Why does this music sound so good?

September 27, 2017 9:16 PM

Camila Cabello’s new single, ‘Havana’, has two specific sections that I can’t stop listening to. My non-musician self feels like they have ‘umami’ — these sections possess interesting combinations of notes and rhythms that seem different from the rest of the song. Could a musician check out these two specific parts and tell me what I’m hearing?

At :23, when she’s singing, “I hope my heart is in Havana/There’s something ‘bout his manners,’” the “something ‘bout his manners” sounds different from "my heart is in Havana". Is she switching keys? Switching from major to minor? What stands out about this phrase?

Then at 1:23, there’s a sort of sing-song interlude by Young Thug, where his voice combines with background notes that sound like traditional dance music (salsa?). The way the two melodies combine is SO COOL and I want to know what is happening.

posted by rogerrogerwhatsyourrvectorvicto to Media & Arts (9 answers total)

At :23, I believe she is starting the phrase in the same key but at different (lower) note and then completing the phrase with notes that are the same number of "steps" from each other as the previous phrase; I'm badly describing musical intervals. I may be incorrect, but a common example is the Sound of Music Do-A-Deer song (ugh, link) where they sing, "Do-Mi-Mi, Mi-So-So, Re-Fa-Fa, La-Ti-Ti. Those notes are all in the same major key. The first (bolded) notes are different from each other but the interval between the first notes and the second/third notes is the same in all four sets. That is, they are the same "musical distance" apart.

At 1:23, I think you are hearing auto-tuning unless I am misunderstanding the feature you're describing.
posted by juliplease at 10:09 PM on September 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

Best answer: At :23 the chord progression goes from the tonic (I) to the dominant (V) but the chord is not played under the vocal, the accompaniment stops just before. Listeners have learned to predict this change, and when the chord's root is absent it causes it to be more noticeable, and engages the listener in a different way (making them more active in a way, because their imagination is engaged to supply the missing note). Taking advantage of listeners' predictions by setting them up and then subverting them is a time-honored way of creating interest.

At 1:23 it sounds to me, at least at first, that he's doing straight eighth notes over the latin beat, which sets up a tension between the more regimented rhythm and the rhythm section, which is playing just a taste behind the beat to give it that laid-back quality.

Those are just my thoughts, I'm not an expert.

Great song by the way, thanks for linking to it.
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 10:15 PM on September 27, 2017 [10 favorites]

Best answer: I don't think you can really write songs about Havana without being influenced by all the dance music that has come from there. If you wanted to quickly musically reference the place, then the normal way would be to base the song around a clave pattern - probably the son clave pattern that holds salsa together - then you'd bring in a set of congas and a big brass section. I think the appeal of this song is that the writers have looked at all of this and stripped most of it out leaving a musically interesting skeleton. Listen to the song's rhythm: you can listen to the song as a slow 2/4 number with a bit of swing - but if you listen more closely there is a slow 3-2 clave pattern underneath (try counting '1,2,3....4,5') - that gives the song the same slight stop/go again feel that we get in salsa. And the rap that we get at 1:23 is a rhythmic ornamentation to this slow dance.
posted by rongorongo at 11:39 PM on September 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

I think petticoat's description is spot-on, and the interplay of straight eighths sung over the swung/dotted Latin percussion is a fun example of good syncopation .

Btw young thug is absolutely using effects to mess with his voice a little, but I don't think it's a simple auto tune.
posted by SaltySalticid at 5:31 AM on September 28, 2017

This song lights up my ASMR network so strongly I probably shouldn't drive while listening. Now really curious to find other songs with this rhythm pattern.
posted by apparently at 7:23 AM on September 28, 2017 [2 favorites]

Maybe it's a "pop drop"?
posted by Bron at 7:31 AM on September 28, 2017

Best answer: At :23, two things are happening: 1. It's a cadential point, like petticoat said. She's singing pitches from the dominant triad, which resolves when the song goes to the chorus and the drums come back in. 2. The rhythm underneath momentarily drops, and she sings the faster rhythm twice back-to-back ("my heart is in Havana, there's something bout his manner,") which is exciting because it's a kind of motivic development: taking a distinctive musical chunk we've already heard and presenting it in a new way.

At 1:23, it's not about straight vs. swung eighths -- everyone is doing straight eighths -- but about the piano doing syncopations (the "ands" of beats 3 and 4) while the singer mostly hits downbeats. But a moment later, about 1:30, the second vocal dub does an interesting "tresillo" rhythm: the "uh-uh-uh" sound on top, which is part of the traditional clave rhythm.
posted by daisystomper at 7:34 AM on September 28, 2017 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: Yessssss I knew AskMe would come through! Thank you SO much everyone, it's so cool to find out why exactly this song seems so thrilling.
posted by rogerrogerwhatsyourrvectorvicto at 12:10 PM on September 28, 2017

Do yourself a favor and watch her amazing performance of the song on Jimmy Fallon.
posted by BeginAgain at 3:51 PM on September 29, 2017 [1 favorite]