Weekly Billboard Theory — Love On The Brain

Rihanna’s latest hit isn’t like her others. You probably wouldn’t call “Love On The Brain” a “banger” like you might with “Work,” “We Found Love,” or “Umbrella”. Despite this, “Love On The Brain” has a huge appeal because it sounds like a song that could have been written fifty years ago. What makes it sound that way? Keep reading to find out DUH!

I guess they actually DID have her money

Love On The Brain

Rihanna

Tempo: 172 BPM

Key: G Major

You, your parents, and probably your grandparents have all heard songs that are similar to “Love On the Brain.” It is incredibly reminiscent of doo-wop ballads of the 50s and 60s. I feel like the most recognizable song in this style would have to be The Flamingos’ 1959 recording of “I Only Have Eyes For You.” When listening to it, one will immediately notice that they sound similar. “But WHY does it sound that way?” you cry out. Well, there are a few reasons.

The most obvious similarities between “Love On The Brain” and “I Only Have Eyes For You” deal with rhythm. Both songs are in a triple meter. This means that they get three beats to a measure and it gives us a “waltz-like” feel. Every song that we’ve checked out prior to this has been in quadruple meter meaning, you guessed it, every measure gets four beats.

Both “Love On The Brain” and “I Only Have Eyes For You” have pitches consistently playing in the accompaniment on pretty much every beat. This helps to cement that feeling of three. While The Flamingos have consistent piano chords sounding on each beat of their song, Rihanna’s hit uses a guitar to play the individual notes of the chords over each measure. When a chord is broken apart and the pitches are played one by one, we call that an arpeggio. A lot of songs will utilize arpeggios in tons of different ways so this is an important vocab word to know!

Hard to think of something clever to write, but wow

If you listen VERY closely to those guitar arpeggios you can hear a very slight tremolo effect. For those of ya that don’t know, a tremolo (in regards to electronic music effects) is a sort of back and forth of volume. It’s one of the oldest special effects used on guitars and it’s built into a lot of very famous amplifiers.

So yeah, all of these different things add to the ~vibe~ of the song but what about the THEORY maaaaaan? Well, that follows with the 1950s vibe as well. Most of the songs we’ve looked at throughout the year (holy cow, it’s already March) have utilized the IV chord a lot and I mentioned how they can be used in cadences. Do your homework, I did say that. Well, chord progressions were a little different 50 years ago. There’s plenty of songs that you’ve heard a million times already that focus a lot on the relationship between the dominant (or V chord) and tonic (or I). “Love On The Brain” does this same thing by utilizing the exact chords from those hits but in a different order.

Just imagine that Runaround Sue is in G major instead of D

You’ll see the progression for the majority of “Love On The Brain” up top next to the chords of “Runaround Sue.” Or maybe it’s the chords for “All I Have To Do Is Dream.” Or maybe the progression for every Frankie Valli song. Or maybe you notice that all of these songs use the same progression and the IV chord isn’t as common.

As a matter of fact, the IV chord, which we normally hear way too much of, is used rarely in “Love On The Brain.” It’s not until the pre-chorus section at 1:06 that we finally hear the IV. However, the chord that comes before the IV is what really grabs our (or at least my) attention. In a prior write up (that I’ve already linked to) I mentioned how secondary dominant chords function: by making the next chord sound like the tonic. Below you can see how these chords work and I gotta be honest, I don’t have an official term to describe it. Technically that IV chord acts as a tonic for a second because of the chord that sounds before it, but we are immediately back to G functioning as the tonic when the next chord plays. The great thing is that we don’t really need a specific term for this because rules are meant to be broken and it sounds cool. It’s always refreshing to hear accidentals used in interesting ways on the radio.

That bVII chord can also be written as a V/IV because it functions as the dominant of the IV WHEW

But *clapping emoji* what *clapping emoji* does *clapping emoji* this *clapping emoji* all *clapping emoji* mean *clapping emoji*? Whatever ya want it to really. Were Rihanna and her producers trying to gain listeners with an older audience, like Adele has been doing for years? Could the juxtaposition of 50-year-old compositional techniques with a modern artist like Rihanna represent how we can’t “Make America Great Again” because things are actually better now than they have ever been previously? Could I be reaching to find meaning in this? Probably. Does it mean that I can show my mom a Rihanna song she might actually enjoy? Definitely.

The top four songs on the Billboard charts have been the top four songs for a while now. But number 5. Oh baby look at number 5. It’s The Weeknd ft. Daft Punk with “I Feel It Coming.” Everyone’s already made the MJ comparisons. Look out for it next weekend.