POP Quarterly Recap Report Q1-2010 (January - March) deconstructed POP Q1 Report (January - March) The Hit Songs Deconstructed Quarterly Recap Report is based on the 22 Hit Pop Songs that entered the Billboard Top 10 during Q1-2010. #1 Hit Pop Songs (6): Peak Position song artist #1 Whatcha Say Jason Derulo #1 Down Jay Sean #1 TikTok Ke$ha #1 Bad Romance Lady Gaga #1 Telephone Lady Gaga #1 Replay Iyaz #2 - #10 Pop Songs (16): Peak Position song artist #2 3 Britney Spears #2 Fireflies Owl City #2 Imma Be The Black Eyed Peas #3 Sexy Chick David Guetta #3 According To You Orianthi #5 Do You Remember Jay Sean #5 Empire State Of Mind Jay-Z #5 Already Gone Kelly Clarkson #6 In My Head Jason Derulo #6 BedRock Young Money #7 Two Is Better Than One Boys Like Girls #8 Need You Now Lady Antebellum #9 Hard Rihanna #9 Carry Out Timberland #10 Live Like We’re Dying Kris Allen #10 Fifteen Taylor Swift POP Q1 Report (January - March) AT-A-GLANCE: Structure Longest Shortest BB Peak song intro outro 1st % into song artist structure Position Length Length Length Chorus song Whatcha Say Jason Derulo 1 A-B-A-B-C-B 3:43 0:17 n/a 0:57 26% Down Jay Sean 1 A-B-A-B-C-B 3:32 0:21 n/a 0:51 24% Tik Tok Ke$ha 1 A-B-A-B-C-B 3:20 n/a n/a 0:32 16% Bad Romance Lady Gaga 1 A-B-A-B-C-B 4:54 0:33 0:10 1:14 25% *Telephone Lady Gaga 1 A-B-A-B 3:41 0:08 0:23 0:47 21% Replay Iyaz 1 A-B-A-B-C-B 3:03 0:21 n/a 0:01 1% aVeRaGes FoR BiLLBoaRD #1 Hits 3:42 0:20 4:00 0:43 19% 3 Britney Spears 2 A-B-A-B-C-B 3:22 0:28 n/a 0:01 1% Fireflies Owl City 2 A-B-A-B-A-B 3:48 0:21 0:13 0:43 19% *Imma Be The Black Eyed Peas 2 A-B-A-A-C-A-C 4:16 0:26 0:13 1:08 27% Sexy Chick David Guetta 3 A-B-A-B 3:14 0:15 n/a 1:15 39% According To You Orianthi 3 A-B-A-B-C-Solo-B 3:22 0:02 0:13 0:33 16% Do You Remember Jay Sean 5 A-B-A-B-C-B 3:31 0:15 n/a 0:46 22% Empire State Of Mind Jay-Z 5 A-B-A-B-A-B 4:37 0:10 n/a 0:55 20% Already Gone Kelly Clarkson 5 A-B-A-B-C-B 4:44 0:26 n/a 1:05 23% In My Head Jason Derulo 6 A-B-A-B-C-B 3:19 0:10 n/a 0:43 22% BedRock Young Money 6 A-B-A-B-A-B 4:48 0:13 n/a 1:06 23% Two Is Better Than One Boys Like Girls 7 A-B-A-B-Solo-C-B 4:03 0:04 n/a 0:32 13% Need You Now Lady Antebellum 8 A-B-A-B-Solo-C-B 4:38 0:37 1:08 1:08 24% Hard Rihanna 9 A-B-A-B-C-B 4:11 0:20 n/a 1:15 30% Carry Out Timbaland 9 A-B-A-B-C-B 3:53 0:20 0:17 0:58 25% Live Like We’re Dying Kris Allen 10 A-B-A-B-C-B 3:33 0:11 n/a 0:52 24% Fifteen Taylor Swift 10 A-B-A-B-Solo-C-A-B 4:55 0:10 0:36 0:53 18% aVeRaGes FoR BiLLBoaRD non #1 Hits 4:00 0:16 0:25 0:52 22% TOTAL aVeRaGes 3:51 0:18 0:20 0:47 20% *Note: Lady Gaga’s “Telephone” and The Black Eyed Peas “Imma Be” both deviate from conventional song structure. POP Q1 Report (January - March) AT-A-GLANCE: Lyrical Theme / Writers / Point of View #1 Hits song artist # of Writers Primary P.o.V. Lyrical theme Whatcha Say Jason Derulo 5 1st Love/Relationships Down Jay Sean 6 1st Love/Relationships TikTok Ke$ha 3 1st Partying Bad Romance Lady Gaga 2 1st Love/Relationships Telephone Lady Gaga 5 1st Partying Replay Iyaz 4 1st Love/Relationships