Weekly Billboard Theory — SAD!
One of my favorite aspects of being a touring musician is that I get to meet a lot of great people that make great art. Some of the music I constantly listen to is by people that I personally know. Because of this, I don’t really have to worry about problematic artists. Heck, because of this I really have no issue dropping artists that are questionable people. That’s an argument for another time but what I’m trying to get is that XXXTENTACION’s biggest song sucks and it’s comforting to know that he doesn’t seem like a great person. Let’s get into it.
SAD!
XXXTENTACION
Key: Eb Major
Tempo: 150 BPM
The introduction might be one of the strongest sections of the song. We start with synth chords outlining a I-vi-IV-V progression. Nothing special, nothing bad. As a matter of fact, the IV chord is extended giving us a more complex sound and the final chord doesn’t land on the downbeat. This catches us off guard a little and is a nice contrast to the first three chords being so static. That intro repeats with a pseudo-distorted guitar melody consisting of the first four notes of the Eb major scale. We also have a kick drum with the most reverb ever. This is all fine for an intro because it’s setting up an idea that will (hopefully) progress.
Unfortunately, it kind of doesn’t. The chorus begins at 0:25 and not much changes. We get X singing a simple melody and hi-hats and snare. What’s missing here? A bassline. Let me try and clarify a little. When we look at most music we think of treble (high pitches) and bass (low pitches). If we’d be reading music for piano we’d typically have a melody in the treble, bass in the bass (duh) and some accompaniment between the two. This is not hyperbole when I say that there are no pitched sounds in “SAD!” that would be in the bass. The kick drum is a low frequency, of course, but it isn’t pitched like we’ve seen in plenty of other hip-hop songs. I love rhythmic basslines, this has been documented but the absence of any bass throughout the entirety of the song has nothing to do with my personal preference. Big stinker.
Let’s go over some of this melodic content. This song has a unique melody and there are parts of it that I actually enjoy. The melody starts by descending from the top of the scale going Do-Ti-La before jumping down to lower pentatonic stuff for the remainder. Often times we’ll see melodies go up so this is certainly a breath of fresh air in that regard. I also hate to admit it but I really like the ending of each chorus section with the “I’m sad, you know, yeah” going Do-Sol-Re-Do. It’s very simple but not TOO simple like outlining the tonic triad would have been. “Woah, you like the melody? I thought you said this song sucks!”, you whine. Well, the melody at this one section is alright but that doesn’t justify the rest of “SAD!”.
This chorus IMMEDIATELY repeats with no changes whatsoever. Double first chorus with no adjustments? Dumb. Then we get to the verse. Percussion drops out which is a nice progression but since there is no bass line it’s basically the intro again after 30 seconds of drums. Oh and then the drums are back in right away? Cool. So there’s literally no difference between the chorus and the verse other than the melody? Got it. The verse melody is a head-scratcher for me. It’s so close to sounding like it’s phoned in but it’s coherent enough to seem like there’s some thought to it. The melody doesn’t stick the landing as the “hate when you leave” ends on him falling below the tonic. It’s like he had it right and thought, “It’ll sound moodier if I fall on the last pitch” which would be correct if you didn’t descend from the most stable note at the end of a phrase into nothingness.
Alright, so after the verse we go back to the chorus. Makes sense. Then the chorus repeats and there’s some sporadic piano. Then a drop out just like the intro (again) but the quick piano comes in halfway. And then? Another double chorus with nothing new. Again. For those of you keeping score. The form of the song is Intro-Chorus-Chorus-Verse-Chorus-Chorus-Bridge (same as the intro)-Chorus-Chorus-Outro (same as the intro) that fades out. Almost three minutes of an idea and a half. Come on.
I never really talk about lyrics but also like hey these are garbage. And when I say that I’m not saying lyrics have to be overly complex to be meaningful. No, you’ve got the wrong guy. I hate that nonsense too. But I’m saying that you can write concise, simple lyrics that convey strong emotions rather than boring tropes such as “it’s torture bein’ in love” or “she took my heart and left me lonely”. Listen to the new album by The Weeknd.
Sigh. Looking at what I have to write about next week takes me to number eight on the charts with “Freaky Friday” by Lil Dicky featuring Chris Brown. I’m a fan of Lil Dicky. As for Chris Brown, remember how I said that I have no problem dropping artists that are questionable people? Yeah, we’ll get into it next week. See ya then.
