the craziest pop song of the 21st century

Willow Smith is the daughter of Will Smith oh wow as a child she released the song with my hair back and forth and oh yeah she just released a pop song that's in 74 and has mental Jazz chords everywhere all temp to we new song symptom of life is in a 74 time signature a time signature that we refer to as an odd time sign not just because it has an odd number on top but because it sounds odd but here in this song it sounds extra odd because of the way the Beats of the bar have been grouped have been subdivided in the verse we get this pattern of four groups of three e notes but this last note hangs on you can see it's tied to this quarter note out of [Music] my looking at you now I'm wondering who I'm are this rhythm is dictated by the piano arpeggio that we're getting and as you can see from my transcription we're getting some pretty weird Jazzy cluster chords going on here as well this song is ultimately in the key of A minor but we keep resolving to the a major chord instead so it Blends the brightness of the major with the darkness of the minor in a sound that to me is very evocative of radio head we also occasionally get touches of a frian which is an even darker version of the minor scale it's like the minor scale but with a lowered second degree and we can hear that in this G minor 7 chord after the verse we then get to the pre chorus where we get an even Wilder Rhythm we now get a two bar pattern where the 14 beats of the two bars of 74 time are divided into groups of three 5 4 and two so although this still adds up to 14 beats it doesn't really sound like two bars of 74 time anymore because of how displaced it is feeling option time KN all is decided there's nothing here left to find St it kind of feels more like a bar of 34 54 2 4 and 44 the core progression has developed here as well you can interpret this as being in frian because we got the beef black cord here which comes from a frian but because we're going back and forth from F major 7 to B flat major 9 I don't think it really creates a frian sound it creates more of an F major sound despite the fact that the song is still ultimately in [Music] a and now we arrive at the song's chorus and for the chorus we actually leave the 74 time signature and now go to a more conventional 4 four and this creates a fantastic sense of relief virt my eyes on things beauty is a SYM of Life got to decide if I'm going to see it by Fe our eyes on all things when suffering is craving the light got to decide the S4 time along with its unusual Rhythm created tension and by contrast this chorus in 44 relieves that tension our body now knows how to move and follow this Rhythm unlike four where the Rhythm was very unsettled after the chorus we then return again to the 74 verse that we heard before followed by the 74 pre chorus but before we arrive at the second chorus we now get a variation on the pre chorus where the chords and the mood have changed we get this E minor 7 and C major 7 chord and then finally we return once more to the chorus in 4 four Time [Music] beauty a pop song in 74 now that's pretty rare but one that's also got this level of interesting Harmony and dynamic and tone this is a great song I really do love this song I've talked about Willow briefly before in this previous video but she is genuinely one of the most interesting pop artists happening and and considering she started with this song she has certainly developed as an artist and I think she will continue developing as an artist let me know what you think of this song and also let me know about any other really interesting pop songs with odd meters and interesting chords that you think I should talk about in a future [Music] video

Channel: David Bennett Piano

Views: 498,449

Keywords: willow smith, symptom of life, willow, odd time signature, analysis, explained, music theory, pop song, example, chords

Id: YxYVEa_urTo

Length: 4min 58sec (298 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 20 2024