97% of pop is in 4/4... let’s look at the 3% that's not

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Most pop music is in 4/4 time, but not all of it. I've listened to each of the 40 best selling songs (on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart) from each year of the 21st century and taken note of which time signature(s) they use. So that's a sample size of 933 songs (it would be 960 but sometimes the same song is in the top 40 best selling two years in a row so I didn't count those twice in the data). Out of those 933 songs, only 32 diverged from pure 4/4 time, so let's take a look at them today and see what other options exist beyond good old reliable 4/4.
The outro music to this video is my track "Clap" which you can hear in full on Spotify: open.spotify.com/artist/0wKKJ...
And, an extra special thanks goes to Douglas Lind, Vidad Flowers, Ivan Pang, Waylon Fairbanks, Jon Dye, Austin Russell, Christopher Ryan, Toot & Paul Peijzel, the channel’s Patreon saints! 😇
0:00 Introduction
0:40 2000
0:49 2001
1:28 2002
1:53 2003
2:09 2004
3:45 2005
4:09 2006
4:59 2007
5:10 2008
5:28 2009
5:48 2010
6:14 12/8 vs. Swung 4/4
7:50 HDpiano
8:22 2011
8:55 2012
9:14 2013
9:19 2014
9:45 2015
10:26 2016
10:36 2017
10:57 2018
11:19 12/8 vs. 6/8
11:47 2019
11:53 2020
12:03 2021
12:15 2022
13:00 2023
13:38 Review
15:05 Patreon
SUPPORT ME ON PATREON: / davidbennettpiano 🎹

[@camerondrew2766]

Now it's time to do Progressive Metal songs that ARE in 4/4

[@Slurpgerk]

Thats a good idea ngl

[@dcflake5645]

Was thinking about this just today. There's always two or three prog songs that are basicilly pop songs in 4/4 and those are usually the hit the band is known for. Then there's the rest of the album that are all 17 minute soundscapes that go through every key and a dozen time signatures and 200bpm parts and the casual fans will have no idea that's what the band is actually like. Yes comes to mind.

[@otto_jk]

Pull me under - Dream theater Sober - Tool

[@a12i9]

yes please, I'd watch that video

[@Qyro]

Would just be a list of Djent

[@maverator]

Once again Nickelback fearlessly pushing musical boundaries.

[@Testgeraeusch]

Chad did what no other man dared to do... date Avril... wait, what? Oh, yeah, the 00s were weird...

[@snowiiiiie]

​@@Testgeraeusch not at that time 😂😂😂 2000s Avril Lavigne was married to the singer from Sum 41, moving on from that to Nickelback was quite a shift in the zeitgeist between the 2000s and the 2010s

[@danielwalker5621]

Maybe it was Avril. Both "I'm With You" and "Breakaway" are Avril songs. Although they were married LONG after these songs.

[@johns950]

Want to see a show that only costs 45 cents? 50 Cent featuring Nickelback.

[@justincredible.]

Who?

[@Daniel00232]

me watching the entire video not understanding what is 4/4

[@mussy9387]

You can count most songs with a 1, 2, 3, 4. That is basically what 4/4 time is (very rough definition).

[@mrewan6221]

Usually: If the bottom number is 4, the top number is how many beats there are in a "bar", also called "measure" in some parts of the world. You can count from 1 up to the top number repeatedly, and is will sound right. If the bottom number is 8, divide the top number by 3 (this will nearly always be possible), That's how many beats there are. For example, for 6/8, because the bottom number is 8, the number of beats is the top number (6) divided by 3 (6÷3=2). You can count 1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2… and it will feel correct. There is a whole world of time signatures, counting, and rhythm beyind these simple rules, but for pop songs, this will get you most of the way.

[@sweetwhitechocolate483]

​@@mrewan6221how does 9/8 make sense then

[@mrewan6221]

@@sweetwhitechocolate483 It's 3 beats, each subdivided into 3 pulses. Its music theory name for it is Compound Triple time. Compound because each beat is divided into three pulses (rather than Simple, where each beat is divided into two pulses), and Triple, because there are three beats (rather than Duple - two beats, or Quadruple - four beats). The most famous song of all time in 9/8 is "Juse, Joy of Man's Desiring" by Bach. One of the songs in this video (the one in 3/4 with triplets) could have been written in 9/8.

[@mrewan6221]

@@sweetwhitechocolate483 It's three beats, with each beat divided into three pulses. The music theory name for this is Compound Triple time. Compound means the beat is divided into 3 (rather than Simple, where the beat is divided into 2). Triple means there are 3 beats, rather than Duple (which means 2 beats), or Quadruple (which means 4 beats). Here are some examples: Simple Duple: 2/4 "Mon-day Tues-day" Simple Triple: 3/4 "Or-ange Sil-ver Pur-ple" Simple Quadruple: 4/4 "Thir-ty For-ty Fif-ty Six-ty" Compound Duple: 6/8 "Se-ven-teen Se-ven-ty" Compound Triple: 9/8 "Ger-man-y I-tal-y Port-u-gal" Compound Quadruple: 12/8 "Hy-dro-gen He-li-um Lith-i-um Ni-tro-gen" Most pop songs are in 4/4. Four beats. The rest seem to be mostly 6/8, but if you merged each pair of bars, they'd be 12/8. Also four beats.

