Beautiful Music – What makes a hit?

As a mostly right-brain thinker, I spend the majority of my time and engaging in creative thoughts and things. Yet, I also am very keen to mathematics and logic and enjoy solving complicated problems as well. There are many occasions when I find myself in a paradoxical situation where the situation calls for one or the other and I must make a choice. In the music world, some so called “hit machines” seem to find ways to continue making hit songs year after year. Do they know something that the rest of us don’t? Have they figured out a formula that combines the best of both worlds in that they can mathematically assemble hit songs one after the other based upon a set equation? Some would say yes.

Many of you may have probably by now either seen this in a video or perhaps even performed live by any number of bands, but there is indeed somewhat of a formula for hit songs. There is a 4-chord structure that can be applied to a varying range of popular songs. This video by The Axis of Awesome says it all.

In addition to the 4-chord hit structure, almost all music has some form of repetitive structure. It is in fact this same repetitive structure that we find in poetry as well, that along with a rhythmic melody creates what we humans would call “beautiful” music. Now certainly, based upon the lyrics, the instrumental arrangement and the intensity, the view may vary on whether one person finds a song to be beautiful or not based upon their taste in music. Yet, almost all music contains some sort of mathematical repetition that connects with our human sense of rhythm and balance. Yet, what would happen if a song were created without any repetition whatsoever? What would that sound like?

In a 2011 TEDX talk by Scott Rickard, he brings to light some amazing computational mathematics that for the very first time in history, allows us to lay ears upon a song without any repetition at all, either in form or timing of the played notes. Take a look and listen and decided for yourself. Is this the ugliest song ever? More importantly, what would it mean to the music industry if it were to take on a challenge of not recycling those same 4 chords and what if artists began experimenting with a more random or original form of musical structure. It just may be that beauty, in fact, is in the ears of the beholder, and who knows, we could see an entirely new form of music arise.