Weekly Billboard Theory — Shape of You
Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of You” is a simple song. This doesn’t mean that it’s bad, just simple. Despite its simplicity, though,there is a lot to be learned here from a songwriting perspective. Let’s dive into Eddie’s first number one single.
Tempo: 96 BPM
Key: C# Minor
Okay, this is something I need to address right off the bat. This song is in the same key as Ace of Base’s “All That She Wants” and that little sax lick that happens in betweens phrases is almost exactly the same as the humming thing that Ed does around 0:48 into the song. Kinda feels like a missed opportunity of using a recognizable sample but the song is number one in the country without having to pay royalties to someone else so who cares. Also, “Shape of You” and “All That She Wants” share the same key as the Police’s “Message In A Bottle.” If you’re a bad wedding DJ (like I once was) or in a college a cappella group (also like I once was) this is prime mash-up real estate.
Another aspect of this song that I wanted to address quickly is the use of rhythm. This won’t be nearly as in depth as last week, I promise. A stumbled across several articles that had mentioned the use of flamenco rhythms in the “Shape of You.” I don’t believe that its wrong to think those exist here, but I do think that it is reaching quite a bit and a little misguided. “Shape of You” was PROBABLY written with a looper pedal. For the uninitiated, a looper pedal is a device that allows you to record sound, immediately play it back and build a song out of loops on top of that. Considering that the song is four measures repeated over and over (we’ll get to this), it is very likely that this was how the song was composed. What does this have to do with flamenco and the syncopated beat of this song? Well, the rhythm that these writers reference is a very common technique in modern percussive acoustic guitar playing. Yes, the marimba-like instrument used throughout “Shape of You” is very likely capitalizing on the rise of the Caribbean inspired music of the last several years. However, the the rhythm consists solely of “rock triplets” (these are the rhythms down below) which have been used pretty much non-stop in radio pop music for the past bajillion years.
Yeah, those four measures above are the instrumentation for the entire song. Basically it’s just two measures with a veryyyyy slight change at the end. Despite this, I feel that this song is way more interesting than some previous billboard toppers. Eddie does this by adding and subtracting from that initial four bar loop. I don’t want to dive into texture too much because it’s a concept I’ve talked a lot about the past two weeks. The song begins very sparse, ebbs and flows, huge choruses blah blah blah.
The backing track isn’t the only simple aspect of “Shape of You.” Eddie Boy only sings five different notes (basically) throughout its entirety. Above, you’ll see two scales. Last week, we talked (because this is a conversation) a little bit about scales. Most music, not just pop music, will use two types of scales: major and minor. To oversimplify again, major sounds ~happy~ and minor sounds ~sad~. They’re actually the same, just starting on different points but that’s definitely deeper than we need to go. What is important to know is that major and minor scales will consist of 7 notes. “There’s 8 notes on that first example up there?”, you cry. That’s because the first and the last note are octaves apart and therefore have the same letter name: C#. If you’re a super mathematical person that doesn’t really understand music like my father, those two C#s sound the same because the frequency, measured in hertz, is doubled. The takeaway here is that major and minor scales consist of 7 notes.
Now, the second scale up above looks pretty similar to the first but with some Xs over notes. This means that we’re taking those two notes out of the scale. If you’re familiar with the Greek root “penta” or the super popular a cappella group, you’ll probably realize that “pentatonic” stands to “five tones.” The pentatonic scale is something that is ubiquitous in pop music and is a very safe bet for use when writing a melody. I considered writing some of the melodies out but I feel like that might be a little overkill and I’m feeling particularly lazy after eating my weekly order of Popeye’s. If you play an instrument, try playing along to the song with the C#minor pentatonic scale (or E major pentatonic, they’re the same) and you’ll see for yourself that Ed Sheeran is able to make 5 notes into a super catchy melody.
To sum up the info from this week: less can be a lot more! By making small changes to texture and rearranging notes, you can make a number one song. Yeah, there and many more factors at play here, sure. But with only four chords and five pitches, “Shape of You” is a super catchy and non-boring pop song. If you haven’t picked this up by now, I place a LOT of value on contemporary pop music in comparison to the music our parents listened to and the music that I studied in college and grad school. The four chords that Ed Sheeran and most pop musicians use is way more interesting to me than the three that makes up most classical music.
Next week looks like some repeat offenders with the top song going back to “Bad and Boujee,” number two to “Shape of You,” and the bronze medal to “Black Beatles.” Since I already wrote about these songs, I’ll be writing about the number four song as we will be traveling back to the summer of 2016 with, “Closer” by the Chainsmokers. CLOSER?! I DON’T EVEN KNOW HER! Alright, see ya next week.
