bad music theory — Breaking Down “Headphones On” by Addison Rae

Apr 22

Editor's Note: This is a new series where I break down a popular song’s structure using music theory, sometimes wrongly. These bite-sized pieces will be short and sweet to be easy on the eyes of the reader and easy on the fingies of the writer.

Addison Rae's “Headphones On” features an infectious trip-hop beat and meta lyrics about getting lost in music, making this song postmodern, cerebral ear candy. In the key of F#m, “Headphones On” cleverly relies on the minor key’s harmonic tension and darkness to imbue its riffs with drama, but the song still stays mostly with the “brighter” notes of F#m and E (Bright in the context of the F sharp minor scale). By staying on the “brighter” notes of the scale, the writers avoid making the song sound too dark or morose. Counterintuitively, playing specific minor notes also gives the song a lift, especially in the parts where Rae sings about putting on headphones to escape the pain of everyday life. This bit of word painting, using lyrics to reflect what's happening in the song’s melody, is a common technique and one that adds a bit more dynamics to a pop song.

(Side Note: The song’s music video with Rae in Iceland is a possible reference to Björk, an artist whose work sounds very reminiscent of “Headphones On” in style, especially Björk’s mid-nineties era with Post.)