
Hit Songs Deconstructed Deconstructing Today&#039;s Hits for Songwriting Success http://reports.hitsongsdeconstructed.com Friday Deconstructed Skip to: Audio/Video General Information At a Glance Structural Analysis Sectional Analysis Waveform Benchmark Analysis Overall Assessment Hit Factor Assessment Conclusion Why it’s a Phenomenon Audio/Video Back to Top General Information Back to Top Artist: Rebecca Black Song/Album: Friday (Single) Songwriter(s): Patrice Wilson, Clarence Jey Week on BB Chart: 4/9/2011 Chart Position: #58 Billboard Hot 100 Genre: Pop Sub Genre: Electro Pop At a Glance Back to Top Length: 3:42 Structure: A-B-A-B-C-A-B Tempo: Mid/Mid-Up (~115 bpm) First Chorus: 0:45 (20% into the song) 1 / 10 Hit Songs Deconstructed Deconstructing Today&#039;s Hits for Songwriting Success http://reports.hitsongsdeconstructed.com Intro Length: 0:17 Outro Length: n/a Primary Tone (Electric/Acoustic): Electric Primary Instrumentation: Synth Lyrical Theme: Fun, Fun, Fun, Fun Primary Lyrical P.O.V: 1st Structural Analysis Back to Top At-a-Glance Section Length (Length of each individual section within the song) Here we see the longest section landing at 0:53, occurring in the double chorus towards the end of the song, followed by the bridge at 0:28, 1st and 2nd choruses at 0:26, verses and intro at 0:17, and pre-chorus at 0:11/0:10. Structure Timeline (Shows when each section hits within the timeline of the song) 2 / 10 Hit Songs Deconstructed Deconstructing Today&#039;s Hits for Songwriting Success http://reports.hitsongsdeconstructed.com Total Section Analysis (Total time consumed by each section and its percentage of the total song) “Friday” follows the “Hit” formula when it comes to the total amount of time allocated to each section within the song, most specifically the chorus and verse sections. With 47% of the song comprised of the chorus, and 23% comprised of the verses, it closely follows such hits as “F**Kn’ Perfect” (49% Chorus / 20% Verse), “Firework” (41% Chorus / 27% Verse) and “Only Girl (In the World)” (47% Chorus / 27% Verse). Momentum/Intensity Factor (Evaluation of the intensity of each section within the song timeline on a scale of 1 – 10, 10 being the most intense) 3 / 10 Hit Songs Deconstructed Deconstructing Today&#039;s Hits for Songwriting Success http://reports.hitsongsdeconstructed.com As you can see in the graph above, there is some (though not a lot) of variation in momentum and intensity within the song, primarily in the intro, transition points and bridge. Sectional Analysis Back to Top Intro: 3/10 As Is, 8/10 Just the First Half The first half of the intro follows in typical Electro Pop fashion, characterized by the “overloaded” synths, background female “yeah, yeah’s” and ultra-processed male Hip Hop flavored voiceovers. If the intro ended right after the “whistle” at 0:08, it would have been quite effective. The problem is that it lumbers on, with the beat kicking in at 0:08, but doesn’t really add anything interesting to the mix. The “yeah, yeah’s” become redundant, and quite honestly annoying to some degree. It’s overkill. They should have kept it short and to-the-point. Verses: 3/10 First off, the vocal melody is way too monotone in nature – coming across “robotic” and devoid of emotion. Let’s take the first part of the first verse, for example: The first three vocal melody lines stay in the key of B: “7am, waking up in the morning Gotta be fresh, gotta go downstairs Gotta have my bowl, gotta have cereal Seein’ everything, the time is goin’” If she mixed it up a little, for example going to a D# on “downstairs”, and C# on “goin’’”, it would have brought the melody a bit more to life. Keep the monotone on the first line, since it jibes with the lyrical theme of waking up in the morning at 7am – you’re tired, so the monotone natured vocals work. Shifting to another key (D#) on “downstairs” works as well, because your “moving” keys and it works with they lyrics “gotta go downstairs”, which denotes movement. The second verse has the same problem as well, and both the first and second verses need quite a bit of melodic assistance. The Rap part during the third verse actually works quite well. It’s predictable, but effective and gives the song a much needed shot of melodic diversity. Regarding the lyrics, they’re extremely simple in nature, which is fine considering that the song is meant for a very young tween audience. They also contain imagery, which is important in helping to engage the listener in the song. That being said, there are a number of fundamental 4 / 10 Hit Songs Deconstructed Deconstructing Today&#039;s Hits