David Crowder – All Around Me
I love it when a song leave me in rapt suspense as to when/if it will ever explode into a fiery ball of drums, guitars and sheer power. Simply astounding…
Archive for September, 2010
I’ve been thinking (amongst other things) lately about the defining characteristics of an intensely catchy song like Teenage Dream. I don’t care if you hate Katy Perry, if you despise her outfits, if you think she ugly, whatever. That song is catchy.
Ok here’s my musical perspective:
- In the verse, simple guitar voicing that has maybe two or three notes per hit as opposed to entire chords being strummed (Kelly Clarkson employs this a lot)
- Really nice flipping between head and chest voice gives her power when she wants it and soft dynamics on top
- Chord stabs in the chorus! I LOVE LOVE LOVE chord stabs, it’s hard to use it without sounding trancey though, hence the difficulty of creating a catchy song. I think it works because it’s syncopated.
- If you listen to the verse + chorus, the singing only varies between 5 notes (Bb, G, C D F). Contributes to singability and so the hook is simple yet compelling.
Pretty amazing stuff. I can’t speak for the lyrics because as previously mentioned, I don’t listen to words. The music communicates to me independent of what the writer wants – in fact I think the only words in the song I know apart from “Teenage Dream” is “skin tight jeans” haha. Ok bye!
