Rounds 4 and 5 Wrap Up: "On the 1's" and "On the 2's"

My strategy for analyzing no.1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 has been to take glimpses of the songs, one decade at a time.  Using the first week of August as my target date, I started the whole thing off in August of 1958 with the inaugural no.1 hit "Poor Little Fool" by Ricky Nelson.  From there, I visited 1968, 78, so and so forth.  

The last 12 analyses have covered 1961 - 2012.  After analyzing chords, melody and lyrics, I compiled a list of common musical threads that were present in each.  Though I have done for each analyses, I started a fresh list and built on it with each song.  The "final" list ended up with 7 reoccurring musical elements:

Repetitive Melodic Motifs - the overall melody repeats itself both with identical phrases and with similar intervalic or rhythmic motion

Stepwise Motion Common in Melody - 2nds, major or minor, are the primary melodic interval

Hook Uses Song Title - The hook, or catchiest part of the song, utilizes the title

Vocal Harmony - Prevalent vocal arranging through parallel harmony, countermelody and/or call and response

Texture Changes - Timbre and/or dynamic change through instrumental arrangement

Strong Harmonic Motion from V-I - Chord progression that sees V7 resolving to I (or i)

New Material at the End - the closing section of the song features a new melody and/or chord progression

Below, I have summarized each song in relation to these commonalities.  Please take a look at individual entries for each songs analyzed, by the decades: "On the 1's" (1961 - 2011) and "On the 2's" (2012 - 1962). 

Common Threads - 1961 - 2012

A few things stick out.....

Every song contains repeated melodic motifs.  Repetition took a couple of different forms from the use of similar intervals and rhythms to straight out repeats of phrases.  Either way, this is the common thread that makes the most sense, as listeners generally gravitate to predictability.  

Every song on this list includes the title of the song in the hook.  It's interesting that this trend, certainly seen in many modern songs, has been happening since the early 60's.  I know there are exceptions to the rule, but they are few and far between....(notable exception: Drake's 2018 no.1 "In My Feelings")

Prominent stepwise motion was present in almost every song.  While there were 2nds in the melody, Bobby Lewis's 1961 contribution, "Tossin' and Turnin'," leaped around quite a bit.  It makes sense that stepwise melodies are favored by many listeners.  It's also worth mentioning that most of the time, melodies are diatonic.  I may keep closer tabs on this moving forward.  

Texture changes were present on almost every song as well.  The two songs that had static texture from beginning to end were Madonna's "This Used To Be My Playground" (1992) and Nelly's "Hot In Herre" (2012).  Both of those stayed in the same sonic space, dominated by keyboard sounds with no relent.  The other compositions have some change in texture from less drums, to more drums, to no drums.  The same goes for other instruments, like guitars, bass, horns, etc.  There are further exponential variables when you consider way instruments can be grouped to get different timbres and sonic textures.

Many songs use vocal harmony, which coincidentally can be used to change the texture.  The only song above that did have vocal harmony without texture change was Madonna.  This is mostly due to the harmony being present a majority of the time, so nothing ever really feels different.  She provides the harmony herself, keeping the timbre even more unified.

After analyzing this data, I see the "new material at the end" element was really just a reaction to three songs in a row (2011, 2001, 1991).  As you can see, it doesn't occur again outside of 1992, which barely qualified with a 4 measure variation on previous themes.  

A curious element is harmonic motion from V-I.  7 out of 8 songs between 1961 and 1992 contained V-I motion.  The only one that didn't was "Eye of The Tiger," mostly due to the popular minor key progression of i - bVI - bVII....no V's are really needed.  Songs between 2001 and 2012 come up empty though, indicating an abandonment of this traditional cadence.  In keeping with that theme:

Look at those chord counts!  With the exception of "Eye Of The Tiger," the curve is generally higher before the 2000's.  After that, no.1 hits seem to utilize less chords.  This can also be seen in the lack of V-I resolutions.    Check out the line graph below to see how the number of chords used in these no.1 hits has changed through the years.

Let's take a look at some compiled data regarding singer gender, key signatures, tempo, song length, chord progressions and sections. 

