Hit Song Analysis: Taylor Swift “You Belong With Me”

I had never really heard any of Taylor Swift’s music until very recently when a few people at the West Coast Songwriters Conference kept mentioning her name as someone who was a great songwriter.  In fact, I barely knew who she was until Kanye rushed the stage at the MTV Video Awards.  So, I finally listened to a few of her songs and lo and behold, they were right.

Chart Position:  No. 7 (Week of October 17th, 2009).  I’m sure it peaked much higher on the charts at some point in the past few months.

Songwriters:   Taylor Swift, Liz Rose

Producers:   Nathan Chapman, Taylor Swift

Time Signature/Tempo/Genre: 4/4, 130 bpm (Up-tempo), Country (debatable)

Song  Structure: Intro (4 bars)/Verse 1 (16 bars)/Pre-Chorus (8 bars)/Chorus (8 bars)/Verse 2 (16 bars)/Pre-Chorus (8 bars)/Chorus (16 bars)/Instrumental (8 bars)/Bridge (16 bars)/Chorus (24 bars)

The song structure is very typical and as discussed in my previous post, this structure allows you to tell a story using a very common song outline.

The chord progression of this song is the same in the verse and chorus (I, V, IIm, F), so techniques need to be used in order to provide contrast/tension and release in this song.  We’ll see how below.

Theme:   From Wikipedia, Taylor explained to MTV News: “This song is basically about wanting someone who is with this girl who doesn’t appreciate him at all. Basically like ‘girl-next-door-itis.’ You like this guy who you have for your whole life, and you know him better than she does but somehow the popular girl gets the guy every time.”  This is a universal theme for Taylor’s fan base if there ever could be one – a wise decision as usual.

Melody:  I think this is the most important element of this song and where the songwriters distinguished themselves.  There is lots of contrast being found here.  First, the verse utilizes a syncopated rhythm (where most of the notes fall off the beat) while the pre-chorus uses a straight rhythm (where most of the notes fall on the beat).  Second (I keep harping on this), the places where each melodic phrase starts is extremely varied in this song – its hard to figure out where at some points and this keeps the melody and song very interesting.  The highest notes in the melodic range of the song fall in the chorus (and the lowest notes in the verses and the pre-chorus builds in range), especially on the word “me” which is the highest note in the melodic range of the song.  The word “me” also falls on the downbeat and the beginning of a bar, which gives this word and note the most important piece of real estate in the chorus.  This is textbook (and not in a bad way) melody writing.

Another thing I’ll keep hounding on is playing with expectation/faking out the listening.  Learning how/when to do this is absolutely crucial and can bring your songwriting to another level.  I think the second line of the chorus (“been here all along so why can’t you see?”) is a good example of this technique.  The melody of the second line of the chorus starts off the same as the melody in the first line, but halfway through, the melody changes.  You are expecting the second line to sound completely the same as the first, but it doesn’t halfway through and the melody is a complete surprise and sounds fresh.  Again, textbook songwriting.

Lyrics: Let’s start with rhyme scheme – its rather interesting that the songwriters tried to rhyme parts of the song but in other parts, there is no rhyme scheme to be discerned.  Even in the parts that are allegedly “rhymed”, the scheme used is rather loose.  I like how the pre-chorus lyrics change slightly in the second pre-chorus, even though the melody stays the same.  I actually love the pre-chorus of this track the most and that’s because of the melody and lyrics in the first two lines of this section.  There’s a little call and response thing going in those first two lines and you know how much I always enjoy that.

Production: There are various versions of this song, so we have to be clear which track we’re talking about.  I think the one that’s played on radio is the “pop mix” which has different instrumentation (not drastic, but subtle) from the original country mix, which has a banjo in the intro (presumably the only element of that mix which sounds “country”).  I listened to the two different versions and I have to say that the main difference is really the rhythm track.  The country version utilizes a pretty straightforward and typical country rhythm section and track while the pop version uses a four-to-the-floor kick drum as the backbone of the track (and there’s no banjo line).  There’s not much to be said about the production here – its appropriate and solid for the track (and stays out of Taylor’s way) and the different sections of the songs are produced with skill and taste.  I like how the instruments come in and drop out to provide contrast for the different sections of the song.

