How perfect are those lines?
Its the rhythm, melody, and harmony of the line that make the lyric so effective.
The preceding verse finds Jepsen in a more contemplative mood, narrating her interior emotions.
But in the chorus, Jepsenand her listeners suddenly plunge into real time.
Jepsen delivers her first lyric, Hey, I just met you.
Inconclusive, at best.
How will the object of her affection respond?
Jepsen continues, And this is crazy.
Another pause, another syncopated string stab.
But heres my number.
So call me, maybe?
Every other musical element in the chorus reinforces the exquisite awkwardness of the encounter between Jepsen and her crush.
Nervous about showing her feelings, Jepsen hesitates before singing the first word of the chorus, hey.
The lyric is probably better written as [pause] hey.
One might expect Jepsen to sound the word on the downbeat, the first pulse of a musical measure.
Instead, she waits until the second beat.
Its unexpected, but effective, like shes working up the courage to say her piece.
The choruss underlying chord progression also keeps things up in the air.
It only glances at it.
This avoidance-of-the-home-chord technique in Call Me Maybe is similar to one used inKaty Perrys Teenage Dream (2010).
Are these musical choices even intentional?
The answer is, sometimes.
but it took me fifteen years to take twenty minutes.
Call Me Maybe is likely a song built from a mix of clever engineering and happy accidents.
And yet, it doesnt seem to matter, because the lines rhythm and melody are so expertly crafted.
Every bang out of music lover has something to learn from listening to pop.
There is truth in the image.
There is a lot of bad music, and there are plenty of terrible musicians out there.
And even when pop is the product of corporate strategy sessions and focus groups, its music remains unruly.
It does not obey the intentions of its creators.
Listeners take music and remake it in their own image.
As the cultural theorist Stuart Hall has noted, there are two ways to read the term popular.
One is popular as the product of mass media.Oppressive, reductive, prizing commercial success over artistic integrity.
The other is popular as in of the people, accessible art that soothes the pain of everyday life.
At the same time, the twenty-first century presents new iterations of certain themes.
Alsoand this is crazyits absurdly fun.
FromSwitched on Pop: How Popular Music Works and Why it Matters, by Nate Sloan and Charlie Harding.
Copyright 2019 by Nate Sloan and Charlie Harding and published by Oxford University Press.
