APT has a surprising amount of harmonic complexity for what is more or less a straight pop song. Which is fancy talk for saying it has unusual or interesting chord choices. This is going to get right into music theory land with no training wheels, and maybe some more specific production details, so If I haven’t lost you yet, I definitely will now! Here we go!
There are strong signals that this song is in Cm. The “uh huh uh huh” of the main cheerleader girl chant chorus are Bb to C, ie VII to I. The verse is the same, and the bridge is C, Bb, Eb, C (so I, VII, III, I), which also feels strongly locked to Cm, although that sequence itself is a little unique.
The pretty and melodic pre-chorus however is Ab, Bb, C, to Eb, and it’s still not clear to me if it’s in Cm or if it changes key to Eb. In Cm it’s consistent with the rest of the song but the relative chord combinations get awfully strange, because what the heck is VI, VII, I, III? Comparatively in Eb it presents as a much more normative IV, V, VI, I, but then why change keys just in the pre-chorus?
Weird!
But maybe ambiguity is the point. A good pop music strategy is to milk the tension before the catharsis, whether this is EDM drops or soft verses exploding into loud choruses or modern pop melodies that tease a resolution to the root that may or may not happen.
Given the key of the rest of the song, I think Cm makes the most sense. The idea of VI escalating stepwise upwards to I but then ending on III (which is kind of a flakier version of I anyways) and then cycling back to VI and going on forever kind of tracks – like the way most pop songs melodies today, forever sitting on II and never resolving to I or III, are in constant state of deliciously, tense limbo.
Moving to the bridge, we still have some interesting things to discuss. The build-up guitar-style chug into the bridge is on G, which as the V of C makes complete sense, but is notable as the first we’re hearing the chord in the song. It resolves to the I, VII, III, I of the bridge, (C, Bb, Eb, C), which as noted is already an unusual combination, that then ends with a repeated hammering on F.
F! Where did F come from?
Although as the IV of C it is harmonically quite unremarkable, but for it to show up now, for the first time, with the song being almost over, in such a forceful and climatically manner it kind of blew me away.
The song has now featured every chord from I to VIII except for II. No supertonic for you. Take that, The Weeknd.
And just as this feels like a peak, it steps upwards even higher from IV to V to VI, running right through a pseudo-deceptive-cadence into the prechorus, which in itself is escalating stepwise upwards from VI to VIII. The song’s constant continuous escalation going into its climax is underpinned by these harmonic choices, chord structures, and application of music theory.
All in the service of good pop music. Pop music! Not classical, prog, experimental, indie or dance, but pure pop – the simplest, catchiest, and most digestible form of music, made with the explicit purpose to be understood and enjoyed by as many people as possible. For a pure pop song to have any complexity or nuance, whether in construction or music theory or cultural context, is to me that much more meaningful, as all the complexity must be refined to the point where it still appears simple on the surface.
And that’s it. After spewing out over 3000 words into the ether I have finally run out of things to say about this 3-minute K-Pop trifle. But to the song’s credit, over the month-long rollout of these essays my initial blast of enthusiasm has waned only slightly.
If you’ve made it here to the end, thank you for sticking around. And if you like what you read, join my mailing list and never miss an update:
ian is blogging 