Summary:  This is a great song period.  Every element of this song was well thought out and executed.  Pretty much a perfect pop song.

Hit Song Analysis – Miley Cyrus “Party in the U.S.A.”

Last week (October 3rd), I analyzed the No. 1 and No. 3 songs (“I Gotta Feeling “by Black Eyed Peas and “Down” by Jay Sean ft Lil Wayne) of that week.  Anyhow, guess which songs are #1 and #2 this week (Week of October 10th)?  Those same songs, so where did that leave me?  I checked the charts and to my chagrin, the highest charting song that I haven’t analyzed was Miley Cyrus’ “Party in the U.S.A.”  I’ve never heard the song before and don’t know anything about her personally (or her music), so I shouldn’t rush to judgment, so here we go, objectivity in hand:

Chart Position:  No. 3 (Week of October 3rd, 2009),

Songwriters:  Lukasz Gottwald, Claude Kelly and Jessica Cornish (I’ve heard some of Claude Kelly’s songs before which were great.  I didn’t know he wrote pop.  Dr. Luke is an amazing producer and songwriter, so the big guns were definitely brought out for this track.)

Producers:  Lukasz “Dr. Luke” Gottwald

Key/Time Signature/Tempo/Genre: F#, 4/4, 96 bpm (Mid-Tempo), Pop Rock

Song  Structure: After a short intro of four bars of solo guitar, the song structure looks like this:  Verse/Chorus/Verse/Chorus/Bridge/Chorus. I like short intros, since there’s no time for the listener to change the dial (did I just date myself?  I was talking about radio…should I say click the mouse?).  Anyhow, there’s nothing to say here other than the most common song structure was used – this is neither good nor bad.  Its just usually an appropriate way to present a problem and a resolution.

Theme:  The song is about Miley’s move from Nashville to Los Angeles and her anxiety about that move and how she was able to overcome her feelings.  Generally speaking, I don’t think its too wise to make a song too specific about your own circumstances but Miley is still fairly young and probably doesn’t have enough autobiographical experiences to draw upon.  However, the song quickly segues from her feelings to “partying in the U.S.A.” so I guess that’s where the song gets universal.

Melody:  Overall, I liked this song from a melodic standpoint.  The only part that I wasn’t sure about was the end of the lead-up to the chorus where she sings three straight lines (“and the Jay-Z/Britney song was on…”).  Not sure what happened there – did the songwriters get lazy or did they actually like that?  I liked how the most important part of the chorus (“hands up”) was the highest note in the song’s range and that it hit on the downbeat at the beginning of the chorus.  The songwriters put that phrase in the best piece of real estate in the song and its effective.  I can see visualize her fans putting their “hands up” going crazy at that moment in the song.  In the 8-bar bridge, there is use of call and response, which I always like and which I think always adds excitement to a song, which is important for a track like this one.  There is always a lot of variety about where phrases start in this song (another thing I always harp about), which makes the song unpredictable and exciting.  Overall, there’s nothing to pick at here…its solid as a rock.

Lyrics: Let’s start with rhyme scheme.  The beginning of the first verse tries to rhyme, which it does using really loose rhymes (LAX/excess and cardigan/in) for the first four bars, but from there on, there really aren’t rhymes to be found in the rest of the song.  I’m beginning to think rhyme scheme is pretty irrelevant these days.  As long as it doesn’t detract from the song’s feel and flow, rhyme scheme is not a very important factor in a song.

The lyrics aren’t fantastic or profound, but I think they’re appropriate for the age group/audience and they present a problem and the resolution in a straightforward and easy to understand way so it works.  I’m not sure about “dating” the song with references to Jay-Z and Britney, so its no major revelation here that this song will not likely be a classic tune one day.  Please take a lesson here and try not to do that to your song if you hope it will generate income from a number of sources now and in the future.

