List of Music and Song Keywords for
Moods, Feelings, Emotions, Vibe
Here is a list of important keywords for describing your songs and instrumentals.
Effectively using keywords means your music will show up in database searches.
Effectively using keywords means your music will show up in database searches.
Before releasing an album or pitching songs and Film/TV instrumental cues, especially to a
publisher or music supervisor, keywords should be embedded into the mp3s,
on iTunes, and included on Gracenote (also known as MusicID), etc.
Keywords are known as "metadata." Metadata means "information." Information is important!
Additional metadata to embed may include: the titles of the album and songs,
the composers and songwriters, copyright and contact information, etc.
After music is signed with a music publisher, production music library, music licensing company, etc.,
the songwriter or composer will often need to fill out a spreadsheet
using some of the keywords listed below.
publisher or music supervisor, keywords should be embedded into the mp3s,
on iTunes, and included on Gracenote (also known as MusicID), etc.
Keywords are known as "metadata." Metadata means "information." Information is important!
Additional metadata to embed may include: the titles of the album and songs,
the composers and songwriters, copyright and contact information, etc.
After music is signed with a music publisher, production music library, music licensing company, etc.,
the songwriter or composer will often need to fill out a spreadsheet
using some of the keywords listed below.
In 2010, Tracey and Vance Marino cultivated this list from many different sources when they were
writing music for daytime talk shows like The Oprah Winfrey Show, Nate Berkus, and several others.
They noticed that, although the keywords on the publisher's list were in alphabetical order,
it was difficult to wade through hundreds of words, especially when there were looming deadlines.
So, to make it easier to navigate through the keywords, they came up with the idea of having the words
separated into columns of "Positive," "Negative," and "Neutral."
writing music for daytime talk shows like The Oprah Winfrey Show, Nate Berkus, and several others.
They noticed that, although the keywords on the publisher's list were in alphabetical order,
it was difficult to wade through hundreds of words, especially when there were looming deadlines.
So, to make it easier to navigate through the keywords, they came up with the idea of having the words
separated into columns of "Positive," "Negative," and "Neutral."
HELPFUL TIPS:
- Be VERY careful when selecting keywords for your music. Ideally, choose three to 12 words maximum,
depending on what the music company you're working with prefers.
Some companies are okay with dozens of keywords. However...
- If too many, especially inappropriate, keywords are listed, this is known as "spam" and it's a big no-no in the music industry.
- Each keyword should be followed by a comma. The words can be uppercase or lowercase.
For example: Cheerful, Happy, Inspirational, Jovial, Joyful, Merry, Uplifting
- These keywords are also helpful when writing a description for your music. For example:
"This is a fun, jangly, victorious, upbeat Pop song with confident, assertive female vocals,
a funky, relentless guitar riff, a bouncy, animated bass part, and edgy, contemporary drum beats."
(The words in boldface are found among the three lists below)
- List your keywords in either of two ways:
1) List the keywords alphabetically, so if you add additional words to your list, you'll easily see what's already been included.
For example, if your list is: Abrasive, Angry, Dangerous, Mean, Scary, Terrifying, Wicked.
If you need to add the word "Aggressive," you would insert it between "Abrasive" and "Angry."
2) List the most important keywords first, so if the publisher needs to cut some words, the strongest descriptions will show up first.
- Be VERY careful when selecting keywords for your music. Ideally, choose three to 12 words maximum,
depending on what the music company you're working with prefers.
Some companies are okay with dozens of keywords. However...
- If too many, especially inappropriate, keywords are listed, this is known as "spam" and it's a big no-no in the music industry.
- Each keyword should be followed by a comma. The words can be uppercase or lowercase.
For example: Cheerful, Happy, Inspirational, Jovial, Joyful, Merry, Uplifting
- These keywords are also helpful when writing a description for your music. For example:
"This is a fun, jangly, victorious, upbeat Pop song with confident, assertive female vocals,
a funky, relentless guitar riff, a bouncy, animated bass part, and edgy, contemporary drum beats."
(The words in boldface are found among the three lists below)
- List your keywords in either of two ways:
1) List the keywords alphabetically, so if you add additional words to your list, you'll easily see what's already been included.
For example, if your list is: Abrasive, Angry, Dangerous, Mean, Scary, Terrifying, Wicked.
If you need to add the word "Aggressive," you would insert it between "Abrasive" and "Angry."
2) List the most important keywords first, so if the publisher needs to cut some words, the strongest descriptions will show up first.
