Crying in the Club: Songs Within Songs and Intertextuality in Pop Music
A lengthy, in-depth look at the self-referential nature of pop music and what that means for legality and creativity in music.
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Why Joker’s Score Makes It a Prequel
An analysis of how Hildur Guðnadóttir’s score for Joker helps anchor the narrative and characters in both their story and their timeline.
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“Enemy” Creates Desire — “Bruno” Fulfills It
What’s the difference between Imagine Dragons’ “Enemy” and Encanto’s “Bruno”? Not much! But music theory holds the answer…
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Thundercat Chord Theory
In this post, courtesy of Reverb Machine’s Dan Carr, we break down the chord progressions of Thundercat’s most beloved jazz-inspired songs.
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Com Truise: Remixing Small Black’s “Duplex” (Video)
In this video from Com Truise’s new course on Soundfly, Seth Haley breaks down his approach to remixing Small Black’s hit song “Duplex.”
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On Chord Fragments and Nuanced Embellishments in Talking Heads’ “Slippery People”
A quick and fun breakdown of one of David Byrne’s most slippery songs from the Talking Heads catalog, and why it works so well…
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3 Things Son Lux Does to Make Their Songs So Unique
We take apart Son Lux’s incredibly unique sound, and breakdown three main tools of expression composer Ryan Lott uses to achieve it.
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Breaking Down the Most Daring Production Choices on Son Lux’s “Plans We Made”
We’re OBSESSED with this new single from Son Lux. Here we break down some of the most daring production and arrangement choices in the track.
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Com Truise: The Crumar Bit One in “Ultrafiche of You” (Video)
In this video from Com Truise’s new course on Soundfly, Seth Haley breaks down his song “Ultrafiche of You” and the synth at the heart of it.
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A Harmonic Analysis of Backstreet Boys’ “I Want It That Way”
One of the biggest pop songs of all time, and the most “boy bandiest” of boy band hits, “I Want It That Way” features some savy theory…
