Hit Songs Deconstructed Deconstructing Today's Hits for Songwriting Success http://reports.hitsongsdeconstructed.com Scream & Shout Deconstructed Skip to: Audio/Video At a Glance Introduction Structural Analysis Momentum/Tension/Intensity (MTI) Lyrics & Harmonic Progression The Music The Vocal Melody 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: Wil.i.am featuring Britney Spears Song/Album: Scream & Shout / #willpower Songwriters: Will Adams, Jean Baptiste Kouame, Jef Martens Producers: Will Adams, Jef Martens Genre: Pop Sub Genre: Straight-Up Electro Pop, Dance Length: 4:44 Structure: A-B-IB/VB-A-A-B-IB/VB-C-B Tempo: 130 BPM First Chorus: 0:44 (15% into the song) Intro Length: 0:14 Outro Length: 0:18 Electric vs. Acoustic: Electric Primary Instrumentation: Synth Lyrical Theme: Partying/Clubbing (primary), Love/Relationships (secondary) Title Occurrences: Scream & Shout occurs 14 times within the song Lyrical P.O.V: 1st, 2nd & 3rd Introduction Back to Top Futuristic, egotistic, repetitive, dark, evocative, generic, clever, cliché, unique, familiar, ultra- 1 / 77 Hit Songs Deconstructed Deconstructing Today's Hits for Songwriting Success http://reports.hitsongsdeconstructed.com infectious, fun and of course, “Britney bitch!” These are just some of the terms that describe Will.i.am’s collaboration with Britney Spears on the third single from his forthcoming album, #willpower. To-date Scream & Shout has hit #1 in 21 countries on 23 charts throughout the world, so suffice it to say that the song contains a host of hit factors that enabled it to rise to the top, which we’ll be exploring in depth throughout the report. However, the song ALSO possesses certain characteristics that should be avoided by up and coming songwriters at all costs. Read on to find out what they are! Structural Analysis Back to Top At-a-Glance Section Length (Length of each individual section within the song) I=Intro, V=Verse, C=Chorus, T=Transition, B=Bridge, IB/VB=Instrumental/Vocal Break, O =Outro Scream & Shout contains 12 individual sections within its framework (excluding the brief transitions), with the longest landing at 0:41 (the extended chorus-3), and the shortest landing at 0:13 (the instrumental/vocal break sections). Key Points 2 / 77 Hit Songs Deconstructed Deconstructing Today's Hits for Songwriting Success http://reports.hitsongsdeconstructed.com Verse Each of the 3 full verse sections within the song landed at 0:29. Verses 1 & 3 possessed essentially the same characteristics except for the lead vocal duties (i.e. “when you here this in the club…“), while verse 2 was completely different in nature (Will.i.am’s section). Additionally, notice that verse 2 was essentially split into two individual segments, with the first landing at 0:15 and the second at 0:14 (more on this in the Music/Instrumentation/Vocal section of the report). Chorus The first and second chorus occurrences within the song each landed at 0:26. Notice that each full chorus is basically split into 2 halves, repeating twice: First “I wanna scream & shout / Oh wee oh…” (0:15) Second “I wanna scream & shout / Oh wee oh…“ (0:11) The second time around the last “oh wee oh...” line is done away with and in its place we have the “You are now, now rockin’ with...” 0:04 transition segment. As for the third (and last) chorus occurrence within the song, this one was extended out to 0:41 (the 0:15 “I wanna/oh wee oh…” section is repeated twice, followed by the 0:11 segment). Notice that the melody remained the same as the other chorus occurrences within the song, but this time around the backing music is more intense, and the extended time of the section enables the excitement level of the song to be taken to a crescendo (more on this in the Music/Instrumentation/Vocal section of the report). Bridge As with the chorus, the bridge also essentially repeats twice as well (with some vocal and backing music differentiation the second time around – more on that later). Each half lands right around 0:15, and as a whole it’s the longest section of the song next to the extended chorus 3 as mentioned above. Transitions There are 2 individual vocal transitions that occur within the song, both of which are exceptionally short in nature and work to break up and transition from one section to the next: Transition-A (0:01): “Bring the action” (this occurs between the intro and verse-1, the IB/VB and verse-2, as well as between verse 2 and verse 3). Transition-B (0:04): “You are now now rockin’ with Will.i.am and Britney bitch” (this occurs in place of an additional “oh wee