Music is all about expression right? It’s about transforming internal emotions you carry, into something other than words. For the most hearty of music lovers, myself included, music is about the picture painted while listening or after hearing; there is no template nor formula. The best songs are the ones that evoke raw and uncut emotion.
But what if I told you that each repetition of a song’s chorus has proven to boost the odds of that song making it to number one.
Researchers have studied over 2,400 songs dating back half a century and according to findings by Professor Ordanini with the University of Southern California, the likelihood of a song reaching number one is perpetually dependent on the number of times its chorus repeats. The more constant the chorus, the more probable that song will go on to chart higher. The study suggests that is the case due to the brain processing those common repetitions more quickly.
Of those 2,400 songs tested, a little over 1,000 of them reached number one while the other almost 1,500, never climbed above the 90 percentile. Within that slew of songs, choruses amongst them all were repeated one to 16 times. Now there are no exact figures showing a median amount of times a chorus was repeated but the moral of the story is – your brain processes familiar parts of the song more quickly, which makes sense. So for all you music producers, serving your audience the meat, the bulk of your song numerous times throughout the duration of your track – has proven to stick with the listeners more often and returning back later.
The study also suggests that the songs that stand out in our minds are those that we can easily hear the same words repeating over and over again.
Here are the top two most repetitive songs of each decade which each repeated their choruses seven times.
1960’s
Marty Robbins – El Paso
Zager and Evans – In The Year 2525 (Exordium and Terminus)
1970’s
Ringo Starr – Photograph
Bee Gees – Jive Talkin’
1980’s
USA For Africa – We Are The World
Tears for Fears – Shout
1990’s
Amy Grant – Baby, Baby
Notorious B.I.G. – Hypnotize
2000’s
Usher – U Remind Me
Jennifer Lopez – I’m Real
2010’s
Rihanna – S&M
Adele – Set Fire To The Rain
Source: The Telegraph