[@Roflmaolinde]

I basically have no idea what you guys are talking about but I’m happy to be here!

[@agnesmeow]

Same

[@readmore6042]

Fr just vibing here

[@valery898]

Same lol. I can’t really hear what he’s talking about but man is it interesting to listen to regardless!

[@panda4510]

I would look up a video on how to read time signatures. It’s very simple but I can’t imagine what this video sounds like without knowing what they mean😭

[@smr6141]

You a little confused, but you’ve got the spirit! Even if time signature isn’t the easiest to understand, the differences in beat/rhythm are still perceivable to non-musicians so I’m glad you got to vibe here ✨

[@richarddoan9172]

The "shuffle era" makes you realize how much producers follow the trend.

[@lilwombat]

That's just how people are, they eat up a trend until they get bored and move on. It makes sense to jump on trends early it usually will work

[@ValenVillanueva]

The music always have a "trend", take look to the rockandroll/rockabilly style of the 50s and then the move to the beatlemania in the 60s

[@icedragon769]

All art has trends, it's not a bad thing, it's just how art works. Yes, even the niche genres. The prog metal that sells well today doesn't sound like the prog metal that sold well 10 years ago. To exist in a genre is to be in conversation with the genre, and if you're not incorporating the work of your contemporaries and trying new things, then you're not in conversation, you're just following a formula.

[@archimedessyracuse8752]

Ngl all those shuffle songs are bangers

[@isaiahromero9861]

I bet you think you're so smart for recognizing an obvious musical trend lmao, that's how art works buddy

[@oscarramage95]

That’s dedication, listening to 960 songs for a 15 minute video

[@acefaceuk]

Many of which are probably not that enjoyable to listen to...

[@nobody48803]

you can look up the music notes and check it it seems. Still taking a long time.

[@talastra]

It's a piece of work, but you only need too find the transcriptions, ,and that's probably relatively fast. Might be a database of song time signatures too.

[@talastra]

Not taking anything away fromm the time involved regardless.

[@bartz0rt928]

@@acefaceuk They're Top 40 songs, they're probably fine. I'd imagine listening to all of them back-to-back would be really boring, though. Like only eating MacDonalds for a week.

[@adv4287]

Bro I’m a songwriter who’s taken multiple music theory courses and this video alone made me understand the usefulness of 12/8 lol

[@qfcbv]

12/8 is 4/4 but *exotic*

[@formerlyknownaseasrob]

12/8 sounds like it’s 4/4 but you wanna *spice it up* to really *make the song fun* (in most cases)

[@Hoozeewoozee]

Electric Feel by MGMT. Something felt oddly hypnotic about it. Years later I realized the feel really was electric - it’s in 6/4.

[@abhi22]

It's all just 1/1 with tempo changes

[@DynastieArtistique]

Underrated comment

[@chairsmissing]

If it was my video, I'd pin you.

[@UnicorniousEyes]

Genuinely one of the funniest things I've ever seen

[@razriri1467]

everything in life is 50/50 - it either happens or it doesnt

[@proxyprox]

I'm obsessed with weird time signatures and this channel is a treasure to me

[@DavidBennettPiano]

Thank you 😊

[@cinnamon9390]

Did you love Symptom of Life by Willow Smith?

[@AlexDriscoll]

@@cinnamon9390 It's amazing and I'm so glad David put me onto it!

[@woomy7.7]

ω-3 has a lot of interesting time signatures. Maybe you can check them out

[@christineplaza3599]

Most unusual I know of is Money by Pink Floyd -> a 7/4. What are your favorite ?

[@MedlifeCrisis]

This filled in so many blanks in my head about why certain musical eras ‘felt’ a certain way, without realising what I was noticing were the time time signatures. But the first time I remember noticing a non 4/4 beat in pop music was Artful Dodger’s ‘Do you think about me’ back in 2000, I guess it wasn’t big enough to make the top 40 for the year. Congrats on 1 million!

[@SuperFlashDriver]

Oh yeah, by the time the 2000s and 2010s came around, it became a standard instead of experimental like it used to in the 1990s and before. Hence why if you listen to 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and 1980s music, you'll notice that some songs follows the 4/4 measure, while others are vastly different. Hence why if you listen to heavy metal, rock, soul, R&B, or disco, you'll notice that some of the song pieces don't even stay in 4/4, while others do. It just depends on the BPM of the song at the end of the day.

[@TatsumiOga682]

Love your videos man, whens the next one coming

[@als_pals]

In 2003 and current day, Avril Lavigne wasn't/isn't Chad Kroeger's wife. They married in 2013, divorced in 2015.

[@frtzkng]

There should be an award for "Second Song in 7/4 that hit the Top 40" cuz the first one was probably _Solsbury Hill_ and that was decades ago

[@reineh3477]

Money by Pink Floyd was 4 years before Peter Gabriel. Spoonman (Soundgarden) from 1994 was also in 7/4.

[@Alfonso162008]

​@@Lorenzo_der_RitterDavid literally talked about Money at the end of the video. It didn't reach the top 40 best selling singles of that year.

[@monoscopes]

All you need is love is partly in 7/4. So the award for "Second Song in 7/4 that hit the Top 40" could go to Solsbury Hill.

