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Catchiness is how easy it is for a song, tune, or phrase to be recalled. It is often taken into account when writing songs,
catchphrase
A catchphrase (alternatively spelled catch phrase) is a phrase or expression recognized by its repeated utterance. Such phrases often originate in popular culture and in the arts, and typically spread through word of mouth and a variety of mass ...
s,
advertising slogans,
jingle
A jingle is a short song or tune used in advertising and for other commercial uses. Jingles are a form of sound branding. A jingle contains one or more hooks and meaning that explicitly promote the product or service being advertised, usually t ...
s etc. Alternatively, it can be defined as how difficult it is for one to forget it. Songs that embody high levels of remembrance or catchiness are literally known as "catchy songs" or "
earworm
An earworm, sometimes referred to as a brainworm, sticky music, stuck song syndrome, or, most commonly after earworms, Involuntary Musical Imagery (INMI), is a catchy and/or memorable piece of music or saying that continuously occupies a person ...
s". While it is hard to scientifically explain what makes a song catchy, there are many documented techniques that recur throughout catchy music, such as
repetition
Repetition may refer to:
* Repetition (rhetorical device), repeating a word within a short space of words
*Repetition (bodybuilding), a single cycle of lifting and lowering a weight in strength training
*Working title for the 1985 slasher film '' ...
,
hooks and
alliteration
Alliteration is the conspicuous repetition of initial consonant sounds of nearby words in a phrase, often used as a literary device. A familiar example is "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers". Alliteration is used poetically in various ...
. ''Selling Sounds: The Commercial Revolution in American Music'' says that "although there was no definition for what made a song catchy, all the
songwriting
A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music gen ...
guides agreed that simplicity and familiarity were vital".
The physical symptoms of
listening
Listening is giving attention to a sound or action. When listening, a person hears what others are saying and tries to understand what it means. The act of listening involves complex affective, cognitive and behavioral processes. Affective proce ...
to a catchy song include "running
tover in our heads or
tapping a foot". According to Todd Tremlin, catchy music "spread
because
tresonates similarly from one mind to the next".
Analysis
In an article written by psychologist Tom Stafford for
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
, the psychology of "earworms" (catchy songs) is discussed. These songs are referred to as earworms due to their parasitic characteristics; their entrance and exit from our mind cannot be controlled and despite our best efforts they may refuse to leave. In that aspect, catchiness, depending on how digestible the music is to the listener, has a level of annoyance unlike anything else. In this article Stafford reviews the work of neurologist
Oliver Sacks
Oliver Wolf Sacks, (9 July 1933 – 30 August 2015) was a British neurologist, naturalist, historian of science, and writer. Born in Britain, Sacks received his medical degree in 1958 from The Queen's College, Oxford, before moving to the Uni ...
and the conclusion by Sacks that this catchiness is due to the inherent repetitiveness of popular music, which can affect our ability to remember a song. It is concluded that since memory is powerfully affected by repetition that this could be a significant contributing factor to catchiness, though certainly not the only aspect. A song's catchiness may also be due to the auditory "slave system" of our inner ear, much like the visual slave system of our "mind's eye."
Often, a song with few qualities can still become immensely popular due to its catchiness. According to T.C.W. Blanning: "I would sacrifice everything – rhyme, reason, sense, and sentiment to catchiness. There is... a very great art in making rubbish acceptable". A
Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...
review explains that "any lack of originality (in the album ''
The Remote Part
''The Remote Part'' is the third studio album by Scottish Rock music, rock band Idlewild (band), Idlewild, released on 15 July 2002 by Parlophone. As they were becoming increasingly aware of their label's interest in them and their demos, the band ...
'') is more than made up for by the... catchiness of the musical arrangement"
In response to the 2011 song "
Call Me Maybe", which has been identified as a very catchy song, an article by
ABC News
ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...
listed some of its "catchiness factors." The article explains that it has a chorus which is "melodically easy on the ear, simple enough to stay in your head all day, and is topically appealing to
Jepsen
Jepsen is a Danish–Norwegian patronymic surname meaning "son of Jep" (equivalent of Jacob). A homonymous form is Jebsen. The surname Jepsen has alternate spellings, including the English language ''Jepson''. Jepsen may refer to:
Surname
* Aag ...
