The Art of Repetition

Many people wonder what the key to a songs success is. My suggestion is repetition. It always baffles me how a song could be so repetitious and have such little substance, yet still be one of the biggest hits on the radio.

 Back in the 50’s and 60’s repetition ran rampant. The biggest offenders were the Beatles. In their song She Loves You, the Beatles sing “she love you yeah yeah yeah”, a total of 7 times, and the phrase “she loves you” is said a total of thirteen times! In a study on memory that was done, this happened to be the most popular Beatles song since it evokes such great feelings. However, couldn’t it just be because this song is overtly repetitious? In I Want You/She’s So Heavy, literally, the entire song is made up of the phrase “I want you, I want you so bad” and the occasional “it’s driving me mad” and the phrase “She’s so heavy.” There isn’t any other content to that song whatsoever. Not to mention Hey Jude which is 7 minutes long, and 4 minutes of the song are dedicated to the singing of “na na na”’s which is also my favorite part of the song. So why is this my favorite part? Simply because it is repetitious

Bill Withers mastered the art of repetition in his song Ain't No Sunshine. Bill sings “I know" a record 25 times in a row. Every time my mother hears this song, she says “I KNOW YOU KNOW!"  And that's most likely how everyone else listening to the song feels. Yet. it still remains one of the most popular love songs and a highly covered bluesy track.

In the 80's, the Police were the most repetitious in their lyrics. Take for example their hit Every Little Thing She Does is Magic. The last 2 minutes of the song merely repeats the words "Every little thing she does" and "magic." How is that for lazy? Don’t get me wrong I love the police, but surely he could have elaborated a little more. There is very little substance in this song to make me believe that every thing this supposed girl does is magic. No?

The biggest offenders of late are the black eyed peas. In their smash hit I've Got a Feeling the peas sing "Lets do it Lets do it Lets do it Lets do it And do it And do it Let's live it up And do it And do it And do it Do it, do it Lets do it Lets do it Lets do it." I wish these lyrics were a joke, but sadly they are not. Yet, I’ve got a feeling remains probably the top hit of 2009 and everyone’s favorite "pump-up" jam. My husband and I were at the Macabee Tel-Aviv basketball game and a few songs came on over the loudspeaker and the audience had to clap the loudest for the song they wanted. Obviously my vote went to anything by Lady Gaga, but the most claps/excitement went hands down for I’ve Got a Feeling. With their lack of word substance though, one has to wonder if this song did not have a fast and catchy beat would people really like it?

My worst grossly repetitive song of this year is hands down Rhianna's Hard. The first time I heard it I ran home to tell my husband about the chorus, which literally almost every word was "hard." Rhianna sings "That I, I, I, I'm so hard, Ah yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm so hard. That I, I, I, I'm so hard, Ah yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm so hard. That I, I, I, I'm so hard, Ah yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm so hard. So hard, so hard, so hard, so hard." Seriously Rhianna, if you had said you were hard once, the adoring public probably would have gotten it. Why bash us over the head with it?

Some other songs that have been super repetitive lately have been Shake It by  Metro Station, Brittney Spear's Womanizer and most of Lady Gaga's songs. What this teaches future song writers is that very little work is necessary for a song to be popular. Rather all a song has to do is repeat many of the same lyrics in order for it to succeed. When I was younger, and even before my time Sesame Street used to have extremely adult-friendly, clever, and expertly written lyrics. With the death of Jim Henson (my idol), Sesame Street obviously changed. But over the years their songs have become so repetitive and grating that many wondered why. I read a long time ago that generations today have become too A.D.D to appreciate the old Sesame Street and the way those songs were written, or, in many cases, the way they parodied older songs. I have to say this definitely applies to pop music today. Sometimes I think about what would happen if Bob Dylan tried to break out into the general music world today and I can only imagine that he would have a small following (like his extremely talented son Jacob) but would not be mainstreamed enough to have any top ten hits. This is due to the fact that his songs are so non- repetitious that our generation wouldn’t know what to make of it (Check out my favorite Tangled Up in Blue). What a shame.

What are the worst repetitive lyrics? Post your thoughts below.