Hit Songs Deconstructed Deconstructing Today's Hits for Songwriting Success http://reports.hitsongsdeconstructed.com Dark Horse 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 & Takeaways Audio/Video Back to Top At a Glance Back to Top Artist: Katy Perry Song/Album: Dark Horse / Prism Songwriters: Gottwald, Houston, Hudson, Martin, Perry, Walter Genre: Pop Sub Genres: Dark Pop, Trap, Hip Hop/Rap Length: 3:31 Structure (Form): A-B-A-B-C-B Tempo: 124 bpm First Chorus: 0:44 / 21% into the song Intro Length: 0:15 Outro Length: n/a 1 / 117 Hit Songs Deconstructed Deconstructing Today's Hits for Songwriting Success http://reports.hitsongsdeconstructed.com Electric vs. Acoustic: Electric Primary Instrumentation: Synth Lyrical Theme: Love/Relationships Title Occurrences: “Dark Horse” occurs 4 times within the song Primary Lyrical P.O.V: 1st, 2nd, & 3rd Overview Back to Top Seductive, Dark, Edgy, mesmerizing and meticulously well crafted. These are just some of the terms that describe Katy Perry’s latest #1, Dark Horse. Written by an all-star team of hitmakers including her go-to guys Max Martin, Dr. Luke and Cirkut, Dark Horse fuses elements of Dark Pop, Trap and Hip Hop/Rap in a unique manner which not only enables it to stand out amongst its mainstream contemporaries, but Perry’s overall body of work as well. As you’ll see within this 100+ page report, there is a wealth of hit songwriting characteristics and techniques contained within Dark Horse that when studied will undoubtedly help take your songwriting and producing skills to the next level. Song Structure Back to Top TIMELINE (Shows when each section hits within the timeline of the song) FORM Key A=Verse 2 / 117 Hit Songs Deconstructed Deconstructing Today's Hits for Songwriting Success http://reports.hitsongsdeconstructed.com B=Chorus C=Bridge PC=Pre-Chorus I=Intro Here we’re going to take a look at Dark Horse’s full form in a couple of ways, with the pre- chorus and bridge being the areas that are subject to debate: Form 1: I-A-B-A-B-A-B In this case we’re going to consider verses 1 and 2 to be ~0:30 in length, each consisting of 2 stanzas. Note that the second stanza within each verse is what we’re considering to be pre- choruses in form 2 below. We’re also going to consider Juicy’s rap to be a verse as well, as opposed to a bridge. Form 2: I-A-PC-B-A-PC-B-C-B Here we’re going to consider the second stanza of each verse in form 1 above to be a pre- chorus, and the third verse (Juicy’s rap), as a bridge. Which is the correct way to view this? Technically, they’re both correct. For the purpose of this deconstruction, however, we’re going to go with form 2 for the following reasons: Differentiation: Pre-Chorus vs. Verse The first 2 vocal lines within the pre-chorus provides differentiation and a lift from the nature of the verse that preceded it. If these 2 lines were sung in a similar manner to that of the verse, THEN we would consider it to be a second stanza of the verse as opposed to a pre-chorus. Now, you may be thinking that the last line of the pre-chorus reverts back to the vocal melody that defined the verse, and that throws a wrench into the whole equation. What you need to remember though is that we’re looking at the section as a whole, and the differentiation that occurs at the onset sets it apart. Differentiation: Bridge vs. Verse This one is actually a tough call. Technically, Juicy’s rap is his own verse section. However, the nature of the section, specifically the lyrical and vocal characteristics, provide a significant departure from that which defines all of the other sections within the song, which ultimately qualifies it as a bridge. A-B-A-B-C-B So, at its core Dark Horse 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). 