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Music theory textbooks tend to focus on (broadly defined) "classical" music, and it's difficult for pop musicians to rely on them for their educational needs. Thankfully, there are content creators who aim to fill that gap. Here are some of my favorites.
By Asaf Peres If you’re reading this post you likely already know about Top40 Theory, and hopefully you’ve had a chance to check out some of my other posts, and maybe even joined our Facebook group, where you can ask questions and initiate discussions about any pop music theory related topic. But even as I add more and more content to Top40 Theory and try to make it as comprehensive a resource as possible, I don’t believe in one stop shops when it comes to learning about the most widely consumed and least studied music in American culture. Exposure to a variety of perspectives is crucial to gaining a deep understanding of this music. In this post I list the best music theory resources I am aware of that deal directly with current and recent pop music. My definition of what ‘counts’ as music theory is broader than some other people’s. A lot of musicians—especially beginners—think of technical things like the circle of fifths or chord labeling as the essence of music theory. But for me, music theory simply means thinking about how music works, whether it’s a single song, a genre, or a more universal principle. The main reason I started Top40 Theory was that I saw a real need among pop songwriters and producers for a music theory resource relevant to their craft. There are a lot of great music theory textbooks, websites, and courses out there, but nearly all of them are fundamentally based on what’s known as common practice music—art music from the 17th-19th centuries. Pop creators need music theory that focuses on the musical principles that all hitmakers know but are never discussed in textbooks. With that in mind, here is a list of music theory resources that I think you should bookmark/subscribe to and visit frequently. Each of these resources brings something a little different to the table, and since there aren’t that many of them there’s no reason not to check them all out and see if you like them (I think you will). 1. Switched on Pop (podcast) 
What I love most about Switched on Pop is that beginners and experienced musicians alike, as well as casual pop fans, can learn something valuable from pretty much any episode. Musicologist Nate Sloan and songwriter Charlie Harding break down the most recent hits from various angles, and in a way that’s engaging and accessible to anyone interested in this music. They also frequently bring in guests from diverse musical backgrounds, which promises a constant supply of fresh perspectives on today’s pop music. Check out their most recent episode, where they first break down Charlie Puth’s metric illusion in “Boy” and then bring on guest Hanif Abdurraqib to discuss Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Cut to the Feeling”: 2. Holistic Songwriting (YouTube channel) 
Friedemann Findeisen’s channel blew up following the success of his “Artist Series”—a series of videos where he lays out the patterns and principles that underly the melody-writing styles of popular artists. The videos are very well researched and presented in an easily digestible way. I particularly enjoyed his very first video in the series about Taylor Swift: 3. And the Writer Is (podcast) 
Most people-- including Ross Golan, the host of And the Writer Is—will not consider this podcast a music theory resource, but I didn’t hesitate for a second when deciding to include it on this list. I can’t think of a better way to learn the music theory of a genre than to listen to the creators of the songs that define it. After listening to several episodes, you will start to notice some common principles that all successful songwriters/producers follow. You will learn the importance of coming up with new sounds and concepts rather than following trends (which will hopefully help you throw out the window any notion you may have had about there being a recipe/formula for creating pop hits). You will also learn why being prolific is so important and gain valuable insight about how to navigate the music industry. Most importantly, you will get to know the people behind the music as real people, and not as part of a machine, as they are sometimes (wrongly) viewed by the public. I don’t know how he does it, but Golan gets the most successful people in the industry to be so real that listening to And the Writer Is often feels like I’m just hanging out with these people in my living room. You definitely won’t hear them talk the same way on The Tonight Show… Check out what is probably my favorite episode, featuring Bebe Rexha: 4. The Pop Song Professor (YouTube channel) 
If lyrics is your thing you really need to check out Clifford Stumme’s channel, in which he breaks down pop song lyrics, sometimes only a few hours after they are released… Stumme puts out a LOT of videos, so I’m sure even he will admit that not every one is a masterpiece, but I’ve definitely found some of his videos to be very educational, like this one about Eminem’s lyric-writing style: 5. Song Exploder (podcast) 
In the case of Song Exploder, I did hesitate a bit before including it on this list, not because it’s not a fantastic podcast (it is), and not because it doesn’t qualify as music theory (it certainly does). I hesitated because most of the songs broken down on Song Exploder are older and not necessarily pop/top40 types. However, they do have several great episodes featuring current pop stars, which makes them worth checking out (and it’s never a bad idea for creators to learn about things outside their immediate genre). For example, check out this episode with Rachel Platten about her song “Broken Glass”: 6. Song Appeal (podcast) 
