Hello steemit!

I'm a musician and music teacher, and I thought one way that I can start contributing to the community here is by starting a weekly series breaking down the top song from Billboard's Hot 100 chart.

Why the #1 song?

Well, its a #1 song for a reason. Love it or hate it, it's getting played. It may be through Spotify, radio stations, supermarkets, gas stations, or that guy in the car next to you at a red light blasting his stereo. Whether you're in the United States or abroad, you've probably heard it. If you haven't heard the song yet, you probably will.

Now there certainly is room in the comments to discuss whether or not the #1 song is even a good song, or the commercial and social reasons behind the making of a "hit," but for the purposes of this series I'll be diving into some of the potential musical traits that contribute to the commercial success of songs in the Hot 100. I'll be writing this in plain terms, and we won't be getting too deep as far as music theory goes, but if that is something you'd like me to do please let me know and I'll incorporate it into future breakdowns!

If you haven't heard the song before, I would encourage you to give it a quick listen and then read through the breakdown. After reading through the breakdown, I would encourage everyone to listen through the song again, and see if you can pick up on the musical traits outlined below.

The Breakdown

"One Dance" By Drake, Wizkid, Kyla

Form

It's a big reason why any of us like music. In terms of the big picture, usually music goes from consonance (stable sounds) to dissonance (unstable sounds) and back to consonance. When we repeat, slightly alter, or even complete change these consonances and dissonances, we get form. We'll use letters to represent different sections: A, B, C, D and so on.

"One Dance" follows a pretty standard form for pop music that uses the following sections:

A. Hook - this is a short melody that can be sung or played
B. Verse - this is a type of section where the music stays the same for each repetition, but the lyrics (words) change each time
C. Chorus - this is a type of section where the music and lyrics are the same for each repetition
D. Bridge - this is usually a completely different kind of sounding section

Using those letters the form of the song is:

A B C A B C D C'

But wait, why is that last C a C' (pronounced C prime)? I'll explain in just a minute.

If you listen to the song while following, here's what you'll notice. There's some quick claps and a short piano chord, then Kyla sings a short melody. Normally it wouldn't be very significant, but because it keeps showing up later, we'll keep track of it and name it the Hook - our A section. This transitions to Drake's 1st verse - our first B section. It may be hard to notice, but the transition from verse to chorus is subtle, as the music doesn't really change; the only thing that lets us know we've changed to a new section is that it repeats later.

There's also another subtle hint: when Kyla sings "Ba-by" she sings the same two notes as Drake when he sings "One Dance". This kind of repetition keeps a song musically "glued" together and easy to listen to. Subconsciously, our brains start to pick up on this pattern of notes and we start "looking" for it.

We "find" find that pattern again pretty quickly, as the Hook (A section) happens again right after the 1st Chorus. This is part of what makes music catchy!

These regular repeated patterns reward our pattern seeking desires.

This Hook, Verse, Chorus pattern repeats and leads into the Bridge. There's a couple of things that tell us this is a Bridge section

• There's someone new singing - Wizkid
• There's a new instrument - a little guitar melody that we'll hear again later
• When Kyla begins singing in the bridge, the underlying rhythm disappears, and slowly changes until we're back to the final Chorus

The Final Chorus

The last chorus is announced by pseudo gunshot sounds, and we hear Drake singing the "I need a one dance" line again. This time there is something different; Kyla continues singing underneath Drake's familiar chorus melody, and when she stops singing that little guitar melody from the Bridge shows up again.

This final curtain call is the signal that the song is ending.

We've "found" all the little musical parts we've been listening to throughout the song!

There are definitely other factors that contribute to the commercial success of this song - the use of dancehall rhythms, collaborating with artists popular in other genres, production decisions such as use of auto tune and drum samples, a sparse arrangement that contrasts with the other popular songs out now, etc. The biggest takeaway here should be a new perspective on musical form.

No matter what genre of music you like form is ever present, and now you can start picking up on the little repetitions that make our brains like music no matter what's on your playlist.

Hopefully you've enjoyed reading this and found it somewhat informative. Please let me know what you think, and I'll see you next week!