Sub-Genre Influences in Pop: Q3-2011

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Sub-Genre Influences In Pop: Q3-2011

Pop Sub-Genres: Q3-2011 Chart Rankings Sub-Genre Characteristics Recap & Conclusion

The vast majority of today’s hit Pop songs are not “straight-up” Pop in nature. They exhibit qualities from other genres in their framework, possessing a sort of “fusion” based compositional quality.

The chart and commentary below take a look at the most dominant sub-genre influence present in each top 10 hit Pop song from Q3-2011, grouping them into categories to show the compositional characteristics that reside in each. Note that some of these songs contain more than one sub-genre influence, but this report highlights the MOST DOMINANT one in the mix, the one that most influences the sound.

There were four primary sub-genre influences that could be heard in the 22 top 10 hits that landed in the Billboard Pop Songs chart during Q3-2011 (July – September):

Dance/Club Hip Hop/Rap R&B/Soul Rock

Dance/Club (9 Songs) Moves Like Jagger, Give Me Everything, I Wanna Go, On The Floor, Party Rock Anthem, The Edge Of Glory, Till The World Ends, Don’t Want to Go Home, You Make Me Feel

Hip Hop/Rap (5 Songs) Stereo Hearts, Super Bass, Lighters, Just Can’t Get Enough, The Show Goes On

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R&B/Soul (1 Song) How To Love

Rock (3 Songs) Good Life, Pumped Up Kicks, Tonight Tonight

*Other (4 Songs) Rolling In The Deep (Blues, Soul, Rock), The Lazy Song (Reggae), E.T. (Pretty much straight up Electro Pop), Last Friday Night (Rock, Funk, Dance)

Dance/Club influenced songs scored four #1 hits during the quarter (Moves Like Jagger, Give Me Everything, I Wanna Go and Party Rock Anthem), with seven of the nine landing in the top 5 on the Billboard Pop Songs Chart during Q3-2011.

Hip Hop/Rap influenced songs saw three out of five songs landing in the top 5 during Q3 (Super Bass-#3, Lighters-#2 and Just Can’t Get Enough-#2), none of which hit #1 during the quarter.

R&B/Soul contains just one song in the category, Lil Wayne’s How To Love, which peaked at #9 during the quarter.

Rock influenced songs peaked in the mid range of the top 10 during the quarter, with Tonight Tonight, Good Life and Pumped Up Kicks landing at #5, #6 and #7 respectively.

Of the four songs in the “Other” category, three peaked at #1 (E.T., Last Friday Night and Rolling In The Deep), and the other, The Lazy Song, peaked at #3.

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Dance/Club Influenced Pop Hits: In Q3-2011, the most popular song structure (form) for Dance/Club oriented Pop hits was A-B- A-B-C-B (verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus), with the majority of them landing between 3:30 and 3:59.

All of the songs in the category contained a “proper” intro, with the average intro length landing around 0:16. Only five out of nine songs contained a “proper” outro, three of which were short to moderate in length (0:04, 0:06 and 0:18) and two of which were quite long in length (The Edge Of Glory and Party Rock Anthem, landing at 0:48 and 0:53 respectively).

On average, first choruses occurred around 0:40 (20%) of the way into the song, with only 22% of songs kicking off with the chorus as opposed to the verse. Not surprisingly, 100% of songs in the category prominently featured a synth as the primary instrument (though Moves Like Jagger did also prominently feature an electric guitar in the mix), and the lead vocal genders were equally split between male, female and duets.

78% of songs contained a pre-chorus, 11% (one song – The Edge Of Glory) contained a solo, and 67% of songs contained a bridge. As far as lyrical themes go,” Hooking Up” and “Partying/Clubbing” were equally split – both comprising 44% of songs.

Hip Hop/Rap Influenced Pop Hits: In Q3-2011, there wasn’t one particular song structure that comprised the majority of hits in the category. That being said, two out of five did follow an overall A-B-A-B-C-B form (though Stereo Hearts kicked off with the chorus as opposed to the verse). The average song length landed around 3:55.

Only two out of five songs in the category contained a “proper” intro (Super Bass and Just Can’t Get Enough), both of which landed at 0:08 and 0:15 respectively. None of the songs in the category contained a “proper” outro, all ending on the chorus except for Just Can’t Get Enough, which ended on the bridge.