This is a relatively new podcast by Hunter Farris, who is interested in finding out why we like the music we like. Hunter uses a mix of concepts from music theory and psychology to explore the music he loves—which includes recent and not-so-recent hits—to try and answer this question. Check out his episode about the Zedd/Grey/Marren Morris hit, “The Middle”: 7. How to Write a Hook (blog) 
The author of this blog is Adam Hume, a PhD student who researches how songwriters create hooks. How to Write a Hook is still a work in progress and only includes a handful of posts, but there are quite a few things to learn from it if you’re a songwriter. I recommend checking it out here, and I am very interested to see what Adam publishes in the future. 8. Music Theory Bridges (blog) 
This is a blog dedicated to applying the music theory concepts you learn in a traditional classroom to pop and rock music. Although the author’s focus is not current pop, he has written about relatively recent hits like Mylie Cyrus’s Wrecking Ball, which is why I bumped him up from the honorable mentions. Honorable Mentions If you’re a pop creator, you can and should also benefit from more general music theory, but keep in mind that concepts that are rooted in other genres like classical music or jazz do not necessarily work in pop. However, the more skilled you become and the more you gain fluency in the language of pop, the better you will become at incorporating external concepts into your music without it sounding too forced. The most fertile ground for public music theory seems to be YouTube. Some of the more prominent ones include Adam Neely, 12tone, and Rick Beato, who cover a number of genres but every once in a while include current pop. If you’re really adventurous you might also want to check out some publicly available online academic publications, such as Music Theory Online and the Journal on the Art of Record Production. Final Word I hope you have found this list helpful. If you feel that I’ve missed an important/relevant resource, please feel free to let me know in the comments below or via email, and I'll consider adding it to the list. 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. More Posts: About that Chorus in Bebe Rexha's "I'm a Mess" Camila Cabello, Charlie Puth, and the Vocal Range Wars A Sonic Twist in the Plot: The Bridge in Modern Pop Taylor Swift - "Delicate": Finding Out What Hooked Me The Postchorus-Bridge Switcheroo 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: The general rule in pop is that in order for a song to achieve mass appeal it has to do two seemingly contradicting things:
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. Related: Ariana Grande's "No Tears Left to Cry" - An Experiment by Max Martin and Co. 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. 
Tritone in "I'm a Mess" - Click for full size
What makes this even more unusual is that it happens in the chorus--the chorus is traditionally supposed to be the easiest section to sing along to, and the tritone is considered not only one of the most tense dissonant intervals, but also one of the hardest melodic intervals to sing. And to top off the craziness, Bebe sings the second note of the tritone (G) over an F#m chord, a super dissonant interval of a minor 9th, and really hammers it before resolving it down to F# (on the second syllable of the word "user"). As far as intense dissonant moments in pop music go, I really can't think of one that surpasses the "hater" moment of the chorus in "I'm a Mess". It's a harmonic minor 9th that's approached melodically by a tritone. There are myths about composers being punished in medieval times for using these intervals on their own, let alone in combination. And I don't think these intervals were chosen by accident. At least I would be shocked if they were. Everything is set up perfectly: The stark shift from a purely pentatonic melodies that exclude ^2 and ^6 to a melody that heavily focuses on them. The stacking of the harshest melodic and harmonic dissonanct intervals. There's even a hint of what's to come in the guitar intro, when the bass line of the chord F#m momentarily moves up to G as an upper neighbor tone: 
Beb Rexha's "I'm a Mess" guitar intro - Click for full size
And all of this culminates on the word "hater". Just in case you didn't know, here is how Rexha feels about haters:
Text painting, anyone? Related: Calvin Harris and Dua Lipa's "One Kiss" is Ambiguous AF 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. 
Melodic sequence in Bebe Rexha's "I'm a Mess" - Click for full size
Second, the hard part in a melodic leap is hitting the 'target note', in this case G, or ^6. Since ^6 in a minor key is a note with a strong tendency to resolve down to ^5, this gravity helps to place it in a tonal context and remember it. And, of course, we sort of already heard the G-F# fragment in the guitar intro, which makes that moment in the chorus already seem somewhat familiar even on the first listen. Meeting Expectations 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. More Posts: Camila Cabello, Charlie Puth, and the Vocal Range Wars A Sonic Twist in the Plot: The Bridge in Modern Pop Taylor Swift - "Delicate": Finding Out What Hooked Me The Postchorus-Bridge Switcheroo |
AuthorAsaf Peres is a music theory Ph.D. who researches and writes about pop music. Archives
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