Pop songs today are laid out in similar ways: verse, chorus, verse 2, chorus, verse 3, chorus. Because of their repetition, choruses usually make up what we see as the “core” of a song. When one thinks of “Rude” by Magic, do they think of the chorus or the verses? What about “Wake Up” by Arcade Fire? We generally think of songs like these as having a “normal” song structure. In fact, very few pop songs go against this grain, with most of the few examples of this not actually being pop songs. “Bohemian Rhapsody,” by Queen, “Stairway to Heaven,” by Led Zeppelin, and “Wish you Were Here,” by Pink Floyd, are just a few examples of this. Why is this the case? It’s pretty simple. More repetitive songs have more potential to be popular.
What does “potential to be popular” even mean, though? Well, think of rounds and rondos. A round is a type of music in which, after the first person finishes …show more content…
They were more popular in the late 1700s and influenced composers such as Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart. Researchers at the University of Arkansas performed a study where they had volunteers listen to multiple types of rondos- those in which the refrain was always the same, and those in which the refrain varied each time. People were more likely to tap or sing along to songs with exact repetition rather than the more varying songs. That’s one of the reasons “99 Bottles of Beer” is, while popular, seen as mind-numbingly boring, as one can’t just repeat it as many times as one likes; one must change the refrain slightly each time, which eventually gets tedious and leads to most people never actually finishing the song. We can see this same pattern in pop music today. Most pop songs are very repetitive; some people ridicule it for that reason, while others recognise that the reason pop music is popular is because of repetition. One example of this is “Bittersweet Symphony” by The Verve, with over 109 million views on
What does “potential to be popular” even mean, though? Well, think of rounds and rondos. A round is a type of music in which, after the first person finishes …show more content…
They were more popular in the late 1700s and influenced composers such as Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart. Researchers at the University of Arkansas performed a study where they had volunteers listen to multiple types of rondos- those in which the refrain was always the same, and those in which the refrain varied each time. People were more likely to tap or sing along to songs with exact repetition rather than the more varying songs. That’s one of the reasons “99 Bottles of Beer” is, while popular, seen as mind-numbingly boring, as one can’t just repeat it as many times as one likes; one must change the refrain slightly each time, which eventually gets tedious and leads to most people never actually finishing the song. We can see this same pattern in pop music today. Most pop songs are very repetitive; some people ridicule it for that reason, while others recognise that the reason pop music is popular is because of repetition. One example of this is “Bittersweet Symphony” by The Verve, with over 109 million views on