Michael Medrano is a Mexican-American singer, songwriter and producer who Billboard has called a “Pop Prince on the Rise.” His songs have amassed over 10 million streams on Spotify, and released his first mixtape, Lovesexdrugs, in 2023. “Do Your Thing!” was released as a single in 2020. The tune begins in F and shifts up a half step to Gb at 2:27.
Tag: dance
Monster Ceilidh Band | Red Monster
“Monster Ceilidh Band … bring something quite unique to the folk world,’ (BrightYoungFolk). “(They) act as a strong bridge between traditional ideas of folk music and the more modern sounds of dance and techno.
This can sound like a bizarre style to try and adopt, but the simple fact is that it works so well in its context. As the band name alone suggests, the focus is on music you can dance along with. To do this, they simply one-up the use of folk instruments by merging them with sound effects, electric guitar tricks, and other methods of really getting a beat pumping.”
From the band’s own website: “Disc 2 of the Monster Ceilidh Band’s 2011 double-album Mechanical Monster (is) a mix of traditional Folk music and dirty electronic beats … the UK’s first Drum ‘n’ Bass Ceilidh crossover!” Starting in A minor, “Red Monster” shifts into B minor at 0:33 before returning to A minor at 0:49. The alternating pattern continues from there.
Lizzo | 2 Be Loved (Am I Ready)
“(2019’s) Cuz I Love You (was) an album that drastically shifted Lizzo’s career,” (The Guardian). “It turned the lauded leftfield hip-hop artist into an inescapable part of the mainstream pop landscape, spawning one TikTok-boosted hit after another. The twin challenges of coping with sudden success and deciding what to do next evidently hung heavy. There’s a lot of stuff on Special (2022) about healing – for Lizzo this involves ‘twerking and making smoothies’ – while, by her account, she wrote 170 songs before whittling them down to these 12.
The results are impressively varied. The world hardly wants for 21st-century disco pastiches, but “About Damn Time” is a spectacularly good example – buoyed by a Nile Rodgers-esque guitar line, it sounds like the greatest Chic track Chic never recorded … What Lizzo has, and in abundance, is personality, a rarer commodity than it should be in pop. Indeed, she has so much of it that she’s capable of transforming flimsy material into something else. In anyone else’s hands, the synthy, new wave-ish pop of ‘2 Be Loved (Am I Ready)’ … might sound boilerplate. But more often than not, the music is built to match the woman behind it … “
After a start in C major, the track’s dense percussion suddenly shifts to the background for a vocal break at 2:02. The groove returns in full at 2:15 as a key change to D major kicks in.
MFSB feat. The Three Degrees | TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia)
“It was Aretha Franklin who made Don Cornelius realise he had hit the big time,’ (The Guardian). “Just two years earlier, the impresario’s show Soul Train had been a Chicago thing, broadcasting local talent to local viewers. Now it was a national sensation and even the choosiest stars wanted to get on board. Franklin told him: ‘My kids love the show and I want to be a part of it.’ Stevie Wonder improvised an ode to Soul Train. James Brown, convinced that somebody, probably a white somebody, must be behind such a slick operation, looked around its Los Angeles studio and kept asking Cornelius: ‘Brother, who’s backing you on this?’ Each time Cornelius replied: ‘Well, James, it’s just me.’
He wasn’t bragging. As the host (or ‘conductor’) of Soul Train from 1970 to 1993, Cornelius was an avatar of cool, with his glorious afro, wide-lapelled suits and avuncular baritone, signing off each episode with a funky benediction: ‘I’m Don Cornelius, and as always in parting, we wish you love, peace … and soul!‘ Billed as ‘the hippest trip in America,’ Soul Train didn’t just beam the latest sounds from black America into millions of homes, but – with amateur dancers who became as integral to the show as the performers – the fashions, hairstyles and dance moves too.”
The theme for the show, “‘TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia)’ is a 1974 recording by MFSB featuring vocals by The Three Degrees,” (Billboard). “It was written by Gamble and Huff … (and) was the first television theme song to reach No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.” The track also went to #1 on Billboard‘s Easy Listening chart and Hot Soul Singles chart, as well as reaching top 20 positions in many countries worldwide.
After a start in C major, the tune shifts to C minor from 0:33 – 1:07 before returning to original key. The track continues to alternate between the two parallel keys throughout, keeping the groove front and center at all times.
Rihanna | Only Girl (In The World)
“Only Girl (In The World” is the lead single from Barbadian singer Rihanna’s 2010 album Loud. A number one hit in the United States, Australia, Austria, New Zealand, Canada and Ireland, the track won a Grammy award for Best Dance/Electronic Recording. “Only Girl (In the World) aims squarely for dance-floor domination,” said Billboard critic Monica Herrera.
Rihanna performed the song on Saturday Night Live in 2010, and at the Super Bowl Halftime Show in 2022. The track begins in F# minor and subtly shifts up to B minor at 1:03. It returns to F# minor for the second verse at 1:49 before a final modulation to B minor at 2:18.