Production: Dr. Luke’s production as usual is amazing and appropriate – he says out of the way and le’s the singer carry the tune and Miley does a good job carrying the ball.  For a Dr. Luke production, its actually rather understated.  He does an incredible job (its harder than you think) of blending rock and synth instruments into the song – he’s just a master at this – look at all the great pop/rock songs he’s produced and you’ll see what I mean.  To create contrast between sections, he brings out a few new instruments in the chorus (very large synth sound and a jet airplane take-off sound…whatever happened to the good ‘ol cymbal?  The jet airplane sound is the new cymbal, one day someone will bring back the real thing and it’ll sound revolutionary just like the vocoder). The only other thing that I thought I’d mention is that in the bridge, where she sings “flight”, the production is very airy and I’m sure that was probably deliberate.  Overall, a strong effort by Dr. Luke although there’s nothing particular revolutionary or original about his production in this song.

Summary:  I started enjoying the song more and more as I started listening to it during the writing of this article.  There are not a lot of songwriting or production gimmicks in this song and I think overall it works.  However, I’m not sure whether the song is popular because the song is great or because its singer is the most famous teenager in the world.

Hit Song Analysis: Jay Sean (ft Lil’ Wayne) “Down”

I “discovered” Jay Sean back in 2004 when I was in London for a business trip.  His songs were playing in almost every restaurant I went to in Central London and they immediately caught my ear.  I enjoyed his music so much I bought his CD (probably one of the last CDs I ever purchased!).  Anyhow, I forgot about him after enjoying his CD for a few months because in the US he had zero exposure.  People probably don’t know this but he already had quite a following in the UK and was a multi-platinum artist in India back then.  Lo and behold, Jay Sean is now Stateside and burning up the charts with his first US single “Down”.  His music was certainly a little different back then (but still great) but still R&B/Pop.  IMO, this song is HOT and it immediately caught my ear when I heard it.  Its not one of those songs that you have to hear a few times to get into and even then, you’re not quite sure whether you like it or hate it.

Chart Position:  No. 3 (Week of October 3rd, 2009), as of today No. 2 (Week of October 10th, 2009)

Songwriters:  Carter, Dwayne; Cotter, J; Larow, R; Perkins, J; Sean, J; Skaller, J

Producers:  Birdman & Ronald “Slim” Williams

Time/BPM:  4/4, 132 bpm

Song  Structure:  Intro (12 bars)-Verse (Jay Sean)-Chorus-Verse (Nay Sean)-Chorus-Verse (Lil Wayne)-Chorus

This song utilizes a very typical song structure, with the only “change up” being the third verse “sung” by Lil Wayne instead of  Jay Sean, and the melody in the third version being slightly different from the first two verses.  I think some people might call the third verse a bridge, but I’m not sure if its something you would normally call a bridge so that’s why I called it a third verse.  Doesn’t matter, call it whatever you want – its just there to provide a departure from the status quo and the provide variety/contrast with the rest of the song.

This song is based off of two four-chord chord progressions.  The chord progression in the verses are:  IV-IVm-V-III and the choruses are:  IV-I-V-VIm.  Nothing particularly fancy or groundbreaking here – the only thing to note is that the change in the chord progression between verse and chorus is subtle so the song has to use other techniques to provide variety/contrast as we’ll see below.

Theme:  Just like the other song I analyzed this week (link), this song is about having a good time tonight with the only (slight variation) variation is that this one is more specific (i.e. having a good time with a girl).  I guess this is a good topic to talk about because that song was No. 1 and this is No. 3!  And I’d be willing to bet money that there will be many other No. 1s in the future based on this theme.

Melody:  The melody builds gradually up the scale and then gets to a climax in the beginning of the chorus and then the hook is where the melody descends quickly (down…down…down…down…down).  This is good use of prosody!

Lyrics: The lyrics aren’t very profound in this song but they’re workable.  I don’t have much to say about the lyrics here, but will point out that the lyric density in the Jay Sean verses is very sparse and in the chorus, the lyric density gets thicker.  This provides a really nice contrast between sections (as I noted previously, the chord progressions provide little contrast, so other techniques are used, such as changing the lyric density).  I also like the use of numerous five syllable phrases in the beginning of the chorus – it makes the chorus easy to remember and sing.  The “hook” (down…down…down…down…down) is also easy to remember and sing even after one listen and is the part that you will certainly remember.

