The Score Magazine - Archive February 2015 issue! | Page 21

mike Alonge
Musicians are repetitive. Instrumentalists, vocalists, producers
and songwriters alike have tendencies and patterns that
are often observable by oneself and by the audience. Even
the most respected musicians have repetitive characteristics
(albeit much fewer than the average musician).
A good musician knows their tendencies, and often strives for
deviation in their original works, drawing inspiration from peers
who fundamentally approach music in a unique way. However,
it’s this inspiration and collaboration that is often missing in
pop music, creating a bottleneck of musical diversity. Much of
pop music often sounds the same because it largely is the same.
It is the same because the same people create it. Perhaps there
is no better place to observe this than in the modern genre I
like to call “pop hop”, encompassing the current mix of pop
and hip-hop, as performed by artists such as Iggy Azalea,
Drake, Nicki Minaj etc.
Iggy Azalea’s recent smash hit “Fancy” featuring Charli
XCX has become wildly popular, providing a promising start with
her newly formed relationship with Def Jam Recordings. More
recently, her single “Beg For It” featuring MO was released, and if
you had a slight suspicion that the two choruses sounded similar,
you were on to something.
In fact the two choruses share roughly the same vocal riff in two
different keys. While “Fancy” is written in Cm and “Beg For It”
is in Ebm, the first bar of each chorus shares a highly similar riff.
Both riffs are comprised of the 7th, 5th, 4th, and 3rd positions of the
key in that order, in almost identical rhythm. In other words, play
“Fancy” three keys higher and you have roughly the same first bar
of the chorus. The relationship with the position in the key and the
lyrics is outlined below.
“Fancy”
7
5 4
3
I’m so fan-cy
“Beg For It”
7
5
4
3
I know you like the
The very first time I heard “Beg For It”, I couldn’t help but feel
cheated. Iggy Azalea had repackaged a chorus, much in the same
way that commercials do to emulate famous songs without having
to pay for the license, or like how a movie will sing the “Happy
Birthday Song” in an ever so slightly different way to avoid
paying royalties. But Iggy Azalea is not avoiding any royalties.
These choruses sound the same simply because they are written
by the same person, Charli XCX. And after all, while Charli XCX
is a successful songwriter, she is not a classically trained one, and
mimicked her previous work in a haste to provide the eager Iggy
Azalea audience with another song to buy. Of course, this could
have been an intentional mimicking, attempting to trigger an
unconscious association with the popular predecessor “Fancy”.
But Charli XCX isn’t the only redundant songwriter in pop hop.
While the previous example illustrates the reuse of a catchy hook,
artists have also relied on the recycling production tools in their
songs. In pop, some aspects of production have done particularly
well in accentuating certain portions of the song, and thus have
become heavily reused within the genre. The best modern example
of this is the “hey, hey, hey...” chants found in may pop hop songs
today. If you are having a hard time picturing these chants, below
is a list of current songs and when these chants first begin within
each song.
“Fancy” by Iggy Azalea - 0:30
“I Don’t F#@! With You” by Big Sean - 1:00
“Who Do You Love” by YG - 0:40
“Rack City” by Tyga - 0:41
“I’m Different” by 2 Chainz - 0:43
“L.A.LOVE” by Fergie featuring YG - 0:38
“Na Na” by Trey Songs - 0:30
“2 On” by Tinashe - 0:43
“Don’t Tell Em” by Jerimih - 0:30
“You and Your Friends” by Wiz Khalifa - 0:09
To be clear, the background chants depicted in these songs are
100% identical, as if the track has literally been copied and pasted
into each song. Not only this, but these tracks all begin at very
similar points, entering the song at 36 seconds on average, and only
deviating from that average about 13 seconds in either direction.
In other words, these tracks are the same chants and are used
in roughly the same way in tens of songs! In hindsight, it stands
to reason that yet again, there is one culprit behind all of these
songs, and his name is D.J. Mustard. Dijon McFarlane, AKA
D.J. Mustard is a partial writer of each and every one of these
songs except Iggy Azalea’ Fancy. Furthermore, he is affiliated
with Def Jam, the label to which all the listed artists belong. Here
again reflects a situation where one individual is projecting one-
dimensional songwriting either due to a lack of creativity, or an
effort to squeeze every last penny out of one original idea.
This begs the question, why does this bother me? And why does it
bother many of us consumers who cynically proclaim, “All pop
sounds the same”? It’s because music is
an art, not a commodity. We want our
airplanes to be designed well, and sold
for decades, but we want every song,
every album, and every performance
to be original. But the truth is that
pop music is a commodity in many
ways, and punctuated nuances are
destined to become trends and
re-treads, and in part for good
reason. I personally quite enjoy
some of the songs I pointed out
earlier as being unoriginal, and
even paid for them. I just don't
find them musically inspiring.
Accordingly, I can leave
you with some information
that you already certainly
knew as a musician. If
you are looking to be
a student of music,
or to reach a higher
level of adulation
and gratification for
truly artistic music,
don’t listen to pop. If
on the other hand,
you’re just looking
for some catchy
music to put on
in the car while
you zone out, or
a fun beat to dance
to, turn the dial to
the local pop station
and enjoy. Just be
prepared to have
that familiar thought,
“Have I heard this
before”?
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