Imagine you’re only able to tell a story by singing it. But then someone tells you can't actually use any lyrics and you can chart your tale only by using the rise and fall of the chord progression to get people involved and engaged.
What am I talking about and how does it relate to scriptwriting? The genius of Lady Gaga, that’s what I’m talking about. But what does she have in common with John Sayles, Lawrence Kasdan, Phillip Kaufman or Christopher Nolan?
Gaga’s recent “Bad Romance” is an amazing song. With the current album and this song in particular she steps away from the pack and shows her full stride as a songwriter of note (no pun intended.)
Never mind the stunning music video and the somewhat intriguing lyrics. This song makes me listen in wonder at her amazing non-verbal story-telling ability. Let me break it down.
Listen here: you tube video
You might have to listen to this song more than a few times to get what I’m saying
exactly but the principles will be easy enough to pull through. All I’m concerned about here is the music, not really the video or the lyrics. Just the music.
Imagine this song as a script. Structurally, you’ve got a Teaser, ACT I, ACT II Midpoint, ACT II resolution and ACT III. It’s also very high concept - it’s about a “bad romance.” Doesn’t that just fill your head with images about the anticipation of what that concept may deliver? It does mine. Who hasn’t been in a bad romance, out of control and both hating and loving it. Doesn’t the music spiral in and out of control? Listen to the rise and fall of the music - the pounding drums, the breathlessness of the song when she pulls it back only to slap you across the face again with the tough mayhem of her chords and melody line (the part you hum when you listen.)
Even at her young age, this is a mature songwriter using melody lines and chord
progressions to trap you inextricably into her story. Once you’re caught, she will reprise the things that make the song work but she’ll also toss in some tonal textures that you didn’t expect, just like a screenwriter who has to use the same characters he established but has to think differently about them and can’t directly “repeat the beat” as the phrase goes.
Sidenote: Interesting, don’t you think, that strong moments in scriptwriting are called “beats.”
At the same time that the music itself is familiar and that’s good because we come to this type of music to hear familiar things, Gaga elevates it to other place we didn’t, couldn’t imagine. Places that only her unique voice could take us - and I mean that not in the vocal sense but in the songwriting sense.We each go through three stages of creativity: primitive, mechanical and 
spontaneous. Gagas in that rarified orbit that we have to work years to achieve and it shows in how she tells this story melodically.
Watch the time codes as you listen. Everything I’m saying here is directly applicable to screenwriting - any storytelling really:
Teaser: 0-0:14
A promise of what’s to come. Sets the tone, establishes what type of song (movie) we’re going to see.
ACT I: 0:14-0:46
Setup. Paving the musical road.
ACT II: 0:46-2:44
Deepening and explaining. Sit back and relax for a few minutes ‘cause it’s about to get rocky on the fall out of midpoint.
Midpoint: 2:45-3:19
Build to this moment (false climax) and then decline away from it.
ACT II: 3:20-3:59
Faux resolution/reprise -
Reprise the theme but raise the stakes as we back to the beginning but complicate the chord progression with some new sounds (new images and plot lines.)
The Calm Before The Storm: 3:40-4:16
Build for ending - unreal suspense
ACT III: 4:17
Climax. Ultimate battle.
Kick it in the ass and race for the ending.
Coda/denouement: 5:01-5:08
Storytelling is conflict/resolution, ebb and flow. It’s pretty obvious in the great music and art and stories of any generation. Gaga doesn’t succeed by accident with her amazingly catchy and infectious music that is so perfectly crafted. She may not sit down and plan it out like Paul Simon does but she is using exactly the same principals of songwriting that we use in storytelling.