[@reineh3477]

@@Alfonso162008 don't know who Lorenzo is but I wrote it before I knew it was top 40 "of the year". I believe same goes for Spooman which isn't a pop song and only was on the top 40 for a few weeks.

[@Alfonso162008]

@@reineh3477 I wasn't responding to you (in fact, I didn't even see your comment, we must've written ours more or less at the same time, because yours wasn't there when I wrote mine). My reply was to a guy who said that Money should also be in that list that the OP was talking about, and I was correcting him. It appears he now deleted his comment? 🤷‍♂️ either way, sorry if it caused you confusion.

[@legionaireb]

So I took a public speaking course in college and one class I did a speech about music (including cello demonstrations) and there was one person in the class who ABSOLUTELY REFUSED to believe that time signatures other than 4/4 existed.

[@sharlowtay_thestar]

i hate music non-believers

[@2112jonr]

MAGA by any chance ? 🙂

[@kloudi9618]

everything can be in 4/4 if you count wrong enough

[@Fractured_Unity]

@@kloudi9618Or use extremely convoluted notes 😂

[@DavidBennettPiano]

What gets me is when these non-believer types are adamant that nothing exists BUT 4/4. But why 4/4? Surely by their logic it may as well be 1/4 time signatures all around.

[@nicolasbuitrago1801]

incredible how I swallowed the whole video not understanding any of what you said but enjoying the video

[@mann882]

Bro the pronunciation of Ella Baila Sola has me ROLLING

[@rebeccarae2884]

Same. I had to pause the video I was laughing so hard 😂 Love this guy, but WOW that was a crazy pronunciation attempt

[@sc3k]

I HAD TO PAUSE BROOOOOO NOOOOOOOO

[@Thedjbj2]

Hearing that made me feel better about my own Spanish speaking skills lol.

[@tamaspolyak5564]

You say SOS, I say Tainted Love.

[@edwardblair4096]

Thank you. I knew it was familiar, but I was drawing a blank. But it still has the problem of: is it really 12/8 or 4/4 with swing?

[@sweetpeachnectar]

and if you say right round, I say you spin me round (like a record). how even became that lazy cover a hit?

[@GaryJohnWalker1]

Yes, Soft Cell. And would be good to get a similar analysis to those 80s hits (or 90s or even 70s like PF's Money) just to get an idea if this 4/4 thing is as standard as it seems to have become.

[@josephwest124]

But it's also as reworked by Rihanna's people as "Tainted Love" was reworked by Marc Almond for Soft Cell from Gloria Jones's original version.

[@cnwd3295]

​@@sweetpeachnectar You can say Right Round is bad or in poor taste, but some effort went into changing the chorus from 4/4 to 12/8 (and adding new verses)

[@amyshaw893]

So TIL that i like songs in 12/8 haha. Didnt even realise that they were in a different time signature

[@eeph4eva]

I haven't watched the whole video yet, but so far most of the songs he listed as 12/8 are actually 4/4 with shuffle/swing feel like he said. Meaning they're not really in a different time signature, just a different feel (sos, i kissed a girl, the flo rida one). The most classic example of a proper 12/8 song is "somebody to love" by queen, so you can try to think of that as an example of the classic 12/8 sound. The main difference is that in the actual 4/4 songs, the 4 quarter beats are very punctuated and you can really feel the 4/4 pulse, whereas in more "proper" 12/8 songs the feeling is more flowing and might even sound closer to 6/8 than 4/4

[@northcub]

@@eeph4eva If each note is divided into 3 divisions instead of 2, then it's in 12/8. Somebody To Love is 6/8.

[@griffinhan-lalime4357]

@@eeph4evaOk so this is interesting. I also haven’t watched the whole video, but the first four songs David mentions (around 5:00 in), imo, all occupy varying positions on the spectrum of swung to shuffle. The Katy Perry one sounds the most swung and the Gwen Stefani one sounds the most shuffled; this is all getting me to think that the difference comes down to how much the middle triplet is or is not emphasized. If you can hear that middle triplet a lot in both the beat and the melody, it’s shuffled; if you mostly only detect notes on the first and third triplet, it’s swung.

[@griffinhan-lalime4357]

Ok yeah, he immediately goes over this, lol

[@wyv3rn1]

This is funny cause this video helped me realise that my least favourite songs through life have been in 12/8 timing lmao

[@myheartisomg17]

Wow. I'm just realizing that I apparently love 12/8 time signatures. Thank you for enlightening me.

[@Lyonsgg]

Valid opinion but 12/8 just should not be counted as meaningfully different from 4/4 like it's literally the same

[@EndlessNameless5]

​@@Lyonsgg I will always remember a comment from another video that said: "Every music is 4/4, but sometimes they have extra steps"

[@stationdisatrous647]

Funny that you mention "I'm With You" and "Breakaway". Avril Lavigne was the main writer of them both. So it makes a lot of sense that they both have that 6/8 verse style. Great video.