Combining the above data with the previous data taken from the round 3 wrap up, in 37 analyses, we see the following trends:

• 14/37 (38%) in a minor key (+2%)
• 12/37 (32%) have a tonal center of Ab (G#) or C
• 16/37 (43%) utilize one primary chord progression for the entire tune (-5%)
• 26/37 (70%) contain more than 2 sections (+2%)
• 7/37 (19%) have verse and chorus only (-5%) 
• 23/37 (62%) contain at least one bridge section (+10%)
• 14/37 (38%) utilize the bVII chord (-2%)
• 25/37 (68%) utilize the IV(iv) and I(i) chords (-4%)
• 34/37 (92%) are in duple (2/2 or 4/4) meter (+/- 0%)
• 23/37 (62%) feature a male lead singer (+6%)
• 35/37 (95%) use the title of the song in the hook (+3%)

• Average length - 4:03.  

Looking at these points, I am thinking of a few things:

• Major keys are slightly more favored than minor keys.
• Tonal centers are all over the map with 12/37 songs using C or Ab as the home pitch!?
• Songs generally have more than 2 sections, which usually includes a bridge.....if there is a bridge, that usually indicates a verse and chorus as well.  
• Duple meter is king.
• I and IV (i and iv) chords are common in chord progressions
• Slightly more male than female lead singers
• Using the title in the hook is almost universal

So that's a wrap on these two rounds of analyses.  Once again, I am finding myself discovering some cool new songs and appreciating ones I may not have given a chance.  

In the past few weeks, I have been listening to lots of pop radio, mostly to occupy my children (ages 10 and 8) on car rides.  They are very familiar with many top 40 songs and actively sing along.   When I have had enough of a particular song, I zone out.  As the music fades to background music, it's not offensive and doesn't demand my attention, it's just pleasantly there.  Those are the two extremes that contribute to mass appeal.  I can be actively engaged in listening or just find comfort in the familiar well-mixed drone.

Up next time, I'm going to take stop in 2020 and analyze "Circles" by Post Malone. I recently learned it for a gig and figured I should write it up for posterity.  After that, we'll head resume with "On the 3's," heading to 2013.  Get ready for a continued dive into no.1 hits, through the decades.

Round 3 Wrap Up - "On the 0's"

The motivation for this analysis project is rooted in my search for answers to the question: "what makes a good song good?"

While "good song" invariably means different things to different people, I am drawing source material from the Billboard Hot 100, the industry standard that tracks the best selling songs.  While sales don't always indicate quality, they do indicate people's desire to listen to a song, which insinuates that if people are spending money and time to hear it, it probably has some inherent value, to someone.

In this round of analyses, I looked at songs "on the 0's": 1960, 1970, 1980, 1990, 2000, 2010 and 2020.  After analyzing 11 songs in total, I compiled a list of common musical elements.  While the presence of certain musical elements does not guarantee a song to get to no.1, many no.1 songs do share certain characteristics.   It's fascinating to find musical devices used in no.1 songs across a wide range of time.  

Working off of the list of "common threads" compiled for "songs on the 0's," here are the findings:

Repeated melodic motifs - 11/11 - Patterns of melody end up being repeated either within a section or in multiple sections.  It makes sense that repetition is a unifying element for pop songs in any decade.     

Strong harmonic motion from V to I  -3/11 - In Western music, the V chord pulls naturally to the I chord.  Many pop songs capitalize on this phenomena.  Note, the 3 songs that use V - I motion happened in 1960, 1980 and 1990....

Background singers contribute to melodic/harmonic texture - 8/11 - Background vocals are common in many songs, but to qualify here, they have to be integral to the song, contributing to the harmonic and/or melodic texture and not just a decoration for the lead vocal.  They must be an important part to the overall composition and presentation.

Modulation -  4/11 - Does a song remain in the same harmonic space/key for its entirety, or does it modulate to another tonality?

New material presented at the end - 6/11 - When the song is nearing its end, just when you think you've heard it all, a new melody or chord sequence appears, leaving you longing for more, or wondering if you missed something earlier.