Production: In my opinion, the production in this song is responsible for most of the contrast and not song structure, lyrics or melody, and is truly the star of the show.  Jay Sean and Lil Wayne sound great as usual – the vocal production is really nice.  In the verse, the lyric density is low but the producers utilized a delay on Jay Sean’s voice to fill out the spaces between phrases.  When the chorus hits, the use of extremely fast high hats (probably 32nd notes, I can’t count that fast) provides contrast with the verse where the high hat rhythm is barely noticeable.

Now, this is a commonly used sound these days, but the rising synth swell on the word “escape” right before the chorus propels the song right into the chorus; it also suggests that you are in an airplane “taking off” so the synth sound serves two purposes here and not just providing a transition between the verse and chorus like you would here in other songs.  Not sure if it was intentional, but I will assume that it was.

Summary:  Compared to “I Gotta Feeling” which I just analyzed, this is a much simpler and straightforward song from a production and songwriting perspective.  It doesn’t try to overwhelm you with too many things or ear candy/trickery and puts the focus on Jay Sean and Lil Wayne’s performances, where it rightly belongs.  It just has enough things in there to keep your ear interested while staying out of the way of the performers.

Hit Song Analysis: Black Eyed Peas “I Gotta Feeling”

This is the first post of an ongoing weekly series called “Hit Song Analysis”. I once took a seminar with a well-regarded producer who said “The radio is my teacher”. So in the spirit of that, this series will focus on the songwriting and production techniques used in current hit songs that propelled those songs to the top of the charts. By understanding and knowingly incorporating some of these elements into our songs, it is my belief we will be able to reach new heights in our songwriting. I will generally analyze two songs per week, usually the No. 1 charting song of the week (which may not necessarily be one that I personally enjoyed) and another high charting song during that week (one that I actually enjoyed). So here we go, here is your first Hit Song Analysis. I sincerely hope and believe you will gain some useful insights into hit songwriting from this series (and do share if you find any insights that I missed):

Chart Position: No. 1 (Week of October 3rd, 2009)

Songwriters: Pineda, Allan/Riesterer, Frederick/Adams, William/Ferguson, Stacy/Guetta, David/Gomez, Jaime

Producer: DJ David Guetta

Time/Key Signature/BPM: 4/4, G major, 128 bpm

Song Structure: This song utilizes an unorthodox song structure that I’ve never seen before and unusual section lengths. I actually had a difficult time figuring out where the sections began and ended as it doesn’t really follow a typical Verse-Chorus-Verse-Chorus-Bridge-Chorus structure nor does it utilize well-defined verses or pre-choruses – to me its not clear where these sections begin or end as you cannot tell them apart based on chord progression or energy level (the song is pretty much high energy the whole way). Instead, I will use the following terminology X, Y, Z to denote certain repetitive sections within the song that are like verses. Anyhow, I THINK the song structure goes something like this: Intro (16 bars)-Chorus (40 bars)-X (8 bars)-Y (16 bars)-Chorus (24 bars)-Y (16 bars)-Z(16 bars)-Chorus (24 bars) The intro of the song is 16 bars which is surprisingly long these days, but at least the song jumps right into the chorus which is definitely the hot part of the song. Given that the song will probably get a lot of club play, I guess the 16 bar intro is okay but generally speaking, I think that 16 bars is too long these days. The song structure is difficult to figure out because the song does not utilize familiar bar lengths (like 8 bars or 16 bars) for sections of the song. At some points, some of the sections are 24+ bars! However, the song sounds continuously fresh and interesting because of the use of different singers at different song sections or different phrases, call and response techniques, and the stop’s and go’s and variations in the production are unpredictable. For example, where you expect the beat to kick off in the chorus, there is no beat and it doesn’t get going until the back-end of the chorus, but somehow it still works. Unorthodox but interesting! I also need to point out that the song uses the same chord progression all the way through ( I-IV-VIm-IV). So why isn’t the song mind-numbingly boring? You will hear this a lot on this site, but the Black Eyed Peas avoid that by manipulating your ear on all levels, from the lyrics, to the melody, to the production, and the dynamics of the song. At any point during the song, we do not know exactly what is going to happen – the only thing we know is that the chord progression is the same, but there are few points in the song where any particular section is the same as a previous one, except maybe parts of the chorus.