’s target pop demographic." It also briefly describes the concept of musical incongruity and its use within the song. In music, incongruity refers to the inclusion of varied or irregular musical and lyrical features, such as mispronounced words or unexpected syllable accentuation. These incongruities are intended to capture the listener's attention and to preserve their level of interest throughout the song, regardless of the simple and otherwise repetitive
lyrical content.
Songwriter
A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music gen ...
/
producer Eve Nelson was quoted saying, "a five-year-old could probably sing this, because it’s just so easy." As well as having lyrical hooks, the music itself can also be considered a hook.
Musicologist Dr. Alison Pawley and psychologist Dr. Daniel Mullensiefen identified the following as factors of a song being catchy:
# Longer and detailed
musical phrases.
# Higher number of
pitches in the chorus hook.
# Male vocalists
# Higher male
voice
The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound production in ...
s with noticeable vocal effort
Based on these factors, the researchers listed British rock band
Queen
Queen or QUEEN may refer to:
Monarchy
* Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom
** List of queens regnant
* Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king
* Queen dowager, the widow of a king
* Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...
's "
We Are The Champions
"We Are the Champions" is a song by the British rock band Queen, released from the band's sixth album ''News of the World'' (1977). Written by lead singer Freddie Mercury, it remains among rock's most recognisable anthems. " as the number one "sing-along song" in the UK.
A 2014 study by the
University of Amsterdam
The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, nl, Universiteit van Amsterdam) is a public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The UvA is one of two large, publicly funded research universities in the city, the other being ...
and the
Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester
The Science and Industry Museum in Manchester, England, traces the development of science, technology and industry with emphasis on the city's achievements in these fields. The museum is part of the Science Museum Group, a non-departmental pub ...
found "
Wannabe
"Wannabe" is the debut single by English girl group the Spice Girls. Written and composed by the group members in collaboration with Matt Rowe and Richard "Biff" Stannard during the group's first professional songwriting session, it was produ ...
" by the
Spice Girls
The Spice Girls are a British girl group formed in 1994, consisting of Melanie Brown, also known as Mel B ("Scary Spice"); Melanie Chisholm, or Melanie C ("Sporty Spice"); Emma Bunton ("Baby Spice"); Geri Halliwell ("Ginger Spice"); and Vict ...
to be the catchiest pop song of the last 60 years in the UK. The study found that having a simple and relentless melody was the key to a song being "catchy". "We found, much to our surprise, that writing a very surprising and unusual hook is not the recipe for long term memorability,” musicologist Dr John Ashley Burgoyne explained. "Actually, the more conventional your melody in terms of the interval patterns that you use; in terms of the rhythms that you use, the easier the song is to remember over the long term. What makes Wannabe work so well is that it isn’t a difficult song to sing, it has a conventional melody that repeats itself a lot, and it’s just relentless."
Additionally, the book FutureHit DNA by Jay Frank says "Wannabe felt like it should have been a - to 4-minute pop song, just like every other hit at that time. To create that feeling, the producers cut the song at the knees. The last thing heard in the song is the a cappella line, “If you wannabe my lover,” which is also the first lyric of the chorus. The audience has a natural desire to hear something to its completion. When they expect a song to go somewhere, they will not feel completely settled until that song resolves itself. “Wannabe” never resolves, and therefore creates a situation where the listener cannot get the song out of his head."
See also
*
Timing (music) Timing in music refers to the ability to "keep time" accurately and to synchronise to an ensemble, as well as to expressive timing—subtle adjustment of note or beat duration, or of tempo, for aesthetic effect.
Research in music cognition h ...
*
Levitin effect
The Levitin effect is a phenomenon whereby people, even those without musical training, tend to remember songs in the correct key. The finding stands in contrast to the large body of laboratory literature suggesting that such details of perceptual ...
*
Rhythm
Rhythm (from Greek , ''rhythmos'', "any regular recurring motion, symmetry") generally means a " movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions". This general meaning of regular recu ...
*
Music psychology
Music psychology, or the psychology of music, may be regarded as a branch of both psychology and musicology. It aims to explain and understand musical behaviour and experience, including the processes through which music is perceived, created, r ...
References
External links
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* {{Citation , url = http://vincecorozine.com/media/pdf/How%20To%20Write%20a%20Catchy%20Song%20Title.pdf , title = How To Write a Catchy Song Title , publisher = Vince core zine.
Musical terminology
Music cognition
Musicology
Popular music