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Hit Songs Deconstructed Deconstructing Today's Hits for Songwriting Success http://reports.hitsongsdeconstructed.com Roar Deconstructed Skip to: Audio/Video Overview Song Structure Momentum/Tension/Intensity (MTI) Music/Instrumentation/Vocal Delivery Vocal Melody Lyrics Benchmarking A&R Hit Factors Recap & Final Thought Songwriter/Producer Takeaways Audio/Video Back to Top At a Glance Back to Top Artist: Katy Perry Song/Album: Roar / Prism Songwriters: Gottwald, Martin, McKee, Perry, Walter Genre: Pop Sub Genres: Pop/Rock, Power Pop Length: 3:43 Structure (Form): A-B-A-B-C-B Tempo: 92 bpm First Chorus: 0:48 / 22% into the song Intro Length: 0:05 Outro Length: n/a Electric vs. Acoustic: Combo Primary Instrumentation: Synth, Electric Guitar Lyrical Theme: Love/Relationships, Empowerment Title Occurrences: “Roar” occurs 16 times within the song Primary Lyrical P.O.V: 1st & 2nd Overview Back to Top More so than any single that Katy Perry has ever released, Roar is by far the most important and carries the most weight on its shoulders. Why? Not only does it have to live up to the massive success of Teenage Dream, but it also needs to perfectly bridge the old with the new, satiating the expectations of her core Teenage Dream fanbase while at the same time breaking the mold to allow her to to exercise her new 1 / 112 Hit Songs Deconstructed Deconstructing Today's Hits for Songwriting Success http://reports.hitsongsdeconstructed.com creative vision and more mature direction. To help achieve this, Perry once again collaborated with a who’s who of today’s top hitmakers including Bonnie McKee, Cirkut, Dr. Luke and Max Martin to craft an undeniable hit that would thrust her back to the top of the charts and set the scene for things to come on her forthcoming album, Prism. It was certainly no easy task, but one that the writers pulled off in grand fashion. To date, Roar has landed in the top 10 on 38 charts throughout the world and hit #1 on 15. What follows are the core characteristics and attributes that helped launch Katy Perry and Roar back to the top of the charts. Song Structure Back to Top Timeline (Shows when each section hits within the timeline of the song) Structure At-a-Glance Form 2 / 112 Hit Songs Deconstructed Deconstructing Today's Hits for Songwriting Success http://reports.hitsongsdeconstructed.com General Form Roar utilizes the hands-down most popular, and arguably the most effective, form (structure) in Pop music: A-B-A-B-C-B (Verse – Chorus – Verse – Chorus – Bridge – Chorus). Full Form Now, when you take into account all of the sections within the song, Roar’s full form looks like this: Intro – Verse 1 – Pre-Chorus 1 – Chorus 1 A – Chorus 1 B – Turnaround – Verse 2 – Pre- Chorus 2 – Chorus 2 A – Chorus 2 B – Break/Bridge – Chorus 3 A – Chorus 3 B The one “question mark” that we need to consider regarding Roar’s form resides in the Bridge. Does it qualify as a “traditional” bridge or is more of a break/interlude? We’ll be exploring this further into the report. Section Length, Count & Segmenting I=Intro, V=Verse, PC=Pre-Chorus, TURN=Turnaround, CHR=Chorus, BRG=Bridge, BRK =Break Section Count Roar contains 10 full sections within its framework, 13 when you take into account how each full chorus is split into 2 distinct parts (A & B). This consists of 1 intro (of course), 2 verses, 2 pre-choruses, 3 full choruses (all of which include parts A and B), 1 break/bridge and 1 turnaround. Section Length In regard to the length of full sections within the song, as you’ll see below they range from very short to quite long. Not surprisingly, excluding the quick turnaround that follows the first chorus, the intro is by far the shortest section within the song (hook ‘em in fast and move on!), and the full chorus (i.e. “payoff”) sections are the longest and with good reason as we’ll see later within the report. 