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Great video. Check out 'Karma' by N.L.T, produced by Ryan Tedder also. Another good song. He obviously repurposed the beat and put it to good use.

Core Rhythm Driver (aka "the riff"). I like how you gave the riff an educated term, Core Rhythm Driver. It would be nice for music teachers to include in their tests for students to identify which instrument section introduces the riff in a song.

This sounds like a great hack. You're basically reverse engineering the mastering used on your reference track. Seems like the initial mix is the fulcrum of this technique. Thanks for sharing.

Correct concept, but I think we’ve all known this for 50 years.

It’s called a groove. It’s when you don’t have to do complicated arrangement you just have a far groove that you can reinforce. You can’t do this with every song, listen to Earth Wind and Fire or Stevie or pretty much any jazz musician to see how more complex compositions need that conplexity.

There is something cool about a hypnotizing rhythm, but I like left turns, tension building and rug pulls in music

i like this deep unerstanding. realy big Thanks

You are doing really good work! Cheers!! My copy of your book is on the way...

Wow thank you for doing the work to figure this out, respect

Pewdii pie went from learning how to draw to studying music

Excellent🙌🏼

"It's the next phase, new wave, dance craze, anyways It's still rock 'n roll to me Everybody's talkin' 'bout the new sound Funny, but it's still rock 'n roll to me" - Billy Joel

Awesome observation. Sometimes half the battle is coming up with the vocabulary to identify things. But I’m pretty sure that’s a woodwind section at 8:29. A sax and a clarinet, perhaps?

Awesome video! The type of songwriting described here is what Jai Josefs (one of the great songwriting gurus) refers to as "groove-based" composition. Basically, the concept is that a songwriter first lays down a groove -- a looping, catchy rhythmic part -- on the bass, drums or some other instrument(s), and then he or she adds chords, vocals and other instruments over that musical foundation. This is how most dance music producers in the 1980s and 1990s would craft their songs because of the importance of danceability in their genre. Stock Aitken Waterman focused on this "groove-based" kind of songwriting for many of the dance-pop hits they wrote for Rick Astley, Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan (e.g. Kylie Minogue's "Got To Be Certain"), as did Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis for pretty much all of the uptempo dance classics they wrote for Janet Jackson (e.g. Janet Jackson's "I Miss You Much"). Another main method of songwriting is "melody first" composition, where the songwriter focuses on creating a vocal melody before anything. He or she then harmonizes that melody with a chord progression, which he/she then uses to flesh out a full musical arrangement. This is how many slow songs and most power ballads of the 1980s and 1990s were written. Because of the importance of vocal melody in pop, Prince and Diane Warren, and Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis too, preferred to rely on this "melody first" songwriting style when crafting their slow tunes (e.g. Prince's "Diamonds and Pearls"; Force MD's "Tender Love," written by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis). The last principal songwriting method is "chords first" composition. This is when a songwriter first works out a chord progression or sequence of chords, and subsequently lays a vocal melody and other instruments over that harmonic foundation. Many punk rock bands compose their tunes in this way. The guitarist comes up with a catchy chord progression, over which the vocalist sings a so-called "top-line" melody and the bassist lays a bassline at the low end (usually the bassist just plays the root note of each chord on the first beat of each measure/bar). Stevie Wonder and Sting both frequently used a "chords first" approach in their songwriting.

at first when I started with music, my melodies were pretty simple (like a lot of pop) but I focused on the production, and the rhythm, not only the drums but other instruments as well was very, very important important, especially if you have longer chord progressions than 4, because if you have 4 chords, it is much easier to throw a hook into it that works for all 4 chords. The longer the progression is, the harder it is to get a 'hook' in there and with that i mean in the music (not vocals). So the more I elongated the chord progressions, the less I felt I could get the listener 'hooked' with any sort of simple hook. With most 4 chord progressions you can play something that repeats itself on all 4 chords and keeps working. However, if you have chords that do not belong to the key or such things, that hook stops working there. However, involving chords that are not part of the scale, do give extra color, personality to the music and most importantly; they add an extra layer to music that makes it more interesting to listen to it multiple times, because in a sense chords out of keys do surprise, even if you know them. You brain subconsciously notices the pattern of one scale, so when you break away from that, it always becomes an interesting moment, at least if that chord sort fits there well enough so that it does not straight out sound odd. However,the more I got into interesting chord progressions, the less I could rely on such simple hooks to immediately attract attention, as hooks are like clickbait youtube titles. They work, but once you got the attention of the audience, you have to deliver something that is interesting next and the clickbait title is not enough anymore. However, back to the music, with the longer progressions and uncommon chords and less of the repeating patterns that keep playing in the background to keep the listener engaged, the more I had to focus on things like rhythm of all the instruments in order to have something going that is consistent and repeating the whole song, yet it allowed me to change the chords at the same time. I try to find the perfect combination of music that is interesting even if you listen to it 100 times (which a lot of pop lacks) and also try to make it catchy. The more interesting chords are,t he harder it its to make a catchy melody on top of it, so that is a for sure the biggest challenge in my idea. Lately my focus is the rhythm of the melody. I feel I got when chords are interesting and not overused figured out and how to transition different interesting parts, and the tones the melodies should kinda play, but only recently started trying to improve the rhythm of the melody, which is very important too. Basically , if you just have a pencil or a drum and you drum the melody without any note change, then if its somewhat memorable, then that helps. It should be both understandable enough for a person to follow, yet not so corny that is too easy to digest. However, with music there is also a complicated part I have not figured out and that is the different degrees of pattern recognition of listeners. . So if you make a more complex melody, the people with higher ("mathematical" or _pattern recognition_ ) intelligence are going to be interested, but the people with low pattern recognition abilities, are going to be too overwhelmed by it and do not recognize the pattern. However, if you make it easy enough for the people with the lowest ability to recognize patterns, or simply said lower IQs, then the more intelligent group is going to be bored by that. Another way to try to get attention of all groups is to start out pretty simple with a shorter chord sequence that allows for a 'hook' and that repeats often sinec its only 3 chord, then introduce that as the start and build the intro up untilll when the chorus actually starts and then the chorus introduces longer and more complex chord progressions. I think this method is quite more often, but unlike you I take the opposite approach and basically start with my own ideas and create my own idea/ experiences rather than really listening to what other people are doing. No approach is really bettter, as they are just starting from the ground up or from higher up and going down, One way I have tried to combat that problem is to make the chord sequence complex, yet hte melody on top simple. However, It's hard to really consistently make that work.... Anyway, just my 2 cents about something related to your topic (btw english is not my language so please excuse my mistakes in the english langue)