The Jacksons | This Place Hotel (a.k.a. Heartbreak Hotel)
The Jacksons’ 1980 release Triumph kept Michael Jackson in the forefront among his brothers. In retrospect, the track “Heartbreak Hotel” (later changed to “This Place Hotel” to avoid confusion with Elvis Presley’s hit song) was a clear precursor to the pop/r&b/funk/horror blend so clearly on display with Thriller, Michael’s subsequent smash hit solo album.
“… ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ … plods along nicely, loaded with strings and lead guitars,” (PopRescue). “There’s an odd repeated noise that made me pause the record to see if it was a problem with my house pipes… but no, it’s there in the chorus for some reason. When released as the album’s second single, this track stumbled at #44 … Overall, this album is a slick production, showing the Jacksons as well-versed musicians and vocalists.”
Bass lines aren’t always the first choice to host a hook, but the Jacksons make it happen here. Amplified by syncopated piano kicks, the rangy bass line takes center stage from the first moment, when it’s first stated as a rubato cello line, followed by an extended intro that takes us up to the 0:50 mark. E minor is the overall key, although an interlude from 3:28 – 3:42 takes us on a diversionary path through a series of cascading keys of the moment. From 4:42 – 4:56, the diversion returns, but this time we emerge out of the rapids into a peaceful string-sweetened rubato piano feature that wraps up the tune in B major.
Seal | The Beginning
“… on his debut album (1991), Seal is an ambiguous, mercurial entity—not so much a singer as a pure source of heat and light,” (Pitchfork) “For all the marvels of his voice, the music surrounding him is just as opulent; his singing is just one thread in a vast tapestry of crushed velvet, raw silk, and spun gold. (To paraphrase Project Runway host Heidi Klum, who was married to Seal from 2005 until 2012, it sounds expensive.)
… Though Seal had already written some of the album’s songs on guitar, in (producer Trevor) Horn’s hands, the material became far more ornate. (On) ‘The Beginning,’ the album’s most straightforward club-centric cut … Horn manages a more multidimensional sense of space; light-years stretch between the string pads, funk guitars, and layered percussion … From the first moment we hear Seal arcing upward across the stereo field, it’s clear that Horn knew exactly how precious this particular instrument was … Seal may have idolized literary writers like Dylan and Mitchell, but you don’t come to Seal for poetry; you come for that voice and the way it navigates Horn’s productions, like a bird surfing springtime’s swirling air currents.”
The lush percussion layers of “The Beginning,” repeated nearly to the point of trance, suddenly disappear as an unexpected downward modulation kicks in between 3:30 and 3:46, returning as the tonality returns to the original key.
Cher | DJ Play a Christmas Song
“DJ Play a Christmas Song” is the lead single on Christmas, American singer Cher’s first holiday album. “This is a cut-glass powerhouse pop-dance banger” said critic Jamie Tabberer, writing for Attitude. The record, released in October, is Cher’s first to include original material since 2013, and her first ever to feature duets.
The track begins in G and modulates up a half step at 2:41.
Kool + the Gang | Ladies Night
“Over nearly six decades, Kool & the Gang have released 25 albums and toured worldwide, playing Live Aid in 1985 and Glastonbury in 2011,” (New York Times). “Their 12 Top 10 singles are funk, disco, and pop classics, underpinning movies including Pulp Fiction and Legally Blonde: ‘Jungle Boogie,’ ‘Ladies Night,’ ‘Hollywood Swinging,’ the undeniable 1980 party anthem ‘Celebration.’ They are foundational for hip-hop and have been sampled over 1,800 times, according to the website WhoSampled, including memorable turns on Eric B. & Rakim’s ‘Don’t Sweat the Technique’ and Nas’s ‘N.Y. State of Mind.’ (Questlove played a three-hour-plus set of songs featuring the group’s samples during a 2020 livestream.)”
Released on a 1979 album of the same name, “Ladies Night” includes “a small detail at the end (of the track which) turned out to be crucial — Meekaaeel Muhammad, a member of the group’s songwriting team, fleshed out the chorus with a countermelodic ‘Come on, let’s go celebrate.’ It pointed to the band’s next hit: ‘Celebration.'” The earlier hit reached the top 10 in Finland, Switzerland, and the UK, top 20 in a dozen more countries, and rose as high as #8 in the US.
Built in C# minor overall, the track shifts to a more explicitly disco-centric A minor section at 1:28, then a C minor section featuring the previously referenced counter melody at 1:44, then returning to the original key for the next verse at 2:05. Later, there are restatements of the A minor (3:48) and C minor sections (4:05), with the final C minor section morphing into an extended outro lasting more than two minutes. Both the A minor and C minor sections are constructed entirely of a repeating i-ii-v progression.
Anastacia | Paid My Dues
“Paid My Dues” is featured on American singer Anastacia’s 2001 album Freak of Nature. Reviewing the album for Slant magazine, critic Sal Cinquemani wrote “her tenacious attitude on songs like “Paid My Dues” and the funky title track carve a unique niche for the singer.”
The track reached the #1 spot on the charts in Denmark, Hungary, Italy, Norway, and Switzerland. It begins in C# minor and modulates up to D minor for the last two times through the chorus at 2:38.
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