Weekly Billboard Theory — Freaky Friday
Last year, I couldn’t escape Lil Dicky’s “Pillow Talking”. An incredible music video led to my friends quoting the song incessantly. However, “Pillow Talking” never reached the top ten like “Freaky Friday”. I’m actually quite shocked that I’m unable to find any information on how high “Pillow Talking” climbed on the charts. Did the 49th most expensive music video of all time even reach the Top 100? Who knows! But we’re here to today to discuss “Freaky Friday” and if the song is deserving of its rank. Let’s go.
Lil Dicky featuring Chris Brown
Key: Ab Major
Tempo: 100 BPM
The song begins with some very familiar chords. Any guesses? Think to what chords I’m always discussing with these write-ups. IV? Yep, that’s how we start. Great job. V? Oh yeah, the V plays almost as frequently as the IV. The vi? It’s here, but only in passing. The I? Nowhere to be found! One could make the argument that the passing iii chord is a I chord in first inversion but this doesn’t really matter. The chord passes by and then we are focusing on the important chords of the song, IV and V. This progression persists throughout the entirety of “Freaky Friday”.
Now, the chords of “Freaky Friday” don’t interest me too much. Nuh uh. But ya know what? I loooove the rhythm of the accompaniment. I believe that I’ve talked about rock triplets in the past but I’ll give you a quick refresher. Musical notation is all about divisions. A standard triplet takes place when a beat is divided into three equal parts. Because music is primarily divided into halves or other even fractions, triplets don’t fit easily against other rhythms. This isn’t a bad thing, it’s just a thing. A rock triplet occurs when a beat is divided into three different segments so that the first two beats are a little bit longer than the third. Let me show you quickly.
“So what does this have to do with ‘Freaky Friday?’” Well! The reason why rock triplets fit nicely with a beat is the third note’s brevity. What happens if that third note continues the rhythmic length of the first two? We get a lot of cool syncopation. This is especially effective during the intro of “Freaky Friday” because we do not have any percussion against the syncopated synths. We are provided with a false tempo to the song until we hear the eighth notes at 0:04 that inform us of the actual beat. The syncopation keeps us off-kilter until the end of the second measure right before the rhythmic pattern starts again. Still not getting it? Here are some visuals that might help a little.
This shows where the beats match up. The blue lines connect the strong beats from below with the written music above. You can see that despite being uniform in their length, they rarely match up with the actual beat of the song. “Are you really getting this excited over a simple rhythmic idea that repeats throughout the entirety of the song?” Honestly? Yeah. I eat this stuff up. Heck, I wrote some songs a couple of years ago that uses this idea of continuing rock triplets without resolution in their melodies. Does this technique automatically make “Freaky Friday” a great song? Of course not, but these unbalanced rhythms are interesting because they aren’t common in this world. Yes, rock triplets are abundant in pop music but we do not typically encounter them with late resolutions.
The melody of “Freaky Friday” initially disappointed me. There are sections that are almost strictly pentatonic, such as the chorus, but then others where the melody feels tacked on. Then it dawned on me. The melody ISN’T that important. This is a comedic song with high production value and some huge names. The content of the lyrics demands our focus, not the actual pitches. It’s rare that I find myself appreciating a rap verse over a melodic counterpart but I there’s a lot of complexity to Lil Dicky’s rhythms that I can’t help but appreciate. His verse begins with very little content at 1:16. As the accompaniment repeats, Lil Dicky onslaughts us with constant sixteenth-note syllables that make up for the lack of lyrics the first time through. The third time through, Lil Dicky finds a happy medium between the two verses that pushes us towards the chorus where the lyrics of the verse carry over. I absolutely love this. The “where would I be, what would I do” leading into Chris Brown creates an incredible performance moment.
And then what happens after the chorus? ANOTHER RAP SECTION! We’re in strange times if this is something that I’m getting excited about but I’m unable to think of a top ten song that had the role of singer and rapper reversed. Traditionally, I think of songs with features either being from a singer with a rap on the bridge or from a rapper that has someone performing the chorus. “Freaky Friday” takes an angle that I don’t believe I’ve seen in the past year-or-so on the top of the charts.
So yeah, a lot of good stuff in this song! Ya know what isn’t that good you need™ though? The Kendell Jenner feature. Terrible choice. “Dang, you really hate the Kardashians,” you must think. I really have no feelings against them and they’re all much smarter than me. HOWEVER there are so many female choices that would have worked to a much greater effect. Let’s go over this. Pop-hit wunderkind, Ed Sheeran chimes in at 3:03. We immediately recognize his voice. We’ve heard it a lot in the past year. He spells it out for us by singing, “And now I’m in Ed Sheeran’s body”. This segment follows the melodic pattern of the chorus but exchanges Chris Brown’s vocals for Sheeran’s and replaces the syncopated beat with a guitar. The guitar serves as another signifier that this is, in fact, Ed Sheeran. Clever! 3:12 and the beat is back. This time, Lil Dicky transforms into DJ Khaled. How do we know? Because he shouts “I’m DJ Khaled” and we’re all very familiar with the brand that is DJ Khaled. What I’m trying to say is that it makes sense for him to say, “I’m DJ Khaled.” And even if he didn’t, we know his voice and a handful of other slogans that we would be able to put together the pieces.
Then we hear Kendall Jenner. How do we know? Because she (kind of) sings “I’m Kendell Jenner”. And that’s it. Is Kendall Jenner a singer? Nope (although I guess she might become a rapper?). Can she frequently be heard saying “I’m Kendall Jenner”? Maybe when she first introduces herself to others but I doubt it’s something that we specifically associate with her. Why not choose a female singer with a recognizable voice (Nicki, Britney, Taylor) to be the focus of the ending of “Freaky Friday”? This way, we have a decent musical performance and we don’t have this corny ending to an otherwise well-produced song. Yes, I understand it’s comedy and based off of a music video so having someone relevant is important, but there are plenty of choices that would have worked for a music video AND an audio stream. Side note: If you’re a music student and you need to remember how a descending minor third sounds, think “I’m Kendall Jenner”.
All in all, “Freaky Friday” is a well made song for what it is. I wish that the Billboard measurements were what they are now when the Lonely Island was cranking out hits because I’m almost certain that “I Just Had Sex” would have been a number one single. As a matter of fact, that’s what I’m going to say is my recommended listening for this week. Go back and listen to their melodies and compare to Chris Brown’s. Let me know who you think does it better.
Let’s look at those charts for next week. My, oh my. It seems that if the song I wrote about negatively last week has dropped nine (!) spots. Is it because it was a bad song? Is it because people read what I wrote and realized that it’s a bad song? I’m not here to deny or accept these allegations. Fortunately, it looks like I’ll be writing about someone who I’ve enjoyed in the past, The Weeknd. His new song “Call Out My Name” is at number four and I’ll tell you what I think about it next week. See ya then.