for Songwriting Success http://reports.hitsongsdeconstructed.com problems, including rhyming issues, vagueness of content (“I got this, You got this”) and overall just coming across disjointed in nature. Pre-Chorus: 5/10 First, there needs to be some transitional element that aids in separating the verse from the pre- chorus. It could be a synth “swoosh”, a drum fill, or something of the like. From a vocal melody perspective, it’s not terrible. At least it’s not 100% monotone as in the verse. The weakest link in the section is the drums. The start and stop beat works well, but should have driven with a continuous beat once we hit the line “gotta make up my mind.” The way that it is doesn’t really work all that well – it’s almost as if they didn’t feel like finishing up the section to make it as good as it could possibly be. If they fixed the section up, they could even double the length to help provide a break from the monotony present in the rest of the song. Chorus: 4/10 First – whatever setting they used to process her vocals really didn’t do her, or the song, justice. Having an original sounding voice is great and important in giving both an artist and a song identity. However, doing a poor job of it can have the exact opposite effect, which I believe was done here. Her voice comes across nasally and winey in nature. It almost makes it sound like she’s NOT happy that it’s Friday. It kind of reminds me of Eurkel from that show “Family Matters.” As for the melody, again, there is potential there, but in its current state it just doesn’t deliver. It comes across generic and devoid of any real emotion. Lyrically, it’s probably the weakest part of the entire song. Again, keeping in mind the intended audience (young tween), simple and fun IS the way to go lyrically. However, the lyrics here are SO simple and SO generic, that they covey absolutely nothing of substance to the listener. Here’s the chorus: “It’s Friday, Friday Gotta get down on Friday Everybody’s lookin’ forward to the weekend, weekend Friday, Friday Gettin’ down on Friday Everybody’s lookin’ forward to the weekend” “Partyin’, partyin’ (Yeah) Partyin’, partyin’ (Yeah) Fun, fun, fun, fun Lookin’ forward to the weekend” The first part of the chorus isn’t terrible. It actually works a bit to a very simple, basic degree (the “yeah” does a good job of accentuating the “partyin’). The real problem lies in the second part of the section, specifically “fun, fun, fun, fun.” It’s that line alone coupled with its monotone delivery that kills the section, and the song. It’s just SO basic and generic that it’s laughable. Bridge: 2/10 The bridge in “Friday” delivers in the sense that it breaks from the momentum present in the 5 / 10 Hit Songs Deconstructed Deconstructing Today&#039;s Hits for Songwriting Success http://reports.hitsongsdeconstructed.com sections that preceded it (as any good bridge should). Aside from that, it’s the weakest section of the song, specifically for the following reasons: 1. The lyrics are, quite honestly, terrible. A bridge should bring a new twist to the song, not just melodically, but lyrically as well. These lyrics bring NOTHING to the song at all, except stating the obvious (i.e. “tomorrow is Saturday, and Sunday comes afterwards.”). Here are the full lyrics to the bridge – enough said: “Yesterday was Thursday, Thursday Today i-is Friday, Friday (Partyin’) We-we-we so excited We so excited We gonna have a ball today Tomorrow is Saturday And Sunday comes after…wards I don’t want this weekend to end” 2. The vocal melody is ineffective, coming across “karaoke” and “robotic” in nature. You can easily tell that she’s having a very tough time with the phrasing in spots as well. Waveform Back to Top As you can see from the waveform above, the levels in “Friday” remain pretty much constant throughout the entire song, with a slight drop off during the bridge. Benchmark Analysis Back to Top Compares the song being analyzed to all songs that have entered the Billboard Pop top 10: Q1 – Q4 2010 6 / 10 Hit Songs Deconstructed Deconstructing Today&#039;s Hits for Songwriting Success http://reports.hitsongsdeconstructed.com The key elements present in “Friday” are in-line with all year-to-date top 10 Pop hits EXCEPT: The first chorus comes in 0:08 (3%) later than the average top 10 Pop hit. “Friday” is sung by a female (plus a male third verse), where the majority of top 10 Pop hits are sung exclusively by a male vocalist. The lyrical theme is “fun fun fun fun” themed, where the majority of top 10 Pop hits deal with a love/relationship theme.
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