oh…” line at the end of each chorus section within the song). The first two times it’s followed by the IB/VB section, and the third and final time it’s followed by the outro. Let’s now see how Scream & Shout’s section length compared to the 21 songs that landed in 3 / 77 Hit Songs Deconstructed Deconstructing Today's Hits for Songwriting Success http://reports.hitsongsdeconstructed.com the Billboard Pop Songs Chart top 10 during Q4-2012: Scream & Shout / Top 10 Hit Pop Song Averages Intro: 0:14 / 0:11 Verse: 0:29 / 0:21 *Chorus: 0:26 / 0:31 Bridge: 0:31 / 0:21 Instrumental/Vocal Break: 0:13 / 0:13 Outro: 0:18 / 0:23 *This reflects the lengths of “standard” full choruses – NOT extended chorus sections. Overall, the intro, chorus, outro and especially the instrumental/vocal break sections are pretty close to top 10 averages. The verse and bridge however are 0:08 and 0:10 longer than the average, respectively. Regarding the bridge, this is primarily due to the fact that it essentially repeats twice as mentioned above. As for the verse sections of the song, they’re just as much a focal point as the choruses, and therefore warrant the additional time (more on this later). Now, let’s see how Scream & Shout’s section count compared to the 21 songs that landed in the Billboard Pop Songs Chart top 10 during Q4-2012: Scream & Shout / Top 10 Hit Pop Song Averages Intro: 1 / 1 Verse: 3 / 2 Chorus: 3 / 3 Bridge: 1 / 1 Instrumental/Vocal Break: 2 / 3 Outro: 1 / 1 Besides the obvious (i.e. of course a song is only going to have 1 intro and 1 outro), Scream & Shout is right in line with the chorus and bridge count, but deviates on the IB/VB and verse counts. It contains 1 more verse than the average and 1 less IB/VB section than the average. Regarding the verse, keep in mind that both verse section occurrences in most mainstream Pop 4 / 77 Hit Songs Deconstructed Deconstructing Today's Hits for Songwriting Success http://reports.hitsongsdeconstructed.com songs are always similar in nature, both from a vocal melody and backing music standpoint (i.e. repetition fosters memorability). This is essentially the case with verses 1 and 3 in Scream & Shout, but it’s the second verse as previously mentioned (Will.i.am’s section), that is completely different in nature. Timeline (Shows when each section hits within the timeline of the song) I=Intro, V=Verse, C=Chorus, T=Transition, B=Bridge, IB/VB=Instrumental/Vocal Break, O =Outro Total Section Analysis (Total time consumed by each section and its percentage of the total song) 5 / 77 Hit Songs Deconstructed Deconstructing Today's Hits for Songwriting Success http://reports.hitsongsdeconstructed.com Scream & Shout is comprised of 7 full sections within its framework (i.e. all choruses, verses, IB/VB’s, transitions, plus the intro, outro and bridge), accounting for 33% of the song’s total composition all the way down to just 5%. The most important thing to take note of is the fact that an almost equal amount of time was allocated to the chorus and verse sections. This just goes to show that even though the chorus is exceptionally infectious and memorable, the verse sections were deemed equally as important within the framework of the song as mentioned earlier. The bridge and IB/VB sections followed, encompassing 11% and 9% of the song’s total composition, respectively. And lastly, as you would expect, the intro and outro sections (along with the brief transitions) accounted for the least amount of time within the song, accounting for 5%, 6% and 5% respectively. Now, let’s now see how the sectional breakdown of Scream & Shout compared to the 21 songs that landed in the Billboard Pop Songs Chart top 10 during Q4-2012: Intro Scream & Shout: Comprises 5% of the total song. Q4-2012 Average: Comprises 5% of the total song. Comparison: The percentage of time allocated to the intro was exactly the same as the Q4-2012 top 10 hit Pop song average. Verse Scream & Shout: Comprises 31% of the total song. Q4-2012 Average: Comprises 21% of the total song. Comparison: Scream & Shout allocated 10% more time to the verse compared to the average. This was due primarily to the fact that Scream & Shout contains 3 verse sections, while the majority of top 10 hit Pop songs only contain 2. Chorus Scream & Shout: Comprises 33% of the total song. Q4-2012 Average: Comprises 45% of the total song. Comparison: Scream & Shout allocated 12% less time to the chorus compared to the average. This is directly related to more time being given to the verse as mentioned above (the additional time had to come from somewhere).