Songs whose performance was affected by repetition

[trustypepper]

Can you think of any singles that were negatively affected by repetition? One that comes to mind for me is Adele's "Rumour Has It." Any other examples? Or do you think repetition isn't a big enough factor to affect the performance of a single?

I'm curious to hear some opinions.

[Luckie Starchild]

[Gekkouga]

J. Cole - Wet Dreamz

The chorus is just: "And I ain't never did this before no" x 8

I'd say it affected its chart performance because it only reached #61 on the Hot 100 & 16 on the R&B charts despite being a great song and having a really unique video. Then "No Role Modelz" came out without a music video and reached #36 on the Hot 100 so.. 

[Devil Marlena Nylund]

Sia - Alive

[irice22]

"Deja Vu" had a really repetitive melody. I think that's the main reason for its sudden stall.

[divasummer]

I'm not sure if it was technically a single or just a radio single but "CatFish" by Tamar Braxton.
I don't mind it so much but I always wonder if other's get bored with the last 55 seconds of the song.
She just repeats "Don't Flex" and "Baby I Know The Real You" over and over again.
On top of that she repeats it through out the song.

[Ky]

Boss by Fifth Harmony

[Au$tin]

I would argue repetition actually helps songs not hinder them. Case in point: Imma Be, Fergalicious, Work, Uptown Funk, Blurred Lines, On My Mind, Shake It Off, All About That Bass, Problem, etc.

[trustypepper]

Feb 23, 2016 19:49:15 GMT -5 Au$tin said:

I would argue repetition actually helps songs not hinder them. Case in point: Imma Be, Fergalicious, Work, Uptown Funk, Blurred Lines, On My Mind, Shake It Off, All About That Bass, Problem, etc.

I definitely agree that repetition can help (and its necessary in many cases), but don't you think there's such a thing as too much repetition that can have a negative impact?

[Au$tin]

Feb 23, 2016 20:33:31 GMT -5 trustypepper said:

Feb 23, 2016 19:49:15 GMT -5 Au$tin said:

I would argue repetition actually helps songs not hinder them. Case in point: Imma Be, Fergalicious, Work, Uptown Funk, Blurred Lines, On My Mind, Shake It Off, All About That Bass, Problem, etc.

I definitely agree that repetition can help (and its necessary in many cases), but don't you think there's such a thing as too much repetition that can have a negative impact?

Nah. Not after the success of John Mayer's Say. That dog has an insane amount of repetition.

[Deleted]

But even if a song is successful that doesn't always mean is a good thing. There can still be some negative effect even after those songs become popular in either they are more quickly forgotten from the public conscience or looked back as a joke. Repetition is fine and especially if it's used in good context, but too much repetition in a song can get annoying. And it also depends on the time period they're popular, a song as overly repetitive as "Imma Be" probably wouldn't have worked or have been as successful in any other time period than the one it was in where the club movement was in effect and nearly every song that was popular at the time was repetitive. Name brand also helps, if "Work" had been done by anyone other than Rihanna, it wouldn't be #1 or even near as successful as it is, same with "Shake It Off". Repetition has always existed in music and will continue to do so, but there will always be positive and negetive effects of it depending on how it's used or who it's done by.

[carrieidol1]

Well, it depends on what's being repeated. It can be good OR bad. It just depends on the quality of the lyrics, in my opinion. If you have a really, really catchy hook, of course you're going to write a song centered around that hook, i.e: "Uptown Funk", "All About That Bass", etc. In those cases I think you see very clearly how repetition can help, a lot. Conversely, there are many songs which repeat cliche lines and phrases that just don't pull listeners in enough to make them LOVE it - these songs tend to work fine for concerts, and they might perform decently on radio, but they're more or less moderate hits for artists; Fifth Harmony's "Boss", Carrie Underwood's "Undo It", etc.

[nick64]

I don't really see repetition as something that can negatively affect the song. I mean technically that's just the song itself. Without the repetition it wouldn't be a complete song and would need something new entirely. The multitude of examples from both sides just reaffirms that it's just a matter of if people like the song or not. "All About That Bass" and "We Found Love" both had incredibly repetitive hooks and I don't think either could've been much bigger if they tried.

[bat1990]

It's all relative, really.
Consider that the current #1 song in American has the line "Work, work, work, work, work, work" as its main hook.

[trustypepper]

Lose Yourself to Dance is another good example in my opinion.

[Sherane Lamar]

It's not so much about how MUCH repetition there is. It's more about WHAT the repetition is.

[ilikemusic]

Calvin Harris's "My Way" has got to be one of the most painfully redundant songs I've ever heard. I'm not surprised it ended up being completely yanked from the radio, it was a station changer tbh