Hook that uses the title of the song - 10/11 - The hook is the melodic chunk that gets stuck in your ear, and it often contains the title of the song.  

Contains a lyrical refrain  - 5/11 - Repeated use of the same lyric, in like or different sections, qualifies as a lyrical refrain.  

Evolution of musical elements - 7/11 - When a section of a song is repeated, does it sound exactly like it did the first time, or is something different?  This may occur in the vocal performance or some added production element that makes one repeat sound different from another.  

Looking at the above chart, some trends stick out.  The use of chord progressions with V - I and the use of modulation is prevalent up to 2000 and then completely falls off the map.  This could be in part to shorter chord progressions, though Sisqó's 2000 contribution would disagree with that.

  

The two most enduring musical elements seem to be repeated melodic motifs and the use of the song title in the hook.  

Musical evolution/development of a song is a little less penetrating that I would have thought.  Its absence in 1960 and 1980 is not quite as surprising as its absence in 2010 and 2020, especially considering the advancement in recording techniques in later years.  It seems as though simple and straightforward is a returning trend over the course of the last decade.  

In the round 2 wrap up, I consolidated song data to show vocal gender, tempo/meter, key signature, length, chord progressions used and sections present.  The chart below shows data for the songs "on the 0's":

Adding these 11 songs into the mix yields the following notable statistics:

• 9/25 (36%) in a minor key 
• 6/25 (24%) have a tonal center of Ab (G#)
• 12/25 (48%) utilize one primary chord progression for the entire tune
• 17/25 (68%) contain more than 2 sections
• 6/25 (24%) have verse and chorus only
• 13/25 (52%) contain at least one bridge section
• 10/25 (40%) utilize the bVII chord
• 18/25 (72%) utilize the IV(iv) and I(i) chords*
• 23/25 (92%) are in duple (2/2 or 4/4) meter
• 14/25 (56%) feature a male lead singer
• 23/25 (92%) use the title of the song in the hook
• Average length - 3:49

After adding in these new data points, percentages more or less stayed the same.  A few categories dropped lower (Primary chord progression - 57% from rounds 1 and 2 down to 48% with round 3 songs added in).  A few went slightly higher (bridge section - 50% to 52%).  With no drastic drops, I am confident that these elements represent qualities of no.1 hit songs across the decades.  

I hope this data can prove valuable to song writers and at least give some insight into proven musical elements for pop songs.  

The Decade Hit Analysis Project is continually evolving and I am learning much from analyzing and transcribing no.1 hit songs through the decades.  I will now move forward on two fronts:

• I like the idea of periodically returning to no.1 hit songs from 2020.  Data points from every no.1 hit in 2020 would be very valuable in representing this year's music.  I plan to tackle them all, in between other analyses
• I am gearing up for Round 4, songs on the "1's!"  I will look at no.1 songs in the first week of August, starting in 2011, and work backward to 1961, which means....

Up next time: July 16 - August 20, 2011: "Party Rock Anthem" by LMFAO featuring Lauren Bennett and GoonRock goes 6 weeks at no.1.  I am only vaguely familiar with this song and hope to find the quintessential "song of the summer" in this 2011 entry. Let round 4 begin!

Round 2 Wrap Up

What information do you really think you'll find by analyzing a random sample of no.1 hit songs in 10 year intervals?

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??

  "Decade Hit Mega Mashup" 

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! 

Round 1 Wrap Up

What about pop music is so appealing?  Why is pop music popular?

This is the question I have set out to explore by analyzing no.1 hit songs on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.  Rather than focusing on these songs in order, or even picking and choosing to suit my own tastes (or distastes), I wanted to explore songs in 10 year intervals, hence "The Decade Hit."  (refer to my first post which gives an overview of the project.

I started this leg of the journey with the first no.1 hit, just after the Hot 100 chart, as we know it, was established in 1958.  This happened to be Ricky Nelson's "Poor Little Fool," August 4th, 1958.  After that, I skipped to the first week in August 1968, and proceeded to move through the decades until August 2018.  

After analyzing the first two songs, I made a list musical elements both songs shared.  As I analyzed more songs, I revised the list, rewording or subtracting items to account for musical trends.  Below is a chart summarizing the most commonly found elements and how each song "scored."