[@Peacebunnie]

Well TIL! 🎶

[@iandean1112]

"I'm With You" is so special to me

[@Jud7h]

🖤🖤

[@DMZZ_DZDM]

2:57 THANK YOU I'm so tired of people saying that Hey Ya is in 11/2, when it's much more intuitive to think of it in mixed meter

[@terdragontra8900]

The group of eleven half notes is important to its sound, and the subgroups of 4 are important too, so, really I just think time signatures are a pretty sloppy notation for how music is actually organized

[@UnkPoker1]

I came to the comments to note this…I’m not musically knowledgeable to know which is “correct” - but I’d only heard 11/2…

[@jrm2fla]

I am a drummer in a band and we love playing HeyYa… a real break from most of the beats we play… We also play Here Comes the Sun… another “palette cleanser”

[@DMZZ_DZDM]

@@terdragontra8900 you're mistaken. The removed half note is what gives it its sound, not an 11 half note monstrosity stream

[@karlhendrikse]

Yep it's just an absolutely regular 4/4 song, except that half a bar (I would argue two and a half bars) is missing

[@stevenjones8575]

I'm a 3/4 / 6/8 / 9/8 truther. Triplets for life.

[@iconofsin1043]

Saame

[@tkmfischerman2582]

You're not a truther yet. You still believe in the lies they tell you if you see 3/4 as a triplet. Join me in the in the sacred knowledge of the true 3/4, and the 3/8 everyone refers to as 3/4, together you and i could achieve great things

[@gonzoengineering4894]

2+2+2+3 gang rise up

[@ataraxianAscendant]

love it when a 9/8 song goes 12 12 12 123

[@MajorOctofuss]

Same. The way 6/8 swings back and forth like a pendulum calms me down lol

[@andrewjpalla]

Fascinating video. I'm surprised because all the 12/8 songs mentioned do kind of "feel" similar despite me not knowing any of the musical theory behind it.

[@Buzzy913]

Thank you for this; its so tough to find this stuff. Very well put together video. Also that ad segment was smooth and effective.

[@WayneD42]

I wish that Paramore's "That's What You Get" would have made the video. I love how the song switches around between 3/4 & 4/4, including having various instruments switch at different points, such as when the drums (& Hayley) are in 4/4 while the bass is still playing in 3/4. The intro is also a fun 2-count triplet followed by a 1-count drum break, making it sound like it's in an uneven 4 even though it's actually in 3. In my estimation Hayley always sings the verses in 4, even when at the start of the first verse the entire band is playing in 3.

[@courtneyf6041]

I’m with you 100% I was expecting to see it here. I even ended up googling how it charted (25!!)

[@TheDGomezzi]

He’s using year end lists for this, not top position on the charts. Otherwise, the video would be endless

[@nectarinedreams7208]

3/4 is almost as common as 4/4 so it's not as weird or interesting as the ones listed here. There are also quite a lot of instances in pop where a song switches from 4/4 to 3/4 for one bar or a small sequence, then back to 4/4.

[@TheDGomezzi]

@@nectarinedreams7208 "3/4 is almost as common as 4/4" Did you watch the video?

[@stevenkelly1689]

Yes that’s the one that immediately came to my mind

[@Petch85]

Would be cool with two more videos, "90's and 80's" and "70's and 60's". Then we could see if the % 4/4 time is changing over the decades.

[@Alfonso162008]

I honestly don't think it would change *that* much compared to now, at least not in the Top 40. It's still a neat idea, tho, it would be interesting to see a series of videos on this subject.

[@chrisrj9871]

There was also a ton of 12/8 in the 50s. I think that needs to be mentioned as well.

[@NeonBeeCat]

​@@chrisrj9871blame doowop and other ballads

[@NBrixH]

@@Alfonso162008no it definitely would, 6/8 and 12/8 were huge in the 50’s and 60’s especially in soul. Through the 70’s you get bands like Yes who were huge, so they gotta have some time signature changes here and there.

[@pedrov.8087]

grunge would have some

[@paulinho_da_viola]

so much work for this video, omg. thank you! great video!

[@zenethra3391]

I needed this exact video in my life. Time signatures confound me, but I know there's something to the non-4/4 that sound more interesting.

[@tabitha3861]

03:53 'Breakaway' by Kelly Clarkson was co-written by Avril Lavigne, so not too surprised that it and I'm With You are both on the list!

[@als_pals]

Not sure how cowritten it was, from what I know Avril Lavigne wrote it fully and gave it to Kelly Clarkson who changed the word snow to rain haha

[@buddhaforme]

@@als_palsKelly doesn’t have a writing credit on breakaway FYI

[@dcarbs2979]

Just shows how few can make hits away from 4/4. Barely one hit a year this century and 5 of those came from 2 families: Chad/Avril 3 together husband and wife, Alicia Keys had 2

[@DrAndyShick]

She also wrote I Do Not Hook Up

[@MarieLehleitner]

​@@dcarbs2979 Chad and Avril weren't together when those songs came out (and they're divorced now). They got married in 2013 and divorced in 2015.

[@Blagmafuga]

As a Mexican, I'm glad to see "Ella Baila Sola" in this list! Since it's a "corrido tumbado" and is therefore a Mexican regional song, it's worth mentioning that a lot of traditional Mexican music has this "huapango" style rhythm that can be read as either 3/4 or 6/8 (kind of like how "America" from West Side Story switches accented notes after each bar).

[@kane2742]

13:18 That might be the most English pronunciation of it I've ever heard, though! 🤣

[@luisleal7301]

​@@kane2742ele Beile sole

[@TimaiosGottfried]

​@@kane2742 That fucked me up I'm ngl. Would I have been drinking something, I'd have spat it out.

