Weekly Billboard Theory — Finesse
It’s no surprise that I’m writing about “Finesse”. This song is a classic case of taking a pretty great song from an album, putting a hot rapper on it, creating an impressive music video and releasing it as a single. Heck, I remember my friends and I leaving a bar one night because they played the original version of Katy Perry’s “E.T.” and not the remix. This song as a huge 90s vibe and I’ll cover three reasons why it feels that way. Did I actually write a thesis sentence for once? Kinda. Whatever, let’s go!
Bruno Mars & Cardi B (This is how it’s stylized on Billboard.com ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)
Key: F Minor/Ab major
Tempo: 105 BPM
Today, I’ll talk about three reasons that give this song a 90s vibe. And guess what! None of them deal with timbre. Well, one kind of does. Let’s start with the very beginning of the song. What do we hear? Drums. How many pop songs can you name that begin with a snare pattern? I’ll wait. I can only think of one and it’s probably the same one you’re thinking of. No, it’s not Major Lazer. Okay, as I’m writing this I also thought of Bobbi Brown. But most likely you thought of Bell Biv DeVoe’s “Poison”. What’s the best way to sound like the music of a specific time period? Use ideas from said time period. “Finesse” clearly borrows from New Jack Swing and it shows.
The next topic is a little deeper but if you’re an avid music listener you might have noticed this already. You can first hear it at 0:22. Missed it? Listen to 0:25. I think the most obvious example might be at 0:32 riiight before Bruno comes in. This is what we call an “orchestra hit”. Here’s a clear example of exactly what I’m talking about. I’m sure you’ve heard them a million times in various 90s songs but never had a name to them. Now you know. I’m lifting this right from Wikipedia but “In 1990, Musician magazine stated that Fairlight’s ORCH5 sample was ‘the orchestral hit that was heard on every rap and techno-pop record of the early 1980s’”. “But that’s the 80s not the 90s,” you shout. I think y’all misremember how similar the 80s and early 90s were. These orchestral hits happen every pre-chorus build and vanish for the low key choruses.
Okay, so I know I’ve been flying through these topics so far but this final topic is my favorite. The chord progression. “You talk about chord progressions all the time!” Yes, I know. But this is one of my FAVORITE chord progressions. Well, at least the bridge is. So above you can see the chord progression for everything BUT the bridge. Yes, the song is in F minor but I prefer using Roman numerals for the relative major because most pop songs are in major and my brain works better that way. This is possibly gibberish to you anyways. Another disclaimer: the fourth chord is there because I initially looked up the chord progression to confirm my thoughts and this transcription had it. I personally don’t hear it but it’s been a busy week and maybe I’m just focusing too much on the bassline.
We have three chords here. We have the IV (I’m thinking major) like we almost always do. Then, we have a secondary dominant of the vi chord. If you want to brush up on what a secondary dominant is you can read this writeup. The tl;dr version is that that normally the C chord would be minor in this key. Because it is major it now makes the vi chord the focus. Really, if we’re actually in F minor then it would just be a V chord but the strength of the IV chord kind of points to us being in Ab major anyways. But yeah, for a moment that F minor chord is the tonal center BECAUSE of the C major that comes before it. I know this can be a little confusing. Let me try one last time because it will help before we get to the bridge. Chords have specific functions. When we alter a note in a chord to change that function, it becomes a secondary chord. So, because we have a C MAJOR instead of a C MINOR, that chord is functioning as if it is the dominant of the next chord, F MINOR. Hence the term secondary dominant. If you have any questions, please reach out and I would be more than happy to try and clear it up for you.
Okay, so the first three chords of the progression are the same as the rest of the song. BUT THEN! We have two new chords with accidentals and I don’t get to talk about this stuff often so you can probably guess how excited I am. So if you’ve been following along those slashes on those last two chords mean that they are secondary functions. This time, instead of turning the focus on the vi chord the music is now centered around the IV chord. We have a V7/IV which is not unheard of. However, right before we have another secondary chord that functions as a ii of the IV. This gives us a ii-V-I progression surrounding the IV chord. Why is that important? I’ve probably linked to this wikipedia page before, but the ii-V-I is probably the most common progression in classical and jazz music. A ii-V-I would be cool enough in pop music but a SECONDARY ii-V-I is TWICE as cool (see what I did there?).
Okay, but what does this have to do with 90s music? You probably forgot I was talking about 90s stuff. I almost did. Well I have three words for you. Running Man Challenge. Not getting it? Go listen to “My Boo” by Ghost Town DJs. That’s right. It’s the SAME DANG PROGRESSION. 1996. This progression is used in a bunch of other songs (and one that I wrote that I’ll hopefully release one day) but “My Boo” is the first one that comes to mind. Now that you’re familiar with this progression, you’ll probably hear it all the time in R&B and hip-hop. I’ll spare the wrap up thesis statement but I think I did a decent job of explaining why “Finesse” has a 90s sound without really talking about timbre. Okay, the orchestral hits would kind of be that. Whatever. (After I finished this, “Just The Two Of Us” came up on my Spotify and guess where we’ve heard that progression before…)
My recommendation for this week is for you to check out Wave Racer. He did an incredible remix of “My Boo” so it only seemed fitting. Also, he’s been doing 90s-esque music much longer than these pop stars.
So I have to quickly address something about next week’s write-up. The top of the charts have a lot of repeats until we get to #13 with 6ix9ine. I will not be writing about his music for reasons that you can research on your own. Instead I will write about #14 with “Let You Down” by NF. I’ve never heard of this song or this dude but it sure looks moody. Find out next week what I actually think about it! See ya then!
