Bebe Rexha is about to drop her debut album, Expectations, which her fans have been anxiously anticipating following the massive success of her collab with country duo Florida Georgia Line, "Meant to Be" (which will receive its own post in a few days).
Currently leading the charge in promoting this album is the single "I'm a Mess". If you are reading this, you are probably already familiar with it, but just in case you can check it out here:
Currently leading the charge in promoting this album is the single "I'm a Mess". If you are reading this, you are probably already familiar with it, but just in case you can check it out here:
The general rule in pop is that in order for a song to achieve mass appeal it has to do two seemingly contradicting things:
- It should be similar to other hit songs in enough aspects to be perceived as 'speaking the same language'.
- At the same time, it should be significantly different from other hit songs so that it stands out among the thousands of songs that compete for a spot in the charts.
Rexha and her songwriting team deliver on both ends.
"I'm a Mess" speaks the language of 2018 pop in terms of structure, sonic makeup, harmony, and, for the most part, melody as well.
But if you got to the chorus and thought to yourself "this is different/weird/edgy/harsh" you're probably on to something, and if you can't put your finger on it, I'm here to help you out.
The Tritone and Dissonant Madness
There is quite a bit to explore in "I'm a Mess", but in this post I want to focus on the first thing that struck me when listening to it for the first time.
Specifically, the first time Rexha sings the word "hater" in the chorus really caught my attention because that moment is so unusual for a pop song it was hard to ignore.
But in order to explain what's so unusual about it I have to back up for a bit.
Like most pop songs, Rexha's vocals in the verse and prechorus are purely pentatonic. A pentatonic scale is a major or minor scale that excludes the two notes that are most prone to dissonant clashes--in major keys it's ^4 and ^7; in minor ^2 and ^6 (^ is the symbol for scale degree, or the position of a note in a scale). The pentatonic scale is widely used in pop and other genres because it makes the melody and the harmony less dependent on one another. It allows mixing and matching melodies and chord progressions, repeating the same melody over changing chords, and creating sonorities that don't rely on stacking thirds.
But when Rexha hits the chorus, not only does she add ^2 and ^6 back in (C# and G in the key of B minor) but she places a huge spotlight on them and even moves directly from one to the other, singing a melodic tritone, which is an extremely rare melodic interval in pop.
There is quite a bit to explore in "I'm a Mess", but in this post I want to focus on the first thing that struck me when listening to it for the first time.
Specifically, the first time Rexha sings the word "hater" in the chorus really caught my attention because that moment is so unusual for a pop song it was hard to ignore.
But in order to explain what's so unusual about it I have to back up for a bit.
Like most pop songs, Rexha's vocals in the verse and prechorus are purely pentatonic. A pentatonic scale is a major or minor scale that excludes the two notes that are most prone to dissonant clashes--in major keys it's ^4 and ^7; in minor ^2 and ^6 (^ is the symbol for scale degree, or the position of a note in a scale). The pentatonic scale is widely used in pop and other genres because it makes the melody and the harmony less dependent on one another. It allows mixing and matching melodies and chord progressions, repeating the same melody over changing chords, and creating sonorities that don't rely on stacking thirds.
But when Rexha hits the chorus, not only does she add ^2 and ^6 back in (C# and G in the key of B minor) but she places a huge spotlight on them and even moves directly from one to the other, singing a melodic tritone, which is an extremely rare melodic interval in pop.
Popping it Up
But again, this is pop, not Elliott Carter. We can't just throw around harsh dissonant sonorities willy nilly.
So how do Rexha and her team make this moment more palatable and singable enough to suit a pop chorus? There are a number of things:
First, the melodic tritone is embedded within a sequence--two identical melodic fragments that occur on different scale degrees. In this case, the melodic fragments are D-C# and G-F#, so while the move from C# to G is a tritone, the sequential pattern helps to soften it.
But again, this is pop, not Elliott Carter. We can't just throw around harsh dissonant sonorities willy nilly.
So how do Rexha and her team make this moment more palatable and singable enough to suit a pop chorus? There are a number of things:
First, the melodic tritone is embedded within a sequence--two identical melodic fragments that occur on different scale degrees. In this case, the melodic fragments are D-C# and G-F#, so while the move from C# to G is a tritone, the sequential pattern helps to soften it.
Like I said, there is quite a bit to explore in this song, and I may
revisit it in the future, but I think this particular moment was
compelling enough to merit its own post.
Overall, I think "I'm a Mess" is a strong single and, along with "Meant to Be", can give Rexha's fans a lot to expect from Expectations.
Update (JUN-21-2018): In the original version of this post I made a reference to all of the songwriters credited on this song--Rexha, Shelly Peiken, Meredith Brooks, Jussi Karvinen, and Justin Tranter, as well as producer Devon Corey. It was pointed out to me that Peiken and Brooks are credited because the chorus in "I'm a Mess" is heavily based on Brooks' 1997 song, "Bitch", which they co-wrote.
Top40 Theory is a project aimed at providing advanced music theory knowledge and composition tools to pop songwriters and producers. Join the small but growing community of highly accomplished songwriters, producers, theorists, and composers at the Top40 Theory Facebook group. You can also follow Top40 Theory’s Twitter account and Facebook page, as well as join the mailing list via the form located in the sidebar, to receive updates about new posts and other pop music theory related musings.
Overall, I think "I'm a Mess" is a strong single and, along with "Meant to Be", can give Rexha's fans a lot to expect from Expectations.
Update (JUN-21-2018): In the original version of this post I made a reference to all of the songwriters credited on this song--Rexha, Shelly Peiken, Meredith Brooks, Jussi Karvinen, and Justin Tranter, as well as producer Devon Corey. It was pointed out to me that Peiken and Brooks are credited because the chorus in "I'm a Mess" is heavily based on Brooks' 1997 song, "Bitch", which they co-wrote.
Top40 Theory is a project aimed at providing advanced music theory knowledge and composition tools to pop songwriters and producers. Join the small but growing community of highly accomplished songwriters, producers, theorists, and composers at the Top40 Theory Facebook group. You can also follow Top40 Theory’s Twitter account and Facebook page, as well as join the mailing list via the form located in the sidebar, to receive updates about new posts and other pop music theory related musings.
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