Attention!!
Have you realized that in the recent past that almost all the contemporary dance hits keep on repeating the same damn thing over and over again until you wish you hadn't listened to that song. It has become a trend for these best selling artists to keep on repeating catchy phrases or just the same word or part of the word.
This new revolution started with the simple "Ella, ella, ella". Rihanna's Umbrella marked the beginning of this trend. However, this particular gimmick to repeat was not a new technique as you can see that groups like Boney-M in their Ra-Ra Rasputin and Ma Ma Ma Ma Baker use it. Don't forget ABBA with Gimme, Gimme, Gimme and also Money, Money, Money. And what about Ottawan's hit D.I.S.C.O and Village People's Y.M.C.A. Bee Gees back then came up with Stayin' Alive with its repetitive "Ha, Ha, Ha". Although we don't notice these, this is why these songs are super catchy. For instance that is why LaBelle's Lady Marmalade with its catchy phrase "Voulez-vous
coucher avec moi (ce soir)?"which was repeated over and over again which means: "Do you want to sleep with me
(tonight)?" in French.
Moving onto the 90s scene we have the genre of EURODANCE which caused quite a bit of stir.
- Haddaway - What is love
- Real McCoy - Another Night, Runaway
- Snap - Rhythm is a dancer
- Chile - Tic Tic Tac
- Mr. President - Coco Jumbo
- Vengaboys - We like to party, Boom, Boom Boom, Boom
All these songs with their unique dance rhythms keep on repeating the same words in the chorus which apparently make them memorable or not because most of these artistes ended up being one-hit wonders.
In the late 90s the Pop circuit picked this up and soon most of the artistes started using the technique. Aqua uses this in most of their songs - Barbie Girl, Dr. Jones, My Oh My. The Spice Girls in their Spice Up Your Life and Backstreet Boys in Everybody with its dark undertones attempts to use this technique but fails miserably to get it right (although the two songs back in the day were major hits).
Rappers like Eminem with their Please Stand Up in the Real Slim Shady and Vanilla Ice's Ice Ice Baby repeats the phrases which is somewhat tolerable.
Entering the 21st Century the repetition revolution marked a new beginning. Rihanna uses this in most of her songs - S.O.S., S&M and Pon de Replay. Kylie Minogue even with her Locomotion back then came up with new hits like Can't get you outta my head and W.O.W which we literally couldn't get outta our heads. Just like this Madonna too with her Material Girls back then has used it in Ray of Light and Hung Up.
However, the advent of Dancepop and Electropop during the last few years has certainly seen a significant rise in this repetitive torment which we as music lovers have in turn begun to hate and detest some of the songs as we go along. The mega hits Baby Baby Baby Ooh by Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga's Po-Po-Poker Face are two such examples of how the exploitation is done and even the YouTube viral sensation Rebecca Black with Friday which make us go Partyin Partyin Yeah and Fun, fun, fun, fun. Other than this we have:-
- Akon - Lonely, Smack That, Beautiful
- Sean Kingston - Beautiful Girl, Me love, Fire burning
- Ke$ha - Tik Tok, Blow, Die young
- Britney Spears - Gimme More, I Wanna Go
- Nicki Minaj - Your love, Girls fall like dominoes, Anaconda, Only
- Flo Rida - Low, Right Round, Jump
- Taio Cruz - Break your heart, Dirty Picture
- Beyonce - Run the world, Single Ladies
- Chris Brown - Yeah 3X, Don't wake me up
- Jay Sean - Down, Hit the lights, Do you remember
- Selena Gomez - Love you like a love song, Round and Round, Come and Get It
- Sean Paul - Get busy, Got 2 Luv U
- Black Eyed Peas - Boom Boom Pow, Imma Be, My Humps
- Katy Perry - Fireworks, Peacock
- Aura Dione - Geronimo, Friends
- Ariana Grande - Problem
- Iggy Azalea - Fancy, Beg for it
- Ellie Goulding - Burn, Love me like you do
- The Weeknd - Can't feel my face
- Silento - Watch me
The country scene has not experienced this much but we see this in the contemporary best selling artiste and everybody's sweetheart Taylor Swift with her I knew you were trouble, trouble, trouble and We are never ever getting back together. Talk about usurping a break-up and repetition.
In the rock scene we hardly get such repetition since these artistes actually try to create music. We do see some repetition in songs like Zombie by The Cranberries and Jaded by Aerosmith. However, repetition has not seriously hampered the quality in that circuit.
Moving to the East we see the J-Pop and K-Pop industries heavily influenced by this technique, since they mostly cater to the dance circuit. We see groups such as Girls' Generation with their Gee, Hoot, Oh! and Boys as well as Super Junior with Sorry, Sorry. Other than this 2ne1, 4Minute and Big Bang have also used the repetitive style in their lyrics.
Thus, we can see that repetitive lyrics are on the rise again to the detriment of quality music. But who are we to complain now, we acknowledged and condoned this revolution with us blindly following the trends and hits that came out without giving much thought to what we were listening but only what we were dancing to. It is a sad day if all songs end up being repetitive to the point of musicians not having to exploit their inner creativity to come up with good lyrics without repeating it up to the point that the listeners become brainwashed. Nevertheless, this is how the trend has been let's see whether it changes or not.
Till the next ensemble...
