It’s often been said that pop music is formulaic — or, more recently algorithmic, because the zeitgeist — but when a Twitter user posted a video of himself playing songs from The Weeknd on a mini-piano, users on the app went nuts debating just how true of the Canadian singer’s catalog that aphorism is.
The user in question was Andrew Huang, a self-declared “music human” who is best-known for his “Song Challenge” video series on YouTube (ironically, he too is Canadian, from Ottawa). Known for making music with unconventional tools and techniques, Huang posted a video playing the chord progressions of songs from The Weeknd’s catalog, positing in the caption, “Every Weeknd song uses the same 4 notes.” The songs played included “Tell Your Friends” and “Often” from Beauty Behind The Madness, “Reminder” and “Starboy” from Starboy, and “Heartless” from After Hours.
It didn’t take long for fans to rev up their best arguments for whether the video was accurate, inaccurate, good, or bad. A number of replies explained why The Weeknd does this in musical theory terms, with one clarifying that ‘the man found his key signature” and pointing out “some Broadway singers even have parts written specifically for them in their prefered key signatures.”
so the man found his key signature.. some broadway singers even have parts written specifically for them in their prefered key signatures
— Mikee (@sceneboiimikee) September 16, 2020
To be fair every artist has a register and key they are most comfortable in, weeknd just happened to use that fact to his advantage can’t knock the hustle, pop smoke even has a lot of common key signatures and motivs, it’s not an uncommon thing for artists
— Noka (@8n0Ka8) September 17, 2020
Others had some fun with the conceit, using it to make fun of both pop music and its critics, while others used it to criticize what they perceived as a lack of songwriting growth from The Weeknd, despite his ever-increasing popularity. There’s a pretty good pun in there too.
Music critics: Every pop song uses only four chords.
The weekend: Hold my beer.
— Ben Feddersen (@SnoozeButtonBen) September 16, 2020
He's been rewriting House of Balloons over and over for a decade and it keeps working
— Defund Police (Pusher) (@itsPusher) September 16, 2020
It's the weeknd, writing another melody would be work and weeknds aren't for work.
— Ciren Song (@CirenSong) September 16, 2020
Still others just used the opportunity to marvel at the talent and hidden complexity of songwriters like The Weeknd and the fact that they are able to create so much diversity with just a handful of notes (there are only so many keys, chords, and sounds the human brain can interpret as music, yet we’vve been reinterpreting them for centuries and they all sound different — mostly). Meanwhile, one responder summed up the hype in one clever observation, remarking that while Huang never gave commentary on this tendency by The Weeknd, Twitter commenters have rivaled songwriters in their ability to turn basically anything into an argument.
I fuckin love how music allows for infinite recontextualization of really simple stuff and it still can sound completely unique
— BLΣ▲K
the best part about this tweet is that he includes literally no commentary as to whether this is good/bad/ok and yet all of the replies are either 'haha yeah pop music bad' or 'music critics are so dumb just listen to music ugh'
andrew is a genius
— Markothy (@_markothy_) September 17, 2020
Check out more replies below.
It's not the same four notes necessarily cause they be in different keys but he does have a favorite progression, and a lot of artists do, since music is math and there's only so many combinations that sound pleasing to Western ears en masse tl;dr he got a formula, and it's good.
— Craig Bro Dude (@CraigSJ) September 17, 2020
Yes this is what happens when you literally cherry pick an artist’s songs with similar melodies and pitch them to the same key, you will get similar results
— Legally blind
Work smarter not harder
— ♢♢♢ (@highfortrilogy) September 17, 2020
Dude is a hack 100p https://t.co/HqucrPAtKq
— Ciel (@aerielist) September 17, 2020
It’s not about the notes you use , it’s how you use em . https://t.co/6bXf7q03oW
— LIL BLACK BOY
THAT’S ALL HE NEEDS https://t.co/5t6zecl352
— Treize Khushrenada (@ImDBro) September 17, 2020
Dababy is punching the air right now https://t.co/FV6PWETsWY
— HOBO (@Mr_HOBO5) September 17, 2020
Just goes to show that in art, there’s beauty in simplicity https://t.co/kfOoVj8iP0
— Elisee
proof that A-minor is undefeated https://t.co/sCTbrkGhzD
— evan (@twunnydelo) September 17, 2020
if it ain’t broke don’t fix it
— badmon ㄣ⃒ (@brxndxnxo) September 17, 2020
Source: https://uproxx.com/pop/the-weeknd-same-4-notes-pentatonic-scale/