No.1 Hits 1958 - 2018, on the decade

Unifying Factors 

These findings are interesting to someone like me: a composer, music educator, performer and avid listener.  Every song checked the box in two elements:

Vocal melodies repeat rhythmic and melodic themes and arrangement evolves throughout. 

At first glance, these are fairly predicable sentiments.  But let's go a little deeper.  The idea that popular songs have repeated themes is itself the very essence of being "catchy."  One of the reasons these songs resonate is partially due to their singability by the casual fan, as well as inherent familiarity.  Those factors enable a melody to get stuck in your head in the first place and will be more readily enjoyed if it plays off information you have already stored in your musical memory.

Familiar melodic content is also an interesting notion.  Scroll through each song on the list and notice the intervalic structure of each hook.  You will notice lots of 2nds and 3rds.  Anything larger than that is generally followed by a smaller interval ("I Kissed A Girl") or a repeated large interval ("The Boy Is Mine").  Perhaps these smaller, diatonic intervals can be traced back to songs you heard when you were a baby.  Think of some standard lullabies: "Hush Little Baby," "Rock-a-bye Baby" or even "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star."  The majority of these compositions include stretches of stepwise motion (2nds) after a larger leap.  I'm not likening no.1 songs to lullabies, but pointing out the roots of our collective fondness to such melodic construction.

The other common thread involves the evolution of arrangement.  This makes a lot of sense to me.  People like the familiar, as I just mentioned, but also like to be surprised and crave change, but not too much change where we lose sight of the familiar.  Each song analyzed contains some element that evolves throughout the song.  This is done in a variety of ways but garners the same result: when the song is finished, it has gone through a journey.  A story has been told, often both lyrically and musically.  We hear the same thing multiple times without hearing the same thing.  

Think of songs you enjoy listening to, no.1 status aside.  I am willing to bet your favorite songs contains some variation that happens in one place and not another.  Think of songs you deem as "boring."  Chances are, those songs repeat verse, chorus, verse, chorus without variance between the sections.  I'm going out on a limb, but I highly doubt we will see any Ramones songs at no.1 (spoiler, The Ramones peaked at no.66 in 1978 with "Rockaway Beach").  

Honorable Mentions

There are a few categories that were shared by all songs, except one.  

Melodies Utilize and/or Resolve to Chord Tones

Background/Harmony Vocals featured throughout

Memorable Hook using the Song Title

Lyrics about Love    

4/4 time* (technically "Poor Little Fool" is in cut time, but this is a slight variation on 4/4, so we'll give this category the nod)

These elements are all what I would expect to hear in a popular song.  It's almost more interesting to look at the songs that did not contain these elements.  You can probably chalk that up to the point about song evolution.  These songs have managed to evolve and thrive well past normal pop music conventions.   

Where To Now?

I like to write songs.  I have no unrealistic expectations to write my own no.1 hit song, but the general aim of any creator is to find acceptance and resonance with other in their creative output.  I started writing a song the other day and I was getting stuck trying to remember all of the lessons I have learned in analyzing just these 7 songs.  And that's what they are, lessons in song writing.  I would imagine I will obsessively try to follow some of these paradigms for a few songs and then loosen up and remember my own voice, hopefully finding a healthy balance of personal voice and best practice.  That's a blog for another day though!

What do you think of the commonalities between songs?  Is there an element present that I missed?  I would love to hear in the comments!

The analyses must continue!  This round started in August of 1958 and worked its way to the present, jumping by decades.  For round 2, I will start with whatever the no.1 song is in the first week of August 2019 and work my way down the decades, all the way to 1959.  I will also start fresh with the list of similarities, trying to forget everything I just discussed the best I can.  It will be interesting to see if the new list contains the same musical elements.

So up next: I did not expect this song to come up in my journey so quickly.  With an epic 19 week run at no.1, this song holds the record for longest reigning no.1 hit EVER.  April 13, 2019 - August 17, 2019 "Old Town Road" by Lil Nas X, featuring Billy Ray Cyrus, smashes the charts.  Get ready for round 2!