Theme: According to will.i.am, this song is dedicated to everyone “getting ready to go out”, a very straightforward and universal concept. As I mentioned, during the Week of October 3rd, 2009, five of the top six charting songs were based off of this theme or a variant of this theme. Note to self: Write a “feel-good song” pronto!

Melody: One thing always to note about a melody is how much contrast in the melody of the song there is between sections. I should start off this section by saying that some sections are sung and some are yelled and they are all done by various bandmembers are different points of hte song, just like all Black Eyed Peas songs. Because of this reason, there is always a lot of contrast in their songs between sections (and in sections) so that is one reason why I believe their songs are always so popular. You’ll also notice that they use a LOT of syncopation (i.e. the placement of rhythmic stresses in places they don’t normally occur – not on the beats of the measure) in the X, Y and Z sections. Syncopation always makes melodies interesting, but in and of itself, its not useful unless there is contrast throughout the song in where melodies land. Another thing to always pay attention to is where phrases start – in other words, do the melodic phrases start before the first beat of a measure, on the first beat or after the first beat. However, in and of itself (as above) this doesn’t make a song or a phrase – it is the contrast between phrases and sections that matters. At different parts of this song, the phrases all either start before (such as X and Z) or all start after (Y). This also introduces variety and contrast in the song. The final thing I want to point out here is that in the Y section where the BEP talk about “doing it”, I like the use of symmetrical ascending and descending “let’s do it” phrases.

Lyrics: There’s nothing particularly profound here but that’s okay…its a feel good song. The rhyme schemes are quite loose (“out” is rhymed with itself how many times?!). However, I do really like the use of action words (“go out and smash it” and “let’s live it up”, “do it…do it!”). The use of call and response in the back end of the chorus and in the X, Y and Z sections is very effective, catchy and memorable. The number of syllables used in each call and response is generally the same (4 syllables for the call and 4 syllables for the response), which IMO should be an almost immutable rule. Another thing to note in the call and response sections and the background vocals in general is that the words, singers and sounds (sometimes they don’t use words, they just make odd sounds with their mouths) used are very unpredictable throughout the song and that keeps your ear engaged. The song is sung in first person, probably the most common way to narrate a song.

Production: The song utilizes guitar and harpsichord (neither of which is not very common for club/dance tracks), but the use of these sounds is effective because the song has a need to “drive forward”. The guitar and/or harpsichord actually plays the central role in this production in that the guitar is used for power chords during parts of the chorus but then used for clean arpeggiated phrases in the verses (X, Y and Z), and in beginning of the chorus, the guitar is absent and replaced with the harpsichord sound. I like the use of contrast in instrumentation used here to delineate different sections. I also hear a slight swing in the groove, its not extremely strong but mild. I also noticed the use of production techniques to coincide with certain lyrics. One of the places where this happens is where Fergie sings “spaced out” in the X section, DJ David Guetta actually makes the reverb much wetter on that phrase which makes the track temporarily sound “spacey”. Its not something a casual listener will notice, but a production geek like myself will definitely take notice. Another place is in the Y section, where the BEP shout “We’ll shut it down”. Guetta temporarily mutes all of the tracks in the production to “shut it down”. Its probably happening in a bunch of places where I didn’t even realize. However, the most interesting thing about Guetta’s production is that the “chorus” is atypical in that the beginning is not the most energetic part of the chorus (the drums actually drop out); it actually builds for sixteen bars or twenty four bars where the drums come in and the song becomes really “banging”. This breaks general songwriting/production rules, but somehow it works. I’m still trying to figure out why, but I suspect it just has to do with unpredictability (in a good way).

Summary: This is a not a deep song by anymeans, but I can understand why this song ended up at No.1. It has an unbelieveable level of variety, it feels good and the performances by the BEP are excellent and filled with boundless energy.  I believe a lot of the elements were actually deliberate even though the song sounds very organic. At almost every point in this song, there is something new coming at you. The BEP and DJ David Guetta are truly masters of ear candy.