[@yaretzzii]

@@kane2742it honestly caught me off guard 😭😭

[@leviathan3630]

Ela Bayluh Soluh was insane 😂

[@dumbalek6001]

I know nearly nothing about music and this was still very interesting. Thanks for sharing!

[@terrellsdoomed]

learned a lot, W video. very to the point but informational at the same time. amazing work.

[@bernhardkrickl3567]

So, you can go from 4/4 to swung 4/4 to 12/8. Slowing 12/8 down you go to 6/8. By not distinguishing the 1 and 4 in 6/8 you arrive at 3/4. By introducing Swing again to 3/4 you go to 9/8. Now make a song like that and get it in the Top 40. :)

[@darksecret965]

Progressive Pop

[@cowboyhampster]

not to mention you could keep the eighth note tempo and switch directly from any -/4 tempo to any -/8 tempo, so make a song that switches from 5/4 to 5/8, and make that a constant switch every measure.

[@aa23music]

Wow i actually didnt realise there would even be 3 percent of not 4/4 music in the 21st century charts lol

[@Testgeraeusch]

i was also a bit confused until i realized "oh, yeah, techno-shuffle and slow 6/8 ballads..."

[@Tedris4]

It helps that most of the ones that aren't are basically just 4/4 with triplets

[@aa23music]

@@Tedris4 for real

[@NeonBeeCat]

Kid named country ballads

[@keithparker1346]

It will be little different in other decades. There's a reason 4 4 is great

[@melsonic1463]

Great refreshment for the Waltz dance library ... Thanks!!

[@TrueHaiku]

I just want you to know that of all the content I've *ever* seen on youtube, yours is probably in my top 3. Something about it is special to me. Thanks for all of the videos over the years!

[@palpytine]

Just for giggles, can you do this for the 20 years *before* 2000?

[@fuckcensorship69]

Hell, just do 66 to 76. Best decade in music

[@xxPenjoxx]

Oh yes please, it would be interesting to see how diverse the percentages are

[@frameturtle]

are you sure they would be so diverse? ​@@xxPenjoxx

[@keithparker1346]

​@@xxPenjoxxI suspect it will not be significantly different

[@dcarbs2979]

I think we can safetly add: You Spin Me Round Like A Record (Dead Or Alive) and Tainted Love (Soft Cell), both sampled here. At least if using UK charts instead of US.

[@esmockingjay9730]

I’m so glad From Eden got an honourable mention, I adore that song.

[@EmmaMMusic]

Fallin’ is my go to song when I teach 6/8, I had no idea I was being so basic. Thanks for giving me some new choices!

[@KittyPikaChu]

This video taught me about time signatures for the first time, thank u!

[@lydiareifsnyder9782]

Another song in Olivia Rodrigo's "Sour" that dabbles in Mixed Meter is "One Step Forward, Two Steps Back", where the verses are in 12/8, but the chorus immediately switches to 4/4. It wasn't released as a single, thus not showing up on this list.

[@allanmelvincomia2766]

Wow, can you tell me if there are others as well in GUTS?

[@Gingobingo]

Not only that, but All I Want is mixed too, although it is mostly in 4/4. It intersperses 3/4 measures occasionally between verses

[@CareyEvans]

@@allanmelvincomia2766 Happier is very 6/8, you can hear it easily by counting the piano arpeggios as they go up and down. GUTS was all 4/4 to start with, though Lacy has an unusual rhythm, but I think Scared of My Guitar is either 6/8 or just swung.

[@donaldmilne5352]

I'd somehow not realised until now that Hero is riffing on Kiss From A Rose...

[@psicopato2460]

I only realized when reading your comment, damn

[@BaghaShams]

Holy crap. I was a huge fan of both those songs and never made that connection.

[@mandalorian_guy]

I had a similar revelation with Stacy's Mom which last year I learned interpolates "My Best Friends Girlfriend" & "Just What I Needed" from the Cars with a dash of "Mrs. Robinson" and "Jessie's Girl". Adam Schlesinger is a genius.

[@Scriptadiaboly]

And now I can't unhear it

[@zenverak]

Holy shit….

[@Hunnydew]

This is very helpful to visualize with notes thank you

[@MeghanArtemis-rs8jh]

I love this video, so very informative... I now know the difference of 6/8, 4/4, and 12/8. Thank you for this video

[@Testgeraeusch]

I had completely forgotten the techno-shuffle era; there was also this so-called big-room house trend around 2014 or so where the "drop" would often feature tripplets just like in the Peas song. Tsunami for example, and pretty much ever other big-room remix of a pop song would use two drops: the first being in 4/4 and then the second in 12/8 to change it a bit. Dubstep also often used triplets. As for specific songs: Awolnation - Sail. I guess it wasn't charting high enough? I felt somewhat big back then. Also, i find it funny that in the 10s it became fashionable to switch from 4/4 to 12/8 to "up the tempo". I know a few synthpop songs from the 80s and 90s that do the opposite; start in 12/8 and the got to 4/4 to gain momentum (Victory of Love by Alphaville and On the Other Side by Silke Bischoff) but it could be a coincidence that these two got stuck in my head; they are probably too far removed from pop.

[@alexhenderson3364]

It is my solemn obligation to go listen to Sail on repeat for the rest of the day anytime I see if brought up. Thank you, stranger!

