October 1, 2011 editorial: comments

Dear Fellow Audiofanziners:

This week it was announced that Queen's We Are The Champions was voted the catchiest song of all time by the British Daily Mail. You can read the article for more specifics, but I will just mention that the researchers basically tracked subjects willingness to sing along to certain songs and observed that catchy songs exhibited more often than not:

• Long and detailed musical phrases
• Male vocals (argument being that is it like a war cry, and it is better received from a man than a woman!)
• High male vocals (indicating high energy and effort, it is war afterall...)

Dr Mullensiefen from the study said: "Every musical hit is reliant on maths, science, engineering and technology; from the physics and frequencies of sound that determine pitch and harmony, to the hi-tech digital processors and synthesisers which can add effects to make a song more catchy".

Ok so is We Are the Champions a catchy song?  Certainly.  And certainly to all sports fans (maybe the subject pool was a bit biased?). But we can each point to an equally catchy song, as it is a subjective matter I believe.  Though, according to researchers producing a catchy hit song is a science.  The Beatles certainly had their hit songs down to a science: short songs, short easily memorable lyrics that rhymed, easily melody lines.  Were the beatles looking to manufacture hits?  I doubt it, though they were masters of pop rock.

I think at the end, if it's down to a science and a formula, why are there still so many struggling musicians? And no, I am not talking about those struggling artists who remain true to their 'rock operas'- these folks know what they are doing!  At the end of the day, there is something else - a certain je ne sais quoi that makes a song catchy.  We Are The Champions will always make us feel victorious.  Who doesn't like that?

Chater-La