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Hit Songs Deconstructed Deconstructing Today's Hits for Songwriting Success http://reports.hitsongsdeconstructed.com I Knew You Were Trouble Deconstructed Skip to: Audio/Video At a Glance Song Overview Structural Analysis Momentum/Tension/Intensity (MTI) Lyrics & Harmonic Progression The Music The Vocal Melody Primary Instrumentation, Tone & Mix Compositional Assessment Hit Factor Assessment Conclusion Why it’s a Hit Songwriter/Producer Take Aways Audio/Video Back to Top At a Glance Back to Top Artist: Taylor Swift Song/Album: I Knew You Were Trouble / Red Songwriters: Max Martin (Martin Sandberg), Shellback (Johan Karl Schuster) and Taylor Swift Producers: Max Martin, Shellback Genre: Pop Sub Genre: Straight-Up Pop, Rock, Dubstep and a hint of Country Length: 3:37 Structure: A-B-A-B-C-B Tempo: 154 BPM First Chorus: 0:40 (18% into the song) Intro Length: 0:03 Outro Length: N/A Electric vs. Acoustic: Primarily Electric Primary Instrumentation: Combination (Synth + Guitar) Lyrical Theme: Love/Relationships Title Occurences: I Knew You Were Trouble: 8. Trouble (alone): 24 Lyrical P.O.V: 1st, 2nd, 3rd Song Overview Back to Top Further expounding on her new mainstream Pop direction, I Knew You Were Trouble saw Swift once again teaming up with Pop hitmakers extraordinaire Max Martin and Shellback to craft a 1 / 70 Hit Songs Deconstructed Deconstructing Today's Hits for Songwriting Success http://reports.hitsongsdeconstructed.com song that was primed for mainstream success. Keeping in line with the fusion trend of the day, the writers fused straight-up Pop, Rock and Dubstep (yes, Dubstep), that both capitalized on what’s currently hot as well as taking Swift in a direction that she’s never been before. The result – it hit #1 on the Pop Songs chart and to date has landed in the top 5 in 10 countries throughout the world. Love or hate Swift’s new direction, one thing is for sure – the caliber of craft is as strong as ever. Structural Analysis Back to Top At-a-Glance Timeline (Shows when each section hits within the timeline of the song) Section Length (Length of each individual section within the song) I=Intro, V=Verse, Chr=Chorus, Turn=Turnaround, Brg=Bridge, IB=Instrumental Break 2 / 70 Hit Songs Deconstructed Deconstructing Today's Hits for Songwriting Success http://reports.hitsongsdeconstructed.com I Knew You Were Trouble contains 15 individual sections within its framework, with the longest landing at 0:25 (Chorus-A), and the rest landing at 0:12 or 0:13 (with the exception being the Intro, which lands at just 0:03). Notice that the full Verse and Chorus sections are split into shorter segments (stanzas) as follows: Verse Each full Verse section consists of 2 individual stanzas (Verse-A and Verse-B), which when totaled together amount to 0:25, which is the same time allocation as Chorus-A. Chorus Notice that the first two “full” Chorus sections within the song also are split into 2 segments – Chorus A and Chorus B. Additionally, Chorus-A is further split into 2 individual segments as well. Chorus-A: As was the case with the full Verse sections of the song, Chorus-A is also split into two segments, with the first landing at 0:13 and the second landing at 0:12, for a combined total of 0:25. Both segments possess virtually the same Dubstep nature during the second and third occurrences within the song, but differ (via the nature of the backing music) the first time around. More on that later. Overall, think of Chorus A as a “double” back to back Chorus. Chorus-B: Notice that Chorus-B contains the same backing music characteristics as the Dubstep portion of Chorus-A (during the second and third occurrences within the song), but possesses a different vocal melody (i.e. “Oh, Oh, trouble, trouble, trouble”). Additionally, it’s only half the length of the full Chorus-A section. See the Music & Instrumentation section of the report for further details. Chorus-A/B: The final chorus of the song is a half-Chorus, comprised of the Dubstep backing music of the preceding Chorus-B section and a combination of the melody and lyrics from Chorus-A and B. Technically it’s a hybrid “combination” chorus, but it basically serves as an Outro as well (more on that later). Let’s now see how I Knew You Were Trouble’s section length compared to the 21 songs that 3 / 70 Hit Songs Deconstructed Deconstructing Today's Hits for Songwriting Success http://reports.hitsongsdeconstructed.com landed in the Billboard Pop Songs Chart top 10 during Q4-2012: I Knew You Were Trouble / Top 