ONTD Originals: Interestingly structured pop hits

Mainstream pop songs usually follow the same verse-chorus-verse-bridge-chorus formula. But there are mainstream artists who don't follow these boring route and eventually created some of the best songs ever.



Girls Aloud – Whole Lotta History

What seems like an ordinary beautiful ballad on the surface is highly complex in its structure. Setting in intricate chord progressions ranging from A, C, D and E to G; the song is composed from 8 distinct parts, with only the chorus repeated. Girls Aloud did an amazing job to deliver a touching ballad without falling into the genre’s clichés and feeling contrived and overproduced. Nicola Roberts, vulnerably asking “Hello, did you call me?”, served us one of her best vocal performances here.

Girls Aloud – Biology

Another unique composition from these ladies. The sonically intelligent Top Four hit, often lauded as one of the best singles of the decades by several magazines, avoided every traditional formulas for pop songs. It was made up from many distinctly different parts: an intro that also served as the outro, and a chorus that was nowhere to be found until two-third into the song. Girls Aloud, no doubt, was one of the more interesting pop acts in recent years.

Solange – Losing You

I wasn't going to include this, since the song isn't really a big hit, but it's too beautiful to not mention. If Biology has such an elusive chorus, Solange’s Losing You is literally a single chorus masked as a full song. In the span of the song, the chorus was several times, with just two short verses in between. No bridges, no middle-eights, nothing else. Just Solange slyly asking “Tell me the truth boy, am I losing you for good?” while toying with the groovy beats in a beautiful video that reflects the singer’s bold sartorial style very well.

2NE1 – Missing You

Before the surprise tempo change in the chorus of Lana Del Rey’s West Coast that excited many listeners, the girls of 2NE1 already did the same thing in their 2013 release Missing You. Opened with a tense and poppy beat, the tempo then halved in the chorus, turning into a perfect harmony of acoustic guitar, grand piano and vocal melisma. Before fading out, the song introduces a new version of the chorus with entirely new chord progressions, melodies and lyrics. Despite the context of the song, the girls still manage to keep their edgy looks in this rather melancholy video by dressing in the latest designs from the infamous Saint Laurent by Hedi Slimane grunge collection.

Ariana Grande – Problem

Another example of outside-the-norm chorus. The sax-filled hit steadily builds up till the pre-chorus, making listeners to expect Ariana Grande to belt out some impressive notes. Instead, all we got is Big Sean whispering over some 808s. Produced by renowned hit maker Max Martin whilst taking cues from J.Lo, En Vogue and the Ying-Yang Twins, Problem was a guaranteed smash.

Girls’ Generation – I GOT A BOY

You can always look to K-Pop for interestingly structured songs. With I GOT A BOY, Girls’ Generation lead single for their 4th album of the same name, the band introduces to the public a weird tune which sounds like at least 5 different songs strung together, ranging from disco to EDM with its tempo going like a rollercoaster. What sounds like a hot mess guaranteed for failure dominated all charts in Korea, with a stylishly choreographed video that till now has accumulated more than 120 million views on YouTube.

Source: Everything is my own words, plus videos from YouTube [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]