3 / 112 Hit Songs Deconstructed Deconstructing Today's Hits for Songwriting Success http://reports.hitsongsdeconstructed.com Very Short 0:03 Turnaround 0:05 Intro Short *0:10 Verse 2 *0:11 Chorus 1, Part B Moderate 0:19 Break/Bridge 0:21 Verse 1 0:22 Pre-Chorus 1 0:22 Pre-Chorus 2 Long 0:32 Chorus 1 (Includes parts A & B) 0:42 Chorus 2 (Includes parts A & B) 0:42 Chorus 3 (Includes parts A & B) *Notice that verse 2 as well as part B of chorus 1 are half sections in relation to their counterpart sections within the song. Sectional Segmenting Engaging the listener and KEEPING them engaged throughout the song is what it’s all about. There are many factors that go into this (e.g. an infectious melody and rhythm, strong lyrics, etc…), but one factor that is of utmost importance is to provide the listener with new elements entering the mix frequently to help keep them engaged. If you linger on too long within one particular section without providing diversity, they’re eventually going to start to lose interest. What follows is a rundown of how certain sections were “segmented” into shorter segments in order to help hold the listener’s attention throughout the song: Intro (0:05) 4 / 112 Hit Songs Deconstructed Deconstructing Today's Hits for Songwriting Success http://reports.hitsongsdeconstructed.com Very short on its own. Verse 1 (0:21): Split into 2 segments 0:11 First Stanza 0:10 Second Stanza Pre-Chorus 1 (0:22): Split into 2 segments 0:11 First Stanza 0:11 Second Stanza Chorus 1 (0:32): Split into 3 segments 0:11 First Stanza, Part A 0:10 Second Stanza, Part A 0:11 Part B (Half) Turnaround (0:03) Brief reversion back to intro theme Verse 2 (0:10) Consists of just 1 short stanza compared to the 2 within the first verse Pre-Chorus 2 (0:22): Split into 2 segments 0:11 First Stanza 0:11 Second Stanza Chorus 2 (0:42): Split into 4 segments 0:11 First Stanza, Part A 0:10 Second Stanza, Part A 0:11 First Stanza, Part B 0:11 Second Stanza, Part B 5 / 112 Hit Songs Deconstructed Deconstructing Today's Hits for Songwriting Success http://reports.hitsongsdeconstructed.com Break/Bridge (0:19): Split into 2 segments 0:09 Instrumental Break 0:10 “Roar” vocal portion Chorus 3 (0:42): Split into 4 segments 0:11 First Stanza, Part A 0:10 Second Stanza, Part A 0:11 First Stanza, Part B 0:11 Second Stanza, Part B As you can see, when you break each full section down into shorter individual segments, you wind up with a new segment entering the mix around once every ~0:10. Some sectional segments differ to a degree from one another (e.g. stanzas 1 and 2 within the first verse), while others repeat in close to the same manner (e.g. both segments within chorus 2 part B). Regardless of the degree of similarity, a new passage enters the mix frequently, doing a fantastic job of helping to keep the listener engaged throughout the entire song. Additionally, notice that all of the individual segments, save for the intro and turnaround, possess almost the same length, which helps to accentuate the song’s memorability factor due to the uniformity. Total Section Breakdown (The total time consumed by each section and its percentage of the total song) 6 / 112 Hit Songs Deconstructed Deconstructing Today's Hits for Songwriting Success http://reports.hitsongsdeconstructed.com It’s easy to see looking at the graph above that the focal point within Roar resides in that ultra- infectious, empowerment natured chorus, comprising the vast majority (52%) of the song’s total composition. This is due to the fact that the full chorus is both the longest section within the song as well as occurring more often than all of the other sections (i.e. 3 chorus occurrences vs. 2 verse and 2 pre-choruses). Interestingly, the section that possesses the next most amount of weight (albeit far behind the chorus) is NOT the verse as you would typically expect, but the pre-chorus. This is specifically due to the fact that the second verse is half the length of the first. Otherwise, both the verse and pre-chorus contain the same number of occurrences and verse 1 is just 0:01 shorter than both pre-choruses within the song. As a side note, usually within chart-topping Pop songs the pre-chorus isn’t provided with the same weight as the verse, but when it’s just as infectious and as lyrically pertinent to the story, it’s very much warranted. Now as for the break/bridge section, it comprises just 9% of the entire song (remember – this isn’t a fully developed, “traditional” bridge as we see in other songs – more on this later), and the short intro comprises just 2% of Roar’s total composition. 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 7 / 112 Hit Songs Deconstructed Deconstructing Today's Hits for Songwriting Success http://reports.hitsongsdeconstructed.com 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 within each section of the song. As you can see in the graph above, Roar makes very good use of MTI level shifts throughout the song, making for a very engaging listening experience.