10 Hit Pop Song Averages Intro: 0:03 / 0:11 Full Verse: 0:25 / 0:21 Pre-Chorus: 0:12 / 0:16 Full Chorus: 0:38 / 0:31 Bridge: 0:13 / 0:21 As you can see, with the exception of the Intro and the Bridge, the length of individual sections within I Knew You Were Trouble are pretty close to top 10 hit Pop song averages. Total Section Analysis (Total time consumed by each section and its percentage of the total song) I Knew You Were Trouble is comprised of 5 full sections within its framework (i.e. all Choruses, Verses, Pre-Choruses plus the Intro and Bridge), accounting for 59% of the song’s total composition all the way down to just 1%. As you would expect, the majority of time within the song was allocated to the Chorus (i.e. the “payoff”), with all of the occurrences accounting for an immense 59% of the total song. This 4 / 70 Hit Songs Deconstructed Deconstructing Today's Hits for Songwriting Success http://reports.hitsongsdeconstructed.com was followed far behind by the Verse sections, which accounted for just 23%. As a side note (just to give you a sense of how large that percentage of Chorus time is), with the exception of Flo Rida’s Whistle, I Knew You Were Trouble allocated more time to the Chorus than any other #1 hit from 2012. Whistle allocated 63% (but keep in mind that it also kicked off with the Chorus as opposed to the Verse. I Knew You Were Trouble didn’t). Now, let’s now see how the sectional breakdown of I Knew You Were Trouble compared to the 21 songs that landed in the Billboard Pop Songs Chart top 10 during Q4-2012: Intro I Knew You Were Trouble: Comprises 1% of the total song. Q4-2012 Average: Comprises 5% of the total song. Comparison: I Knew You Were Trouble allocated 4% less time to the Intro compared to the Q4-2012 average (we’ll look at the nature of the Intro and why so little time was devoted to it later within the report). Verse I Knew You Were Trouble: Comprises 23% of the total song. Q4-2012 Average: Comprises 21% of the total song. Comparison: I Knew You Were Trouble allocated 2% more time to the Verse compared to the Q4-2012 average. As you can see, it’s pretty much right on par. Pre-Chorus I Knew You Were Trouble: Comprises 11% of the total song. Q4-2012 Average: Comprises 15% of the total song. Comparison: I Knew You Were Trouble allocated 4% less time to the Pre-Chorus than the Q4-2012 average. Chorus I Knew You Were Trouble: Comprises 59% of the total song. Q4-2012 Average: Comprises 45% of the total song. Comparison: I Knew You Were Trouble allocated 14% more time to the Chorus than the Q4-2012 average. (This was due both to the longer nature of the full Chorus section, which 5 / 70 Hit Songs Deconstructed Deconstructing Today's Hits for Songwriting Success http://reports.hitsongsdeconstructed.com consists of Chorus-A and B as mentioned earlier, plus the additional half-Chorus 4-A/B which concludes the song). Bridge I Knew You Were Trouble: Comprises 6% of the total song. Q4-2012 Average: Comprises 10% of the total song. Comparison: I Knew You Were Trouble allocated 4% less time to the Bridge than the Q4-2012 average. Summary As you can see, I Knew You Were Trouble devoted less time to the Intro, Pre-Chorus and Bridge sections of the song, more time to the Verse and significantly more time to the Chorus than top 10 hit Pop Song averages. When you listen to the song, it’s easy to understand why. Both the Verse and Chorus sections are exceptionally infectious and memorable in nature (not to say that the other sections aren’t), but you would have to agree that these sections take the cake (more on this later within the report). Music, Instrumentation & MTI (Momentum/Tension/Intensity) Back to Top (Evaluation of the intensity of each section within the song timeline on a scale of 1 – 10, 10 being the most intense) When we talk about a song’s MTI level, we’re referring to how fluctuations in momentum, tension and intensity levels are utilized in each section of the song. As you can see in the graph above, I Knew You Were Trouble provides the listener with a good 6 / 70 Hit Songs Deconstructed Deconstructing Today's Hits for Songwriting Success http://reports.hitsongsdeconstructed.com amount of MTI level fluctuation throughout the song, making for a very engaging listening experience. Initially, the MTI level increases from the Intro through the end of the first Pre-Chorus. Now, instead of “slamming in” with a “big” Chorus as a lot of Pop and Rock songs do, Trouble goes in the opposite direction, bringing the MTI level back down during the “breakdown” nature of Chorus-1A.