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.

Song Outlines – Two Possibilities

I used to struggle with lyric writing because even though I had a concept and some lyrical ideas, I still had a difficult time knowing what to talk about.  I came across the concept recently of a “song outline” which helps to define what your lyric will be about.  Believe or not, many hit songs utilize commonly used song outlines.  Basically, a song outline defines at a broad level what the lyric speaks about in the various song sections.  Still not clear?  To illustrate what I mean by a “song outline”, here are two example using two current very popular hits:

1.  Taylor Swift – “You Belong to Me”

Song Structure:  Verse 1 2(16 bars)/Prechorus (8 bars)/Chorus (8 bars)/Verse 2 (16 bars)/Prechorus (8 bars)/Chorus (16 bars)/Bridge (8 bars)/Chorus (16 bars)

Song Outline:

Verse 1/Prechorus:  Define a problem (i.e.  Your girlfriend is unreasonable and I’m different from your girlfriend)

Chorus: Define a solution to the problem (i.e.  You need to be with me)

Verse 2/Prechorus:  Define the problem further (i.e.  You need to be with me, but you don’t see that)

Chorus:  Repeat the solution (i.e. You need to be with me)

Bridge:  Explain further why the proposed solution is so great (i.e. I know your dreams  and I make you laugh)

Chorus:  Repeat the solution.

How many songs utilize such a song outline?  I’m sure there are lots as we’ll see in future posts.

2.  Jason DeRulo – “Whatcha Say”

I knew the producer of this song in high school, JR Rotem, a really nice and talented guy.  We both had Korg M1 keyboards and jammed together since he lived down the street from me.  I remember he had a little recording studio in his bedroom closet and I thought it was the best thing I’d ever seen.  Little did I know he’d go on to be such a famous music producer and produce so many hit songs.  It amazing how talent and hard work can truly take you from nowhere to stardom.  Anyhow, here is the song outline for this song:

Song Structure: Chorus/Verse/Chorus/Verse/Chorus/Verse/Chorus

Song Outline:

Chorus:  Are you really leaving me?  I didn’t hear you correctly.

Verse 1:  I did something bad but give me another chance.  Here is a taste of why you should do that (i.e. I’m going to be rich)

Chorus:  Are you really leaving me?  I didn’t hear you correctly.

Verse 2:  Talk further about what I did wrong, but even though I did something wrong, you should still consider staying.

Chorus:  Are you really leaving me?  I didn’t hear you correctly.

Verse 3:  I really don’t want you to leave.  Did I hear you correctly?

Chorus:  Are you really leaving me?  I didn’t hear you correctly.

Okay, so the lyrics aren’t that profound.  This is a different type of song outline – its more specific to this type of song as opposed to a general outline like the previous song.  In starting a song, you can either use a general outline our a more specific outline – its just a way to keep your lyric focused and to define the parameters/scope of what your song is about.  Then you fill in the blanks.  Best of luck!

The Charts (Week of October 3rd 2009) – Five Songs about the Same Thing?!

Sometimes, you can garner some insight into the common characteristics of hit songs by taking a look at the top charting songs in a given period.  For this week, I guessed that most of the top songs would be uptempo.  Intuitively, it seems uptempo songs should be more popular.  However, of the top six charting songs this week, three are uptempo but the other three are not, so clearly this theory doesn’t necessarily fly with such a small sample size (I’m curious to know however, what percentage of top charting songs throughout history are uptempo…anybody know?).  So, is there a common characteristic that can be deduced from these top six songs?

#1 – I Gotta Feeling (Black Eyed Peas) – 128 bpm

#2 – Run This Town (Jay-Z, Rihanna, Kanye West) – 85 bpm

#3 – Down (Jay Sean) – 132 bpm

#4 – Empire State of Mind (Jay-Z) -87 bpm

#5 – You Belong to Me (Taylor Swift) – 130 bpm

#6 – Party in the U.S.A. (Miley Cyrus) – 96 bpm

I haven’t analyzed any of these six songs in detail, but of the six songs, five of them are virtually the same from a thematic standpoint (all but #5).  They are either about living life in the moment and/or living large, or some variant of these themes.  Indeed, this is a truly universal theme that everyone can relate to or aspire to.  I’m sure there will always be songs about this topic.  Now can you address it in a new and fresh way?