3 / 117 Hit Songs Deconstructed Deconstructing Today's Hits for Songwriting Success http://reports.hitsongsdeconstructed.com This form is also a favorite of Perry’s, considering that it was utilized on 7 out of 8 of her previous #1 hits! SECTION LENGTH & COUNT (Length of each individual section within the song) Section Count Dark Horse contains 9 full primary sections and 1 secondary section within its framework as follows: 1 intro 2 verses 2 pre-choruses 3 choruses (each consisting of parts A and B) 1 bridge (consisting of parts A and B) 1 turnaround (secondary section that follows the first chorus) Section Length In regard to the length of full sections within the song, they range from the moderately short to the moderately long as follows: Very Short 0:07 turnaround 4 / 117 Hit Songs Deconstructed Deconstructing Today's Hits for Songwriting Success http://reports.hitsongsdeconstructed.com Moderately Short 0:14 pre-chorus 1 0:15 pre-chorus 2 0:15 verse 1 0:15 verse 2 0:15 intro Moderate 0:29 chorus 1 0:29 chorus 2 0:28 chorus 3 Moderately Long 0:44 bridge 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 as often as possible to help keep them engaged. If you linger on for too long within one particular section without providing diversity, they’re eventually going to start to lose interest. As you can see above, the intro, verses, pre-choruses and turnaround are all relatively short on their own, so there isn’t any really concern that the listener going to get bored and lose interest within these sections. The choruses and bridge, however, are lengthier in comparison. In order to make sure that the listener is kept engaged throughout, these longer full sections are “segmented” into short ones as follows: Choruses Each full chorus is split into 2 distinct segments: Part A: ~0:14 5 / 117 Hit Songs Deconstructed Deconstructing Today's Hits for Songwriting Success http://reports.hitsongsdeconstructed.com Encompasses the “so you want to play with magic” first half of the section. Part B: ~0:14 Encompasses the more intense “are you ready for…” second half of the section. Bridge Notice that parts A and B not only possess a different Rap style from one another, but they also differ in regard to the nature of the backing music as well. Part A: 0:29 Part A lands at 0:29 and is split into 3 distinct Rap variations which change over frequently as follows. Note that the nature of the backing music shifts as well: Rap Variation 1 (2:19 – 2:33): 0:14 Rap Variation 2 (2:33 – 2:41): 0:08 Rap Variation 3 (2:41 – 2:48): 0:07 Part B: 0:15 Part B possesses 1 primary Rap style which is different from any of the styles that defined part A and provides a shift in the nature of the backing music as well: 2:48 – 3:03 (0:15) As you can see, when you break these full sections down into shorter individual segments, you wind up with a new elements entering the mix more frequently which ultimately makes for a more engaging listening experience. TOTAL SECTION BREAKDOWN (The total time consumed by each section and its percentage of the total song) 6 / 117 Hit Songs Deconstructed Deconstructing Today's Hits for Songwriting Success http://reports.hitsongsdeconstructed.com Not surprisingly, the vast majority of time within Dark Horse was allocated to the chorus (i.e. the “payoff”), accounting for 41% of its total composition. This is due to 2 primary factors: There are more chorus occurrences within the song than any other section (3). Next to the bridge (which occurs just once), the chorus is the longest full section within the song (~0:29). Now, typically you would expect the second most amount of time to be allocated to the verse sections, considering how important it is to fully develop the storyline. This is NOT the case within Dark Horse, however. The next highest amount of time went to the bridge, primarily because this is the ONLY section where the featured artist, Juicy J., has his time to shine. As a result, he’s given ample amount of time to “do his thing” and expound on the story (0:44). As for the verse and pre-chorus, both occurrences of these sections add up to just 14% of the total song each. Note that the low percentage allocated to the verse didn’t hurt the development of the storyline, however. This is because each pre-chorus occurrence adds a new lyrical development, which typically is not indicative of pre-choruses (they usually possess the same lyrical content throughout all occurrences within the song). And finally, the intro accounts for the least amount of time within the song as you would expect, encompassing just 7% of its entire composition. 7 / 117 Hit Songs Deconstructed Deconstructing Today's Hits for Songwriting Success http://reports.hitsongsdeconstructed.com 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 within each section of the song.