[@CricketStyleJ]

Personal Jesus is in 12/8, and that was a hit song. Not top 40 of the year, though.

[@Testgeraeusch]

@@CricketStyleJ Master and Servat also goes to 12/8 in the extended mix after some time

[@silver6380]

Oh yeah, Sail is definitely 12/8! It was sort of a "hidden hit." I think it holds, or at least used to hold, some kind of record for longest time spent on the Billboard Hot 100? It just kind of hovered around #90 for like two years or something.

[@Testgeraeusch]

@@silver6380 This feels like one of the questions asked on a quizshow about the decade hosted in 2050 or something. "Which hit song stayed on hot100 for almost two years but never got bigger than 80?"

[@TheZenomeProject]

No wonder I like Hozier. He's clearly the guy that's bringing musical complexity back to the mainstream.

[@keithparker1346]

By having 2 hits over a decade...😂

[@TheZenomeProject]

@@keithparker1346 Hozier is more an album artist than a singles artist, if you get my gist. 20000 people came to his headline show in Raleigh a few weeks ago, and normally it takes way more Billboard hits to get a crowd of that size to show up in my city. That's usually evidence of a deep discography.

[@keithparker1346]

@@TheZenomeProject nice try but you know Hozier is not really a big enough artist to change things

[@sawyer02dk]

​@@keithparker1346I'm looking for who asked

[@kj23000]

​@keithparker1346 those hits arent even the better songs he has (music and lyrics wise). Take me to Church is admittedly better that Too Sweet in terms of lyrics, but he has a really strong fanbase with popular songs. From Eden, Cherry Wine, Someone New from his first album were pretty popular. And now some more songs (Work Song, Like Real People Do, Arsonists Lullaby) are growing in popularity. His music is complex and his songwriting is elite, but having hits is not a measure of success, especially in a tiktok world. Like how Jacob Collier is considered a pioneer in music, and hes a musicians musician, but not a lot of people know about his songs.

[@Lukas4182]

Great Video! The "12/8-phase" makes me want to learn more about the recent musical history.. lots of developments that often go unnoticed I assume

[@gottagoquack]

i love music, i have so many song ideas and despite taking a music class i still have a very hard time comprehending things like time signatures, but this video made it very simple to understand! :) thank you

[@gubblfisch350]

I understand that time signatures are subjective and I'm on board with almost all of your choices here. But I just can't think of Perfect by Ed Sheeran as a 12/8 song. To me it is in 6/8 and I'd even call it a really quick 3/4 or something similar rather than 12/8. The main reason is that it's definitely made to be danced to. It's probably one of the most danced to Viennese Waltz's in the world since it came out. And you just can't notate a Viennese Waltz in 12/8. Also I feel the "triplets" way more than I feel the overarching 4/4 beat, just as you pointed out.

[@really-quite-exhausted]

My thoughts exactly! A whole turn in Viennese Waltz is 6 steps i.e. 2 sets of triplets i.e. one bar of 6/8. It would feel really weird to need two rotations per bar, especially when you can't always guarantee an even number of rotations in any one section of your routine.

[@simonmalmo7008]

I would say a lot of these are completely wrong. Just playing triplets over 4/4 beat still makes it a 4/4 beat.

[@derekprice7229]

​@@simonmalmo7008My thoughts exactly lol

[@davidbobowski3604]

Btw Avril and Chad are divorced...

[@CommanderGinyu]

For 9 years at this point lol

[@DavidBennettPiano]

I obviously don’t keep up to date with my Canadian pop rock romance drama!

[@andersjjensen]

@@DavidBennettPiano Which is understandable as that whole debacle is always in wildly odd time signatures.

[@ywenp]

I wonder if they used odd signatures on the divorce papers.

[@susanmallet766]

@@DavidBennettPiano I see no reason to introduce Avril Lavigne as "wife of Chad ..." Avril was the artist. It's like saying Linda Eastman's husband wrote "Maybe I'm Amazed."

[@a7xfanben]

Great vid, helps me make sense of a few things.

[@bfi01youtube11]

This is a fantastic practical tutorial on time signature theory. Well done!

[@gianmarcocostanzo1380]

Always amazes me how I think all those as 3/4 but they are 6/8. I'm not surprised by the quantity of 12/8. I hear it everywhere and it's so catchy to my ears.

[@snerttt]

Wouldn't a 3/4 and 6/8 just be identical? This video confuses me as someone who knows nothing about music

[@dylankempthorne]

​@@snerttt 3/4 has 3 main pulses and 6/8 has 2 main pulses

[@SirBenjiful]

@@snertttThere are lots of cases where you could be justified in transcribing something either way. Different people can feel the strength of beats in a groove differently.

[@snerttt]

@@SirBenjiful ah I just read the Wikipedia, I originally interpreted it as some sort of fraction (indicating the divisions of a bar), but in reality, the top number is the length of the beats and the bottom is the amount per bar. Makes sense now

[@SirBenjiful]

@@snerttt Yeah, because there's no easy way to type out time signatures people often write them "fraction-style" even though they're not actually fractions and thinking of them that way can lead to confusion. Glad you sorted it out! P.S. It's actually the top number that's the number of beats & the bottom number that's the note value of each beat.

