008 | Hack the Hits on the Hack Music Theory show

Welcome to the Hack Music Theory show! I’m Ray Harmony, and I’m pumped to announce our brand new series, Hack-A-Hit, where I will expose the hottest music theory trends behind the latest hits.

Hack-A-Hit was inspired by John Seabrook’s masterpiece of a book The Song Machine: Inside the Hit Factory (buy it and read it right now, it'll blow your mind!), which exposes the process and intentions behind making hits, but not the actual music theory itself. So that’s exactly what I’m going to do in Hack-A-Hit.

Hits are sonic drugs, designed to give you a three-and-a-half-minute trip that instantly hooks you. But, in order to achieve this, they rely heavily on extreme simplicity, and extreme repetition of that extreme simplicity. This results in the lifespan of hits usually being no more than a few weeks or months, because after that, everyone’s sick of hearing them!

In Hack-A-Hit, I will expose the music theory tricks behind these hits, so you can use them, too. But more importantly, I will reveal the songwriting hacks that would extend these hits’ lifespans into the decades. Apply these tricks and hacks to your own music, and your songs will stand the test of time!

First up, I’ll be hacking The Chainsmokers’ favourite chord progression, which they used in both “Closer” and “Something Just Like This” (their brand new single with Coldplay). So, if you wanna stay bang up-to-date on 2017’s hottest music theory trends, subscribe now!

Ray :)

PS. Have you downloaded our free music theory book yet?