Pullout Aug 29, 2012 at 4:00 am

Why Is That Gotye Song So Catchy?

He sure is handsome, though.

Comments

1
The song employs a handful of 'hit' song writing techniques:

1) the pitch of the vocals go up substantially in the chorus
2) the drop-out of percussion right before the chorus.
3) the melody of the chorus ends on the root note of the song.
4) the tail of chorus is the title of the song repeated and hammers home that root note.
5) it's super repetitive.

It's also interesting that there is no bridge. And by 'interesting' I mean 'zzzz.'
2
Or to put it more simply: the core melody is essentially the alphabet song, Baa Baa Black Sheep, Twinkle Twinkle...

The greatest earworm known to Western Civilization!
3
Wow. That's just a really lazy analysis of the piece. There is some interesting stuff going on in the piece, but apparently two listens isn't enough for Starr to notice them. Or, apparently, notice that there are two singers. Nice analysis of the lyrics, too -- Bob Dylan has a song about breaking up, so why bother writing another?
4
Professor or not, it's just his opinion. Personally, I hate most modern music but there's some good stuff out there. This song has a great, insanely repetitive childlike xylophone motif(s), meaningful lyrics and an interesting take of giving the woman tell her side of the story. We've all seen people run down other people without hearing the other side and realize how the person they demonize had their side of the story too, in this song we get it. Also, it's great how when the man takes the final word, the woman can still be heard (and in the video, seen) effectively shouting the man down with the harmonies. The prof mentions sixties music and that's what I think is most interesting about this work, you can hear snatches of Simon and Garfunkel, Donovan and to my ears most of all Atlanta Rhythm Sections "Spooky". I don't want to beat a dead horse but if this guy is a music professor he should have learned like the rest of us that a song usually requires more than two listens to appreciate.
5
Professor or not, it's just his opinion. Personally, I hate most modern music but there's some good stuff out there. This song has a great, insanely repetitive childlike xylophone motif(s), meaningful lyrics and an interesting take of giving the woman tell her side of the story. We've all seen people run down other people without hearing the other side and realize how the person they demonize had their side of the story too, in this song we get it. Also, it's great how when the man takes the final word, the woman can still be heard (and in the video, seen) effectively shouting the man down with the harmonies. The prof mentions sixties music and that's what I think is most interesting about this work, you can hear snatches of Simon and Garfunkel, Donovan and to my ears most of all Atlanta Rhythm Sections "Spooky". I don't want to beat a dead horse but if this guy is a music professor he should have learned like the rest of us that a song usually requires more than two listens to appreciate.
6
You don't need to do a musical breakdown of an earworm to explain why it's an earworm. All the affectless, repetitive, sonically inoffensive elements the musicologist dissed about the song are exactly why it gets stuck in one's head so easily. See "Call Me Maybe" for an extreme example.
7
This was very interesting to read, thank you.

8
This was a really fun article. That being said, trying to articulate the power of a pop song with a musicologist is like trying to articulate the grandeur of a garden with a cartographer. Pop music is a fundamentally semiotic relationship, a set of social dynamics set to a melody and beat; these things are most keenly viewed through an anthropological prism ( Somebody call Charles!).
10
That's interesting, but the analysis is based solely in music theory. This article adds a bit of science--SCIENCE!--to the discussion (different tune, but sonic crack all the same):

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424…

Regardless, "Affectless singing is very popular these days, and I don't know why" is a marvelous sentence.
11
Next, could you ask him to analyze why hipsters are so annoying? ;-)
12
More…

If I hear one more baby boomer prattle on about how great the Beatles and Bob Dylan are…seriously, move on.

This piece is set up to answer the question as though it's a conspiracy. It's not. Gotye simply wrote a song; it's very doubtful that he or anyone could have known it would hit the way it did.

Pop music is interesting for its own reasons. It captures something about the leading edge of culture in a given time. It just is.

I like the song. Am I tired of hearing it? Of course. But, I still like it. And, I completely disagree with the analysis that his singing (or hers) is affectless. Bullshit.

Is it a simple melody? Of course. So what. Less can often mean more. But, it is within that simplicity that a more complex nature can unfold and be surprising. And that, I believe, is the power of the song. The simplicity of the melody betrays a more complex analysis of the end of a relationship than we are used to in pop and love songs.

A time after the heartbreak? Two perspectives? The lingering threads that remain, even after time. This is not a simple heart break song. This is a next-step evolution to the blues.

But, as I alluded in the post above, what I find really annoying is the hipster attempt to dismiss something if it is popular, simply because of its popularity.

We all have a threshold, and this song has certainly hit it. But, don't confuse that with some justification for a hipster "too cool for school" analysis.

:-)
13
@11 & 12

well it looks like you've got it all figured out!
14
Wow, I just listened to it 3 times. never heard it before and if I hear it again I probably won't recognize it (except for maybe thinking, there is that song that sounds like Sting). in fact, i did not notice any of the lyrics or even remember the title.
Seriously, why is music so shitty these days? 60's to 90's all had lots of shitty music, but there was a lot that was great too. Adele and one or two Beyonce songs are about the only things that stand out for me, and I don't even like them.
16
I wonder what the ratio of stalkers/death threats with overly played annoyingly catchy songs is? I bet this song is near the top though! $20 and I suck you off if you do the number crunches and prove me wrong!
17
The same thing happened to Smells Like Teen Spirit: pointy-headed music professors tore it apart. But who cares? You either like it or you don't. There's no point in debating matters of taste. Now I'm going to listen to Lady Gaga's Bad Romance, because it sounds AWESOME.
18
The problem is that Gotye is Belgian. Nobody likes the Belgians - not even the Belgians...now a joke:

How do you keep a Belgian busy?

Put him in a round room and say there are chips in the corner. You could also give him a note with "see on the other side" written on both sides.
19
@15

the popularity of Bonnie Tyler can be summed up in two words: Jim Steinman.
20
Lemmings, everyone is a lemming for stupid music. videogames internet TV cell phones cars ships killed music. Nothing is any more complicated than a crummy nursery rhyme. It has been this way for quite a while. We are on the verge of the greatest music the world has ever created and ppttff. There was decent music at times yet they got shot down by boring structure and artless form.
21
Insanely disappointing discussion. Some impartiality would boost the credibility of this article to no end. Writing a piece such as this, where the 'Musicologist' is clearly speaking from a position of dislike and negativity renders their comments void. This is a well crafted song, globally successful and innovative in execution. Undeserving of such ridicule.

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