[@dakotakeller1606]

I know you don't speak Spanish but that would be "ey ya" The word for she Ella baila sola= she dances alone Gave me a good laugh tho, love the video man

[@mostrino]

You should do a video like this but for songs that aren't in aeolian/ionian, very cool video!

[@DevoteaSings]

I feel like you fill the void that Sideways left, would love to see more from you :)

[@bryanvickers]

Seal had probably the biggest hit 3/4 song since the Baroque era when he released Kiss From A Rose. That song is incredible. The meter and the modal interchange in the chords, and some of the most fantastic melody writing and arranging in a pop song of the last 30 years.

[@MattNolanCustom]

Biggest hit 3/4 song in the UK since Mull of Kintyre, which it certainly surpasses (sorry Paul).

[@qfcbv]

Check out Shostakovich Waltz from Jazz Suite No. 2. Written circa 1960. Not much older

[@Lefty7788tinkatolli]

In the 60s there was likely a surge of huge hits not in 4/4 because of the Beatles.

[@MyNameIsNeutron]

Yeah, I can't think of a single Beatles song in 4/4. They were basically a commercially successful Dream Theater.

[@_vixen_4504]

@@MyNameIsNeutron Please do not compare them to Dream Theater, they are not bad, however, they can not even be compared to the Beatles. It is the Beatles that we are talking about.

[@paperbackfilms3211]

​@@MyNameIsNeutron nah, The Beatles were quite experimental but never as technical or complex as Dream Theater.

[@isaiahneilguitaristofficia549]

@@MyNameIsNeutron I want to hold your hand 4/4, Help 4/4, In My Life 4/4, huge Beatle Fan however they did have plenty of songs “hits” in the top 40 that are in 4/4. Only a few were in odd time signature and the only one I can think of that is “Odd” is just the middle “Sun,Sun,Sun” part of “Here comes the sun” which besides that part is 4/4..

[@nstrug]

@@isaiahneilguitaristofficia549woosh….

[@catzrule001]

thank you for explaining using the 1st and 3rd note of the triplet vs using all of them and for saying that sometimes "reading" something that's innate can be confusing!!

[@weenage_skurtbag]

13:54 i was hoping this song would be mentioned, i love it so much!! thanks for the video it was really insightful

[@philiphumphrey1548]

The famous slow movement from Mozart's 21st piano concerto is in swung 4/4 (or 12/8). Although it's nominally a slow andante, the triplets give a relentless 200 beats per minute rhythm in the background that I find deeply unsettling. I notice the same effect in some pop songs.

[@slidenaway]

What a great concept for a video!! Awesome to put actual stats behind this

[@landandlorevideos]

What a good concept for a video!

[@tzgaming207]

Very educational, thank you 🤘

[@WumBuh17]

I love hearing your 7/4 meter song in the end credits of your videos. Keep up the great work!!

[@tzoreehandler9163]

Happier Than Ever by Billie Eilish starts on 4/4 and later shifts to 6/8.

[@taico5764]

And Hostage (another song by Eilish) is a 3/4+4/4 meter for the verses

[@specialtramp]

And I hear Bury a Friend as 12/8 shuffle beat

[@paulgeuecke764]

idontwannabeyouanymore is in 6/8

[@ljdobles8104]

Great analysis!

[@philb2972]

thank you for giving us 7/8 lovers something in the outro!

[@yusdrum91]

it's fantastic that every musician can feel time differently, me as a drummer, most of the song you mention here I feel it differently, like most of the 12/8 I feel (and counted) in 4 with triplets just like you said in the video, or like Alicia Keys' If I Ain't Got You, I count it as 6/8 because of drummer hit the snare in the 4th beat, so 6/8 is much more make sense to me as a drummer. I do completely understand about the transcription part though.

[@lounolastname4477]

Congratulations on 1 million, wow! Thank you for interesting and informative content, you have made music easier for me to understand x

[@shannonpincombe8485]

'Break Away' is excellent. Well sung and a great tune. 'Runaway' by The Corrs is another swung this way. Excellent.

[@elizabethfeuerbach5006]

That's so interesting. I thought 3/4 was gonna be the main time signature for the songs you mentioned. Songs like "Breakaway" and "Perfect" sounded like they were, but I had no idea they were in 6/8. Great video!

[@leikfroakies]

Functionally, there's little difference between 3/4, 6/8 and 12/8 except for the fact that 12/8 can also be a 4/4 song depending on how it's written

[@tombullough2034]

Great video! Love the song at the end. Clap!

[@dustylaperriere9019]

My 13 year old cat and dog are named Coheed and Cambria, respectively. They won't live forever, but like this band, they will always be in my heart ♥️

[@lauraslyricallife]

This was honestly so interesting, you've got a new sub

[@KimChandlerSinger]

Hi David. Thanks so much for doing this statistical analysis! 👏I'm doing a conference presentation next month on a presentation I put together years ago called "Beyond 4/4 Time" which is the rhythmic counterpart of another presentation I offer called "Beyond The Major Scale" that explores pop vocal melodies based on scales & modes other than those based on the major scale. Because I'm updating this presentation with more recent examples, I intend to reference this video in my presentation 👍

[@windthroughthesilos2495]

Walk me home by Pink alternates between a few different time signatures. The intro alternates between a couple bars of 7/4 and 6/4. Then the chorus alternates between a bar of 3/4 and 3 bars of 4/4. This isn’t even all the trickery going on, and it’s impressive that a song with over 100 million views on KZbin is this complex from a rhythmic standpoint

[@AT-rr2xw]

Yeah, I took notice of that one as well. I had heard that structure in some country songs and that Sheryl Crow song from the 90s, but Pink did some more interesting things with it. I guess that it did not get to the Top 40, though.

