(image copyright adult swim)
I know that there are some of you out there that will immediately want to murder me for even showing you that image. I’m sorry. I have to tell you why this song gets stuck in your head. I know this because it’s starting for me, too. I’m blaring my hipster music over my speakers. My neighbors must think I’m the worst type of person, or that I’m attempting to cover up some other noise.
Which is a half-truth. When I come out of the shadows, I’ll be in San Francisco Hospital.
Always, I wanna be with you. And make believe with you. And live in harmony, harmony, harmony.
The song I’ve been referring to, of course, is “Always” by Erasure. Click the link above if you dare. If you’ve never heard the song before, well, first of all, I’d be surprised.
Those from my generation will almost certainly remember this little ditty from one particular flash game on the Adult Swim website. The game itself could certainly be the subject of an article of this vein, so I won’t go into it. If you somehow managed to evade it, however, all you need to know is that there are unicorns and rainbows, Engrish and frustration, explosions and dolphins. Needless to say, it got very popular.
Oh no. My record’s over. It’s starting. Please. Help me.
The song was released in 1994, when it climbed several dance charts and was actually taken relatively seriously, despite its hilarious music video. It wasn’t until sixteen years later, however, that it wormed its way into so many heads through this game. I’m here to tell you why.
So what is it exactly about this song that buries itself in your head? The answer, of course, is going to require a bit of speculation. In my opinion, there’s two parts to it: firstly, blatant repetition. When playing the game, the song loops ad nauseam—thus just as anything else that is repeated over and over will get stuck in your head, this does too.
Another large factor, however, is a rhythmic trick employed by Erasure. Here’s what you would sing if you were to sing the first repetition of the chorus: (for simplicity’s sake, I’m ignoring the key signature, but the key of the chorus is actually F)
But the problem with this notation is that it doesn’t account for the way this rhythmic phrase fits in with the rest of the song. Even if you don’t know anything about music theory, you probably can see that there are five measures here—five groups of four beats. This isn’t how the phrase is pronounced within the song, however.
The very last measure is cut down to two eighth notes and then smashed in with the fourth one to make that one measure in 5/4 time. Thus, if you were to sing along (please don’t), you’d be singing:
(one) Har-mo (two) ny Har- (three) mo-ny, (four) oh (five) love.
Which doesn’t make much sense when I write it like that, but try to count along. In the chorus, you count to four three times, then five once.
And your brain likes things to be nice and neat—when they aren’t, they cause some interesting reactions. It just happens that this is the line that you always remember.
Always. It’s going to be with you. You best believe that you. Will sing these harmonies, harmonies.
Oh love.
Joe Woods is a guy who gets excited about a lot of things. His most recent accomplishments include a gif of him and his roommate’s cat, and a set of offensive wallpapers he co-wrote which accumulated over 5 million views. If you want to keep up to date with what he’s up to, it’s probably best that you go here or here.
The Red Shirt Crew Blog and Podcast Network 