Weekly Billboard Theory — Redbone
It’s pretty wild to think that Childish Gambino’s “Redbone” is as high as it is on the charts right now. The song came out in the fall of last year and seems to be finally hitting its stride. But why? Could it be like “Mask Off” or “Bad and Boujee”? Are memes making it so popular? MEMES?! I honestly couldn’t tell you why the song is gaining traction now but it can’t hurt that Redbone is an incredible song.
Childish Gambino
Key: Eb minor
Tempo: 80 BPM
I feel like a lot of these writeups have been kinda short lately and this will be no exception. A lot of what makes this song interesting can be found in an interview by Genius with the producer Ludwig Göransson. Tonally, the song is pretty straight forward. It’s got a VI-VII-i progression (IV-V-vi if you like thinking in major) for the majority of the song. However, we have a rhythmic slap bassline with passing and neighbor tones to make it much more interesting than just chord after chord. I feel like a broken record at this point but little things like this make a huge difference in how a song sounds and feels. “Redbone” is proof of this.
“The song is 5:26 long, don’t you normally hate that?” Nope, only when it’s that long for no reason. Donald Glover’s latest hit is actually only 3:32 long with a 2 minute outro. If you hear this song on the radio I can almost guarantee that you won’t get the last two minutes. This is actually kind of a bummer because this outro is really cool! Especially when you watch that interview and understand the construction of the instrumentation of the song. It develops in a very Ratatat-esque way. This is probably due to the obnoxious “fuzz” effect on the guitar. That brings me to one of the best aspects of this song: the timbre.
The reason why that interview is so great is because we get to see the different instrumentation used by Ludwig to make this song. While many producers are using the same types of digital snare drums synthesizers it is super refreshing to see someone take new technology and combine it with vintage instrumentation to create a unique piece. Because of this, Redbone feels at home on both the radio and as the soundtrack to hip dive bars.
One thing that isn’t touched upon in that interview (did I mention you should check it out yet?) is Donald Glover’s voice. I’ve loosely followed the dude’s musical endeavors for several years but “Redbone” and several other songs off of his most recent album are quite the departure. Often times we’ll get rapid fire rap verses or smooth singing but yeah “Redbone” is pretty different. I’ve touched on the idea of falsetto before with ZAYN but Childish Gambino goes a different route with his voice. Rather than going for a “pretty” sound, Donald Glover goes obnoxious with his falsetto and we’re all living for it to be honest. It’s a huge power move to basically say “I’m going to have fun and sing this way and you probably will too.” Mark my words, if you hear anyone sing this song in “normal” way that person is 1000% not to be trusted.
Because of all of the cool sounds and Childish Gambino’s over the top performance, we get a song that is ~cool~ and a lot of fun. I know this seems like that can’t be that much of an accomplishment but I honestly believe that a whole lot of artists try to be ~deep~ and brooding and don’t make fun music. On the other hand, artists that don’t care about ~aesthetics~ as much and write fun music aren’t taken seriously. Childish Gambino walks the fine line between these two and was able to create a song that is still rising on the charts almost a year after its release. If you haven’t listened to it a million times already (I know I have), you’re probably on your way to getting there.
Looking towards next week and I’ve written about the top 13 songs already. Pretty comforting to know that some of the songs I thought were garbage aren’t up there anyways. But let’s not dwell in the past! Next week I’ll be writing about “Bodak Yellow (Money Moves)” by Cardi B. I know nothing about Cardi B other than that stuff shows up in my instagram feed about her. Will I like what I hear? Find out next week!