[@katiukulele]

I love your deep dives, David! You've given me so many ideas for mash ups when you do these! Keep being amazing at what you create!

[@DavidBennettPiano]

Thanks!!

[@katiukulele]

@@DavidBennettPiano You actually are credited (and actively so) for giving me the idea of my last short. "A Swift Relationship." Your video where you dove into the most common chords in Taylor Swift's songs had me decide to do a mash up, then I realized the songs I chose created the time line of a relationship. Your videos are amazing, educational, and really inspiring. Sorry I'm getting wordy now...

[@dontnoticemesenpai6745]

Funnily enough, a lot of these were my absolute favorites growing up. Right down to I'm With You, Cooler Than Me, and especially From Eden (I'm counting it despite not being in the top 40). And now math rock and prog are some of my favorite genres.

[@JoshuaM141]

I really appreciate the video, and I understand your main language is probably english but, my god, you got me absolutely giggling by how you pronounced "Ella baila sola". Anyways, love the videos. Keep them up!

[@BubboPants]

You absolutely deserve a thumbs up for the research and effort put into this video. By specifically examining the top 40 pop songs of the last 24 years, It serves very well as a gateway for people who have no background in music theory to the wonderful world of rhythm and how it impacts musical experience. Exposure to what music is made of often lures people into the house of music creation, and that is a good thing. Kudos, David.

[@treepoder]

P!NK - Walk Me Home is one that also stands out, it uses bars of 7/4, 6/4 and 4/4 and always catches my attention whenever it comes on, i thought would've been worth a mention!

[@keithbutler2222]

Great analysis

[@SpaghettioRegrettio]

The only songs that came to mind was money (which you mentioned) and seven days by sting which was 7/4 if I remember right. Great vid ❤

[@stevenking4617]

"Fallin" was actually the very first one I thought of, nice!

[@David-iv6je]

6/8 is going to dominate. It's a pretty standard time that satisfies people's ability to follow 4 but adds some cool swing.

[@keithparker1346]

Interesting

[@davidberesford7009]

I had to watch this to see if a specific mention was made of Money from Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon, which has an unusual time signature and uses sounds of cash registers, originally played on a long loop of tape. I am glad that you included it!

[@ViolentMoth]

Great video! I love when pop songs deviate from 4/4. My favourite is 5/4 (particularly From Eden by Hozier, and, well, 5/4 by Gorillaz). Also, small thing, Chad Kroeger and Avril Lavigne actually divorced in 2015

[@PianoGreenGaming]

'Chapel Perilous' by Feed Me Jack is a great song that switches from 6/8 to 4/2 to 7/4 you should check it out

[@maxwellclark2345]

What an oddly specific song title to have multiple with the same name. The "Chapel Perilous" I know is by Mild High Club, and is in 12/8.

[@lifeisdead01]

Wow another feed me jack fan, there are 2 of us! Promiscuity is another unusual one by them

[@Bbrain_DeadD]

AHHHH A FEED ME JACK FAN. SAME HERE!!

[@kameronpeterson3601]

7 Rings by Ariana Grande in 2019 was in 6/8, based on My Favorite Things from The Sound of Music

[@firesong100100]

Love this video

[@pyowpi]

hey ya! has so be one of the best songs ever, i dont know why but its so joyful, its also catchy!!! honestly i genuinly am someone who can say confidently i listen to basically any genre of music and always have a song i love, weather that be black metal, classical, hiphop, ethereal wave, (and yes im showing off) it doesnt even matter... hey ya by outkast is a masterpeice . (sorry ab my spelling) ALSO loved the video

[@radiozelaza]

man, Sting had a 5/4 and a 9/8 song as single in 1993 and 1996 respectively... but I can't find out if they hit top 40

[@lalolanda3996]

siglo XXI

[@SriLankanStuff]

They didnt

[@manuel_ao]

You made a public service here. I wish that odd meters would also make it through every now and then. But what surprised me was the few times that 3/4 appeared (great songs by Alicia Keys and Hozier). I thought that it was more common (e.g. it is the standard meter in Waltz). I also liked how simple you explained 12/8 and 6/8.

[@juliebean1910]

I would love to see this with older pop music! Also, is there a playlist that goes along with this video?

[@schokodrache3793]

I needed a playlist of all these songs Yesterday.

[@Producelikeapro]

Absolutely amazing video! Watching again!!

[@cathallynch8269]

I love that you're on 999k subscribers. Hope you break the 1m barrier!

[@kirbosomething]

He got 1 mil now

[@grahammartin9519]

This is such a good video idea

[@DavidBennettPiano]

Thanks!

[@riverotters]

I knew all but one of the songs you mentioned from before the late 00s, but after that I knew hardly any of them. I guess I stopped paying attention to mainstream pop music around the mid-00s. I wish you'd done the 60s-90s as well, but I recognize that would have been a lot of work. Something tells me there would have been slightly more songs in odd time signatures in those decades, but maybe they didn't chart top 40 in the year-end charts.