- How do I tell soft rock from soft pop?
- Look at the lineup. Soft rock still runs a band — guitar, bass, drums all present, simply played gently. Soft pop builds on piano, pads and electronics with drums optional. Both are mellow, but one is a band holding back and the other never needed a band.
- How do I stop generated soft rock becoming a generic ballad?
- Insist on the band. Prompt "live drum kit, electric bass, clean electric guitar arpeggios" and ask for "a melodic guitar solo in the interlude." That ensemble breathing is what separates soft rock from a pop ballad.
- What kind of lyric suits it?
- Everyday feeling and slices of life: relationships, the passage of time, looking back. It sits poorly with violent catharsis or dense metaphor; plainspoken and concrete writing matches its warmth best.
