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Music

The Secret Ingredient to Pharrell's Pop Perfection

Turns out all you need is a little four-count for a smash hit every time.
Ryan Bassil
London, GB

You probably know Pharrell's story by heart: he was really good, he "disappeared" for a while, then he came back and was really good again. We know Pharrell's story and we also know he can worm into our ears—the McDonald's theme song, "Happy," "Milkshake," they've all got hooks that travel around our brain even when we're up all night to the sun, up all night to get some, up all night to… WHY IS THIS SONG STILL IN MY HEAD?! IT CAME OUT A YEAR AGO WHAT THE FUCK.

A Soundcloud user who goes by the name of MrDiscoPop—a journalist who writes an excellent blog—has found another similarity across Pharrell's work: the intro. He's assembled a collage of song introductions to highlight how many times Pharrell starts with a four-count before launching into a song.

It's interesting that every song starts in a similar way; but it's not a bad thing. It's the magic ingredient. All we've got to do now is find the secret behind perpetual youth.

Ryan Bassil works at Noisey UK and starts every blog post with four beats that only he can hear. He's on Twitter - @RyanBassil

For more Pharrell, we interviewed him and he played us G I R L before it came out.