Here we see that the majority of #1 hits (67%) have a lyrical theme that deals with love and relationships. The other two songs in the category have to do with partying/clubbing. Every #1 hit song is told from the 1st person perspective. All of the number #1 hits were written by more than one songwriter, and all of them had a contribution from the performing artist. Interestingly, there were 25 total songwriters involved in writing 6 #1 hit Pop songs, averaging out to around 4 writers per song. #2 - #10 Hits song artist # of Writers Primary P.o.V. Lyrical theme 3 Britney Spears 3 1st Hooking Up Fireflies Owl City 2 1st Holding on to Childhood Imma Be The Black Eyed Peas 9 1st Doing what you want Sexy Chick David Guetta 4 1st Checking someone out According To You Orianthi 2 1st Love/Relationships Do You Remember Jay Sean 7 1st Love/Relationships Empire State Of Mind Jay-Z 7 1st Hyping your hometown Already Gone Kelly Clarkson 2 1st Love/Relationships In My Head Jason Derulo 4 1st Hooking Up BedRock Young Money 8 1st Hooking Up Two Is Better Than One Boys Like Girls 1 1st Love/Relationships Need You Now Lady Antebellum 4 1st Love/Relationships Hard Rihanna 4 1st Being Resilient POP Q1 Report (January - March) song artist # of Writers Primary P.o.V. Lyrical theme Carry Out Timberland 5 1st Hooking Up Live Like We’re Dying Kris Allen 4 3rd Living life to the fullest Fifteen Taylor Swift 1 3rd Love/Relationships Here we see a more diverse set of lyrical themes. The majority (38%), still deal with love and relationships, and is followed by hooking up, at 25%. Another popular theme has to do with people relating to themselves on a personal level. This is evident in “Live Like We’re Dying”, “Hard”, “Imma Be” and “Fireflies.” Only two songs, “Fifteen” and “Two Is Better Than One” were written by single artists, with the rest having songwriters that ranged from 2 to 9. Three songs (“Live Like We’re Dying”, “According To You”, and “3”) were completely written by outside songwriters (no credited involvement from the performing artist). All of the songs were written from a first person perspective, with the exception of two (“Live Like We’re Dying” and “Fifteen”) which were written in the third person. There were a total of 67 songwriters involved in the “16 songs in this category, averaging out to 4 songwriters per song. SUMMARY RECAP #1 Billboard Pop Hits Structure • Most Popular Song Structure: A-B-A-B-C-B (Occurs in 83% of #1 hit Pop songs) • Average Song Length: 3:42 • Average Intro Length: 0:20 • Average Outro Length*: 0:16 • 1st Chorus Hit Average: 0:43 • 1st Chorus Hit % of Song: On average the 1st chorus hits 19% into the song • Songs with a Pre-Chorus: 50% of the songs have a pre-chorus and 50% do not. • Songs with a Solo: 0% of the #1 hit Pop songs have a solo • Songs with a Bridge: 83% of #1 hit Pop songs have a bridge Attributes • Most Popular Tempo: Mid/Up (67% of #1 hit Pop songs) • Most Popular Tone (Acoustic/Electric): Electric (100% of #1 hit Pop songs) • Most Popular Primary Instrumentation: Synth (100% of #1 hit Pop songs) • Most Popular Primary Vocal Gender: 50% Male, 50% Female • Most Popular Lyrical Theme: Love and Relationships • Most Popular Style: Electro Pop (100% of all #1 hit Pop songs) • Heavy use of Auto-Tune on lead vocals: 67% of #1 hit Pop songs. POP Q1 Report (January - March) Non #1 Billboard Hits (#2 - #10): Structure • Most Popular Song Structure: A-B-A-B-C-B (Occurs in 44% of #1 hit Pop songs) • Average Song Length: 4:00 • Average Intro Length: 0:16 • Average Outro Length*: 0:25 • 1st Chorus Hit Average: 0:51 • 1st Chorus Hit % of Song: On average the 1st chorus hits 21% into the song • Songs with a Pre-Chorus: 44% have a pre-chorus • Songs with a Solo: 25% have a solo • Songs with a Bridge: 75% have a bridge Attributes • Most Popular Tempo: Mid (56% of the songs) • Most Popular Tone (Acoustic/Electric): Electric (75% of the songs) • Most Popular Primary Instrumentation: Synth (69% of the songs) • Most Popular Primary Vocal Gender: 44% Male (followed by 31% combo and 25% woman) • Most Popular Lyrical Theme: Love and Relationships • Most Popular Style: Electro Pop (56% of the songs) • Heavy use of Auto-Tune on lead vocals: 38% of the songs All Top 10 Billboard Hit Songs Structure • Most Popular Song Structure: A-B-A-B-C-B (Occurs in 55% of all songs) • Average Song Length: 3:51 • Average Intro Length: 0:18 • Average Outro Length*: 0:20 • 1st Chorus Hit Average: 0:47 • 1st Chorus Hit % of Song: On average the 1st chorus hits 20% into the song • Songs with a Pre-Chorus: 45% have a pre-chorus • Songs with a Solo: 18% have a solo • Songs with a Bridge: 77% have a bridge Attributes • Most Popular Tempo: Mid / Mid-Up (51% and 49% respectively) • Most Popular Tone (Acoustic/Electric): Electric (82% of all top 10 hit Pop songs) POP Q1 Report (January - March) • Most Popular Primary Instrumentation: Synth (77% of all top 10 hit Pop songs) • Most Popular Primary Vocal Gender: 45% Male (followed by 32% woman & 23% combo) • Most Popular Lyrical Theme: Love and Relationships • Most Popular Style: Electro Pop (68% of all top 10 hit Pop songs) • Heavy use of Auto-Tune on lead vocals: 45% of all top 10 hit Pop songs AT-A-GLANCE: Comparison Chart CATEGoRY #1 songs #2-#10 sonGs all songs Most Popular Song Structure A-B-A-B-C-B A-B-A-B-C-B A-B-A-B-C-B Average Song Length 3:42 4:00 3:51 Average Intro Length 0:20 0:16 0:18 Average Outro Length 0:16 0:25 0:20 Average Time For 1st Chorus To Hit 0:43 0:51 0:47 Avgerage % Of Song Where 1st Chorus Hits 19% 21% 20% Top Occuring Tempos Mid/Up Mid Mid & Mid/Up Most Popular Tone Electric Electric Electric Most Popular Primary Instrumentation Synth Synth Synth Most Popular Primary Vocal Gender Male & Female Male Male Songs With A Pre-Chorus 50% 44% 45% Songs With A Solo 0% 25% 18% Songs With A Bridge 83% 75% 77% Lyrical Theme Love/Relationships Love/Relationships Love/Relationships Most Popular Style Electro-Pop Electro-Pop Electro-Pop POP Q1 Report (January - March) DETAIL RECAP Song Structure #1 Hit Songs • 5 out of 6 songs (83%) were structured A-B-A-B-C-B.