1000 hours of 'analyzing' or 2 minutes reading the first two pages of 'Composing for Dummies'. Or simply just being a music fan who has had simple conversations about musical structure. If this is revelatory for people I guess that's ok, but to be honest I can't tell if this is a parody. It's like saying 'I've discovered rhythm guitar'.

To many people doing this kind of analyzing, music is subjective to every individual, it either moves you or dose not. I write songs that move me and if it moves others then fine, if not it matters not, as Im just expressing a moment in time through music.

Ahahaha analyzing the iconic song September from the legendary group earth wind and fire is like finding needle in a haystack. 😂...it is best that you just let go and enjoy the magic of this masterpiece hit song and say badeehyah! 😁😁😁✌️✌️✌️🫰🫰🫰

If anyone needs a video that is more organized and efficient let me know I send you a link

Unnecessarily complicated next

the concept is so simple yet many aspiring musicians simply don't get it.

"It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)" Duke Ellington 1931 😅

You got Rick Rubin’s book back there. Nice.

Love listening to Earth, Wind and Fire, there songs are so well put together. I can listen to them all day

I agree. The main riff or chord pattern establishes the groove. The down and up beat of the drums locks it and creates what I call the "Push & Pull" of the song.

There are more to it rather than this 5 minutes video. However, you did give great opening for musician who wants to get deeper on the flow of music, and why certain music reach the chart which is not by accident. *Definitely deserve thousands likes and AUTOSUBSCRIBED.* ❤

Btw, what is polymathic about your producing?

I read a while ago, a guy did a similar thing, he concluded from his research that the most important element in a hit record was............Have a guess.....

Well explain squire, sometimes we’re all quilts of over thinking everything and you clearly see that the best have a clear vision and they keep it simple. But well done on breaking this down in a digestible way. Great job and keep them coming

Love the blueprint you’ve laid out here for arranging - there’s a reason all of these songs are hits and it’s cool to see all of the patterns at play in a clear concise way! 😌🙏

I loved being on this call- I always learn so much in these lessons- thanks so much for your guidance Jon! These are such gems to carry forward. 🙏🔥😌🎶

Nice analysis 💯

Good analysis!!

I think that popular music is by no means a meritocracy. Musicians like us turn ourselves inside out in hopes of finding the musical formula to success but I’ve heard so much beautiful music that hits ALL the marks of “hit” songs and never goes anywhere commercially while also hearing very commercially successful music that very intentionally breaks and bends the rules of conventionality, from the most minute details of the the ornamentation right up to the whole underlying structure of songs. At the end of the day, it comes down to who you know at least in our current construct. Capitalism is ultimately an enemy of free thought and creativity.

A new peak in stupidity ... 😅😅😅😅

I think all that's always just been called "the hook."

Interesting concepts . Makes sense , most of the biggest hits of all time are really simple musically with a primal infectious beat . Enjoyed the Vid thanks CAMCURSE

Yes the band and singer all try to play parts that go together. You're quite right, but if there's anything new in this observation it's gone over my head. As for the line on the thumbnail, "it's not what you think" a few of us may have had an inkling of that idea.

You completely ignored the one thing any hit song needs to become a hit song. Great marketing! Coming up with stupid terms like “core harmonic Uber driver” or whatever the hell it is, is just nonsense! That’s just music! Every decent musician understands all that 😂 Stop wasting my time 🙄

BACH DID IT FIRST

Thinking about what you just explained made me think that's why metal (if you're ok with the aesthetic) is so damn catchy (to me)! For instance Trapped in a Corner from the band Death, listen at the part from 20sec. Bleed from Meshuggah. Threatening Skies from Obituary. Or, even simpler (and hardly metal 😅) Metallica's intro for Enter Sandman. The list goes on and on! Thanks for this insight!

The core harmonic driver in that Sinatra song is also led by the comping done by the piano. You could literally sing the melody over the piano alone and it will still sound like the song.

❤

Love Greg Kurstin and what you’re showing

The song you've picked, I guess, guitar part was written first and bass and drum play with that, you're thinking producer I'm thinking rehearsal room

This concept is huge you have no idea how much I appreciate your work I’ve been spending months figuring out what makes beats catchy and “hits” shape of you has a clave rhythm and I knew that’s what made it catchy but I didn’t know how to apply what I heard to my beats and how to hear it in other songs consistently but your videos are such gems thank you so much 🙏

I really really appreciate the time you put into studying music I’ve heard tons of rock riffs and bass lines that I love , now I have a way to define what it is I can make that my first main focus when making beats

there many hit songs which don't follow the rules, either having basic rhythm (non-unique), heaving no core driver or heaving all instruments (drums, guitar, bass, vocal) playing thier own rythms in polyrhythm

well, considering you spent 1000 hours, you learned not much :D

bro discovered a basic song structure