational. However, it can often lead to a lack of detail and specifics in a scene, making the song seem flat and lifeless.
How It’s Done Well
Direct address is a complicated POV to use. It has pitfalls that can quickly make a song confusing. A great example of second person done well is “If We Were Vampires” by Jason Isbell.
This song is a conversation, so other forms of POV would have failed. For example, can you image the song in third person (extreme examples spoiler alert):
ORIGINAL VERSE & CHORUS
It’s not the long, flowing dress that you’re in
Or the light coming off of your skin
The fragile heart you protected for so long
Or the mercy in your sense of right and wrong
It’s knowing that this can’t go on forever
Likely one of us will have to spend some days alone
Maybe we’ll get forty years together
But one day I’ll be gone
Or one day you’ll be gone
REVISED VERSION: THIRD PERSON OMNISCIENT
Notice how the whole scene immediately becomes less connected/emotional to the speaker. It also really looses the emotional connection in the last two lines of the chorus that direct address affords the songwriter.
He thought: it’s not the long, flowing dress that she’s in
Or the light coming off of her skin
The fragile heart she protected for so long
Or the mercy in her sense of right and wrong . . .
He knows this can’t go on forever
Likely one of them will have to spend some days alone
Maybe they’ll get forty years together
But one day he’ll be gone
Or one day she’ll be gone