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POSITIVE KEYWORDS:
Examples: Happy, Upbeat, Positive Animated Awesome Awestruck Beautiful Believable Bold Blissful Brave Breathtaking Breezy Bright Brilliant Bubbly Calm Carefree Careful Caring Cartoony Casual Cautious Celebratory Celestial Charming Cheeky Cheerful Cheesy Comfortable Comforting Comical Comedic Confident Content Cool Corny Cozy Curious Cute Delicate Delighted Delightful Determined Dignified Earnest Easy Ecstatic Elated Elegant Enchanting Endearing Exciting Fanciful Fashionable Fearless Feel Good Feeling Fine Festive Flirtatious Free Spirit Free Wheeling Friendly Frisky Fun Funky Funny Gentle Giddy Glamorous Glorious Glorifying Glowing Gorgeous Graceful Grand Groovy Gutsy Happy Heartening Heartfelt Heartwarming Heavenly High Life Hilarious Hokey Honest Hopeful Humorous Inspirational Jolly Joyful Joyous Jubilant Laughable Lighthearted Likable Lilting Lovely Magical Majestic Motivational Nice Noble Optimistic Outgoing Overjoyed Playful Pleasant Pleasing Positive Proud Quaint Purposeful Relaxing Saucy Shimmering Silly Slapstick Soaring Spa-like Sparkling Springy Stately Strong Successful Summery Sweeping Sweet Sympathetic Tender Terrific Thankful Triumphant Trusting Trustworthy Undefeated Upbeat Uplifting Valiant Vibrant Victorious Vigorous Welcoming Whimsical Winning Wondrous Zany |
NEGATIVE KEYWORDS:
Examples: Sad, Bad, Mad, etc. Aching Abrasive Afraid Aggressive Angry Anguished Annoying / Annoyed Anxious Apprehensive Arrogant Awkward Bad Bitter Bluesy Booming Brooding Chaotic Childish Cocky Cold Confused Cranky Creeped Out Creepy Dangerous Defeated Deflated Demonic Depressed Desperate Detached Devastating Devilish Distracted Downtrodden Dirge Dirty Disastrous Disenchanted Disillusioned Distorted Distressed Disturbed Doubtful Eerie Embarrassed Evil Exhaustive Failing Fearful Feeling Blue Fickle Forceful Foreboding Frantic Freakin Out Frustrated Ghostly Gloomy Grating Greasy Gritty Grumpy Guilty Gun-Shy (Nervous) Hard-Hitting Hardened Harsh Hateful Haunting Heartbreaking Heartbroken Heated Heavy Hectic Hopeless Horrifying Hurt Icy Idiotic Immature Inconsolable Indecisive Insanity Introverted Irrational Irreverent Irritating Jealous Jumpy Lazy Lethargic Lonely Longing Lost Loud Lowlife Mad Madness Mean Melancholy Menacing Mischievous Mournful Nasty Negative Nerve-Wracking Nervous Obnoxious Obsessive Ominous Oppressed Overbearing Painful Panicking Pessimistic Plodding Pompous Pounding Prickly Puffed Up Pushy Racy Raunchy Rebellious Reckless Regretting Rejected Relentless Remorseful Restless Revenge Seeking Risk-Taker Risky Risqué Rotten Rowdy Rough Sad Scared Scary Secretive Shocking Sinking Shy Sick Sinister Sleazy Slimy Sly Snarky Snarling Sneaky Snobbish Snooping Snotty Sorry Spoiled Spooky Stiff Strange Stressed Out Stuffy Suspenseful Syrupy Tear-Jerker Tension Terrified Terror Tired Tough Tragedy Tragic Trampy Trashy Uncertain Uncontrollable Uneasy Unfriendly Unraveling Unsettling Unsure Upsetting Vengeful Vicious Weary Weepy Weird Wicked Wild Wintery Wistful Worried Yearning |
NEUTRAL KEYWORDS:
Examples: Acoustic, Bouncy, Childlike (words that are neither positive nor negative) Accepting Acoustic Action Adventurous / Adventure Ambient Ancient Anthemic Anticipation / Anticipating Assertive Attitude Awe-Struck Atmospheric Big Bittersweet Bombastic Bouncy Brassy Building Childlike Cinematic Classy Contemplative Contemporary Crazy Dancing Deep Down Home Down To Earth Dramatic Dreamy Driving Droning / Drone Dynamic Edgy Earthy Emotional Energetic Epic Erratic Ethereal Ethnic Exotic Fast Fiery Filmy Flowing Folksy Freaky Free Fresh Futuristic Goofy Heroic High Brow High Energy High Fashion High Intensity High Society Hip Historical Hot Huge Hypnotic Important Innocent Inquisitive Insistent Intense Intricate Intrigue / Intriguing Introspective Investigative / Investigating Jamming Jazzy Jerky Jangly Jumpy Laid Back Light Lively Lofty Lush Mature Mechanical Medical Meditative Mellow Melodic Melodramatic Metallic Military / Militaristic Misty Modern Moody Moving Mysterious Mystical Natural Nautical Neutral New Nostalgic Old Country Old Fashioned Old Timey Organic Over The Top Panoramic Passionate Pastoral Patriotic Peaceful Pensive Percussive Pleading Poignant Political Pondering Pounding Powerful Prestigious Primitive Productive Psychedelic Puffy Pulsating Punchy Questioning Quiet Quirky Racing Rambling Refined Reflective Regal / Royal / Imperial Religious / Sacred Repetitive / Repetitious Retro Revealing Reverent Rhythmic Rockin / Rocking Rootsy Rousing Romantic Rustic Sassy Schmaltzy Scientific Searching Sedate Sensational Sensitive Sensual Sentimental Serene Serious Sexy Simple Sincere Slow Smokin Smoky Smoldering Smooth Soap Opera Soft Solemn Somber Soothing Sophisticated Soulful Spacey Sparse Spastic Spiritual Stimulating Stirring Street-Smart Subtle Suggestive Surprising / Surprises Swaggering Swaying Sultry Surreal Swirling Tasking Technical Thematic / Theme Thrilling Thinking Thoughtful Timeless/ness Touching Traditional Tranquil Transparent Twangy Unbelievable Unexpected Urgent Vibey Warm Wholesome Wondering Working |
©2010-2023 SongMaker Productions, Tracey J. Marino, Vance K. Marino. All rights reserved.
