JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Songwriters beware. There is one melody taking over pop music these days, whether intentional or not. Danish musicologist Carl E. Martin calls it the Gen Alpha melody.
CARL E MARTIN: What constitutes the Gen Alpha melody is therefore that these four notes are the pillars of the melody.
(SOUNDBITE OF FOUR NOTES BEING PLAYED)
MARTIN: Which means all other tones revolve around these because they're landing on strong beats or the melodic phrase ends on them.
(SOUNDBITE OF NOTES BEING PLAYED)
SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:
Martin first noticed the pattern while listening to pop songs from around the world. Then he started collecting examples for a YouTube video. Once he plays them back to back, it's hard not to hear.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "FOREVER")
LEWIS CAPALDI: (Singing) Nobody said that it would last forever. That doesn't mean we didn't try to get there.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ONE OF YOUR GIRLS")
TROYE SIVAN: (Singing) Give me a call if you ever get lonely. I'll be like one of your girls or your homies.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SOFIA")
CLAIRO: (Singing) I think we could do it if we tried. If only to say you're mine.
SUMMERS: That was Lewis Capaldi, Troye Sivan and Clairo.
PFEIFFER: And there are a ton more examples that Martin lays out. They span genres and countries and decades.
SUMMERS: But given the amount of examples he found within the past few years, Martin's giving this one to Gen Alpha.
PFEIFFER: After all, it's their turn. Remember the millennial whoop?
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTIST: (Singing) Ooh.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TIK TOK")
KESHA: (Singing) Ooh.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HABITS (STAY HIGH)")
TOVE LO: (Singing) Ooh.
SUMMERS: There are plenty of YouTube video essays about that, too. But Martin says that is just a vocal pattern. The Gen Alpha melody, he argues, is something more specific.
MARTIN: If I was the musicologist in, like, a court room and had to compare two songs that were using the millennial whoop, I wouldn't attribute or, like, sue one song for using that because it's just, like, a trope that you can use or, like, a vocal technique, I'd say. Whereas, if the Gen Alpha melody only had two examples and you had to compare those two, I would say that the people suing the other song would win the case because it is a very specific melody being copied.
PFEIFFER: And it's not just millennials versus Gen Alpha. Martin and his YouTube viewers keep finding more generational examples, with the oldest dating back to the 19th century.
SUMMERS: Pretty safely into public domain rights by now.
PFEIFFER: Very safely. Martin's research on the Gen Alpha melody started as a side project when he finished his master's thesis on the music of Nordic movies at the University of Copenhagen.
MARTIN: Because, like, a question we Scandinavians has (ph) been asking a lot is, what are, like, sound? What's the sound of the Nordic countries? And most of the answers just go to, you know, it's ABBA or it's, like, Lukas Graham or something like that. But, you know, there's a lot of, like, folk music and a lot of traditional music as well.
SUMMERS: Spending months searching for recurring musical ideas may have helped him recognize one hiding in plain sight.
PFEIFFER: And even though it's popping up everywhere, Martin says he still loves hearing it.
MARTIN: Like, every time I hear a new example, I get super excited.
SUMMERS: Now that you've heard the Gen Alpha melody, don't be surprised if you start hearing it everywhere, too.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "IT'S ONLY LOVE")
THE BEATLES: (Singing) It's only love. That is all. Why should I feel the way I do? Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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