Common musical elements in each song, across decades. Surely the cultural trends of the time influence a song's ascent to no.1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart, but music is a strong force on its own. Tickling the fancy of a fad is not enough for a song to gain widespread popularity. No.1 on Hot 100 means your song has been played (radio and streaming) more and you've sold more digital and physical copies than anyone else. Surely there is some substance behind the musical side of the song!
That musical substance is exactly what I am hoping to flush out.
I have gone through 7 decades, twice over. The first round, "on the 8's," analyzed no.1 songs in the first week of August for 1958, 1968, 1978, 1988, 1998, 2008 and 2018. The second round, "on the 9's," followed suit, analyzing no.1 songs in the first week of August for 2019, 2009, 1999, 1989, 1979, 1969 and 1959.
The biggest commonality appeared in the arrangement: Every song analyzed EVOLVES. What exactly does that mean? Throughout the arrangement, nothing every stays exactly the same. If you hear the same section three times, by the third time, there is an element present that was not there the first two go-rounds.
Most of the time, this is done with the addition of instrument parts. In the 80's and before, this often happened in the horns/orchestra. As music technology progressed, this is covered by keyboard synth lines. No matter what instrument does it, the result is very similar. The song evolves from a basic musical idea to a full fledged presentation with bells and whistles (literally, a whistle in the case of "Bad Girls"). In no.1 hit songs, the texture of the music landscape is ever evolving.
Another unifying factor of every song analyzed is repetition. Melodic and harmonic ideas are best served repeated. This one is sort of a no-brainer. Think of any song, and it probably has a section and or melody that repeats. This paradigm was set up way back when, in the most primitive musics. It feels good to hear something multiple times because it becomes familiar and our brains love to process stuff we already know!
So why mention it? Many of the repeated elements in these songs are not as cut and dry as "here's the chorus again." Rhythmic patterns that are found in the verse are also present in the chorus. Melodies found in the chorus may reappear in the bridge. Most often, this manifests as rhythmic placement of melodic entrances (more often than not, 1.5 - .5 beats before beat 1) or frequent use of the same interval (usually 2nds, we LOVE scalar motion!).
Sometimes repeated material is the chord progression. Many songs use one set of chords for the verse and chorus, and sometimes even bridge!
I have taken all 14 songs analyzed and prepared a chart to show some data points pertaining to each song.
Some statistics jump at at me:
- 5/14 (36%) in a minor key
- 4/14 (29%) have a tonal center of Ab (G#)
- 8/14 (57%) utilize one primary chord progression for the entire tune
- 10/14 (71%) contain more than 2 sections
- 2/14 (14%) have verse only
- 2/14 (14%) have verse and chorus only
- 7/14 (50%) contain at least one bridge section
- 6/14 (43%) utilize the bVII chord
- 11/14 (79%) utilize the IV(iv) and I(i) chords*
- 13/14 (93%) are in duple (2/2 or 4/4) meter
- 10/14 (71%) feature a male lead singer
- 13/14 (93%) use the title of the song in the hook
- Average length - 3:55
*"In My Feelings" is IV / iii. The iii chord can be considered a sub for I
What data points stick out to you? Leave me a comment!
Composition Experiment no.1
As a ridiculous experiment, I decided to isolate the hook of each song. I wrote them out in the key of C, or A minor depending on tonality. My goal was to compose a song that utilizes each hook. Sometimes, I found the hooks flowed seamlessly into one another, thanks to the rhythmic spacing. For example: "In My Feelings" and "Right Here Waiting" matched up nicely to create this:
Similarly, "I Gotta Feeling" and "The Boy Is Mine" fit together pretty well, thanks to a common pitch:
One trait of songs "on the 9's" was a layering approach, resulting in the textural evolution of a song. For this experiment, I took that approach and tried sprinkling in various elements. At times, this comes in the form of another hook (mostly "Poor Little Fool"), or the sweet muted guitar part.
Harmonically, I put the song in minor, anticipating the major melodies would work better over minor than a minor melody would work over major. Noting the frequency of the IV chord, I decided to add that in as well. So, the majority of the tune is built on a Amin / D (i / IV) progression.
Three songs presented problems to this harmony though. "I Gotta Feeling," "The Boy Is Mine" and "A Big Hunk O' Love" all ended up resting on an F, a dissonant sound for both Amin and D. To accommodate those, I shifted the progression to include an F major 7.
I did break the repeated chord progression rule and added a third part at the end: Amin / F / Dmin / C. Here, each hook is revisited in quick fashion over the same progression. Maybe I should have gone with this one from the start? I'm mostly happy with this funky little dance number though. Can you pick out all 14 hooks both times they happen??
Moving Forward
The Decade Hit Analysis project must continue! It's time for round 3: "On the 0's."
I will kick things off with the no.1 hit in the first week of August, 1960. Then we will visit 1970, 1980, 1990, 2000, 2010 and hopefully land right on time in August 2020.
Up next time: August 8th, 1960: "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini" by Brian Hyland. I have indeed heard of this song. I was surprised to find that Brian Hyland had 22 chart appearances throughout the 60's, including 3 top ten hits. This is his only no.1, and it only lasts for one week.
Judging by the gimmicky title, I would say this song's popularity may have been magnified by cultural trends at the times. However, consider the fact that Mr. Hyland has a slew of other hits. Surely there is some musical substance? Stay tuned to find out!
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