Weekly Billboard Theory — Psycho
I feel like I’ve often given the disclaimer stating, “This writeup probably won’t be too long” and before I know it, I’ve already written over a thousand words. If I actually fulfill my promise of keeping my writing short then it’s usually because I find the song to be a stinker. Well, this writeup probably won’t be too long. However, I don’t think the song of the week is particularly bad. I think “Psycho” is fine. We’ll go over it.
Post Malone Featuring Ty Dolla $ign
Key: Eb Major
Tempo: 140 BPM
I shouldn’t be surprised that this song is at the top of the charts. Post Malone is an unstoppable force right now and has many more hits than misses. What WILL surprise me is if this song stays at the top as long as “rockstar” did (but that also definitely surprised me). I say this because “Psycho” has a very low-key vibe and I usually associate the tops of the charts with music that moves a little bit more. 140 BPM may seem like a fast tempo but it’s only the melody that really moves that fast. The rest of the music is in a half-time feel making it actually more like 70 BPM (hence the HALF in HALF-TIME). I feel that the song never actually feels sluggish because of the constant melody against the laid-back beat.
Despite me using the word “constant” to describe the melody, it is incredibly singable. Why’s that? Because it’s almost entirely pentatonic and we have a lot of repeated notes. There’s no riffing or extraneous flourishes, just a lot of words to keep up with. However, these are Post Malone lyrics that we’re talking about so it’ll probably be pretty easy to catch on. But yeah, the melodies in “Psycho” are ALMOST entirely pentatonic until the very last words of Post’s verse at 1:32. Then we get a chorus and it’s back to the pentatonic. BUT THEN! Ty Dolla $ign’s verse begins and he slides up to that subdominant every now and then in his melody. After that, it’s two tickets to Pentatonic Land™.
Part of the reason why the pentatonic scale works so well with “Psycho” is because of the abundance of chords used throughout the song. Just kidding. We only get two chords back and forth. Guess which. I and IV. This is fine as it’s not the first song that uses only these two chords and I’m sure it won’t be the last. These two chords become more interesting because of the simple melody on top. Look below to see what I’m talkin’ bout~
On the left, we’ve got the I and the bass and the fifth and tonic of that chord up top. I circled the F as it’s not a part of a standard Eb chord. Does this mean it’s a Imaj9? You could say that but I look at it more as an incomplete neighbor tone and therefore not that important. Yes yes, there are some Fs in the accompaniment so you can make the case for it being a Imaj9 but we’re not too worried about that right now. Let’s move onto the second chord, shall we? Way more blue here. We have an Ab in the bass and the only un-circled note up top is an Eb. This outlines the IV chord. Yes, there’s no third but we can assume that it’s major. You might notice that there’s more blue circled above. We can say that the F is a non-harmonic tone again but this time we have to address this Bbs. An Ab major chord would be made up of Ab-C-Eb. Since we have those Bbs we for sure have a IVmaj9 chord. Because of the melody against that one bass note, we get an extension of a chord we commonly hear.
That’s cool and all but I’m kind of stretching for material with it. The melody is VERY repetitive and I had to listen to the song several times before I noticed any difference between Post Malone and Ty Dolla $ign. The production quality is pretty strong and has some great sounding synthesizers, rhythmic bass, drums dropping out and adding back in, etc. There’s nothing too special about “Psycho”, but there doesn’t need to be. It’s a fine song. Will a “fine” song stay on the charts for long? I guess we’ll find out and see.
As for what you should check out? The True Blue dropped a new song last night and these dudes are the best. Check out “What Do You Think Of Me?” if not solely for the reason that it uses more than just I and IV.
Let’s look at those charts for next week! Must be “God’s Plan” for Drake to still be in first AMIRITE!? I’m sorry. Ed Sheeran and number two, Bruno at three and Post at 4. Lotta heavy hitters up here! We have a fresh face at number five with “Meant To Be” by Bebe Rexha and Florida Georgia Line. Was this song “Meant To Be” this high on the charts? Again, I’m so sorry. But we’ll find out next Thursday! See ya then!