Three out of five songs in the category kicked right off with the chorus, and the other two (The Show Goes On and Super Bass) saw their first choruses occurring at 6% and 23% of the way into the song respectively. All of the songs in the category prominently featured a synth in the mix, and all were comprised of electric based instrumentation. Three out of five songs featured a male lead vocalist, while one featured a female lead (Super Bass) and one was a duet (Just Can’t Get Enough).

40% of songs contained a pre-chorus, none contained a solo, and 80% of the songs contained a bridge. As far as lyrical themes go, two encompassed a “Love/Relationship” theme, one was “Inspirational ,”one focused on “Hooking Up” and one didn’t fall into any of the most popular categories (Lighters).

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R&B/Soul Influenced Pop Hits: Only one top 10 hit Pop song from Q3 (Lil Wayne’s How To Love) featured a strong R&B/Soul influence. See the chart above for specifics regarding the song.

Rock Influenced Pop Hits: In Q3-2011, there wasn’t one particular song structure that comprised the majority of hits in the category, though Good Life and Tonight Tonight both followed an A-B-A-B-C-B form up until the last section of the song, where Good Life reverted back to the verse. The average song length landed around 3:52.

All of the songs in the category contained a “proper” intro, one of which was quite short in length (Tonight Tonight, landing at 0:06) and two which were quite long in length (Good Life landing at 0:30 and Pumped Up Kicks landing at 0:33). Two out of three songs contained a “proper” outro (Good Life and Tonight Tonight), landing at 0:21 and 0:14 respectively.

On average, first choruses occurred around 0:46 (20%) of the way into the song, and none kicked off with the chorus as opposed to the verse. Primary instrumentation contained within the songs varied, including synths, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, up front bass and electric piano. All three songs in the category were sung by male lead vocalists.

One song contained a pre-chorus (Tonight Tonight), one song contained some sort of a solo (Pumped Up Kicks) and two out of three songs contained a bridge (the exception being Pumped Up Kicks). In regard to lyrical themes, one was “Inspirational” (Good Life),one focused on “Partying” (Tonight Tonight) and one, (Pumped Up Kicks), possessed a unique lyrical theme that didn’t fall into any of the most popular categories.

“Other” Influenced Pop Hits: In regard to the four songs that didn’t fall into the categories detailed above, three of them were sung by female lead vocalists and one was sung by a male (The Lazy Song –Bruno Mars). Song structures were mixed, and two featured electric based instrumentation and two were acoustic. Two songs featured a “Love/Relationship” lyrical theme, one was “Partying/Clubbing” and one was “Inspirational” in nature. In regard to instrumentation, one featured a synth (E.T.), one featured Electric Guitar & Synth (Last Friday Night), one featured Acoustic Piano (Rolling In The Deep) and one featured Acoustic Guitar (The Lazy Song).

Conclusion: All in all, the vast majority of songs that landed in the Pop top 10 during Q3-2011 possessed a strong sub-genre influence that shaped the sound and vibe of the song as opposed to being straight-up Pop in nature. Some were subtle, and some literally had sections of the song split between genres (i.e. Stereo Hearts, which possessed a “Hip Hop” verse and “Dance/Pop” chorus).

Not surprisingly, “Dance/Club” continues to be both the most “successful” and prevalent sub- genre influence amongst today’s Pop hits, comprising nine out of the twenty-two songs that placed in the Pop top 10 during Q3-2011, with seven of them landing in the top 5 and four hitting #1.

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Interestingly, of the four songs that didn’t fit into any of the most popular sub-genre categories (i.e. the “others,”) all four landed in the top 5, with three of them hitting #1. Quite possibly it’s due in part to their “unique” nature amongst others in the genre (in addition to many other factors, of course) that aided them in reaching the top of the charts.

No matter what sub-genre influenced songs you’re looking at, the majority of them possessed similar attributes that are indicative of today’s Hit Songwriting:

Song lengths that land in the mid to upper 3:00 range First choruses that occur relatively early into the song (i.e. hook ‘em in fast) Relatively short intro lengths Moderate outro lengths Tempos in the Mid and Mid/Up range. No ballads or ultra-fast songs Electric based instrumentation (unless your song is Soul or Blues based) No solos Yes to a bridge Utilizing any one of the four primarily lyrical themes (“Hooking Up,” “Love/Relationships,” “Partying/Clubbing,” or “Inspirational”).

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