The Millennial Whoop. You may have never heard of it, but you’ve definitely HEARD it. But what is it exactly?
Arguably the most fun part of a song to belt out are the “OoOoOoO”’s. Yeah, you know the ones. You sing it and either sound like musical god/goddess or a dying whale – no in-between. But have you noticed those “OoOoOoO”’s are now more common than ever? That’s because a recent discovery by musician Patrick Metzger points out that these alternating notes are part of a recipe for chart-topping hits.
The Millennial Whoop in Metzger’s technical terms:
It’s a sequence of notes that alternates between the fifth and third notes of a major scale, typically starting on the fifth. The rhythm is usually straight 8th-notes, but it may start on the downbeat or on the upbeat in different songs. A singer usually belts these notes with an “Oh” phoneme, often in a “Wa-oh-wa-oh” pattern. And it is in so many pop songs it’s criminal.
Basically, these repetitive (and essentially identical) notes you hear in different songs evoke a familiarity that just makes you want to sing along.
Quartz made a nice video to show how common The Millennial Whoop actually is. Watch it below!
WARNING: this may ruin the musical magic for you, but if you’re a nerd for patterns and music, you will seriously be in awe of this discovery.
What are your thoughts? Annoyed? Amazed? Let us know in the comments!
