Switched on Pop - Seduced by the Sound: The Weeknd + Daft Punk

Episode Date: January 12, 2017

"I Feel it Coming" might be the slowest burning jam to hit the charts in ages, in which the Weeknd enlists the robotic hum of Daft Punk to help craft a perfectly calibrated climate of desire. Brilliant, sexy songs don't just appear out of thin air, though, so we reveal how this song's perpetual excitement is hard-won through references to past stars of sultriness like Michael and Marvin while employing its own bag of tricks to turn up the heat.  Featuring: •The Weeknd + Daft Punk - I Feel it Coming •Marvin Gaye - Let's Get it On •Michael Jackson - Rock With You •Chic - Good Times •Ike and Tina Turner - Doin' It For an excellent playlist of listener-submitted sexy songs, direct your dirty self here: http://spoti.fi/2ieEeul Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If you're tired of endless scrolling to figure out where to eat, same. I'm Stephanie Wu, editor-in-chief of Eater. We've just launched the new-ish and way better Eater app. It has all the restaurants we love, gives you personalized picks wherever you are, and serves up smarter search results just for you. You can find my list of the best places for martinis and fries in New York City. And save your favorite spots, share lists, follow editors, and book right in the app. the Eater app at Eaterapp.com. It's free for iOS users. Welcome to Switched on Pop. I'm songwriter Charlie Harding.

And I am musicologist Nate Sloan. And Nate, today I want to introduce you to the art of musical seduction. Whoa, Charlie, I'm getting a little hot under the collar already. Today we're going to talk about the weekend's hit song. I feel it coming. Very good. We know about the weekend. He arrived on the scene with his song, earned it, from the soundtrack for 50 Shades of Gray. Indeed. So he has a whole repertoire that is really dedicated to songs about seduction, hedonism, oftentimes very regressive sexual politics. But in this case, I feel it coming.

Produced with Daft Punk is an amazing slow burn with a sort of universal, non-specific sexual appeal. Right on, yeah. Let's start 2017 off in a sexy way. All right. So let's drop the needle. Take a listen to I Feel It Coming by The Weekend and Daft Pop. Tell me what you really like.

Baby, I can take my time. We don't never have to fight. Just take a step. All right, Nate. I'm going to start and ask you, what is this song about? I mean, okay. Let me collect myself here. I think this song is about, I mean, you said it best at the very beginning.

It's about Saddam. And it's seduction in its purest form, slow, steady, as he says, we don't need to rush. Right. This is, there's no, this is not the impatience of an R. Kelly, perhaps. This is the infinite patience of the weekend. And I dig it. We can know that the song is about the anticipation of getting together because in the lyrics, the weekend says, you've been scared of love and what it did to you

in the past. And in the future he then goes on to say, we don't have to rush when you're alone with me. So he's sort of saying like, I'm trying to seduce you into being alone with me. It isn't happening yet. Yeah. You've been scared of love

and what it did to you. You don't have to run. Just a simple touch and it gets set you free. We don't have to run. It's about the onset, I feel like something is about to happen between us. It's a future tense. It's a future song. Yeah, totally.

And it's really about the future tense of, hey, we're going to get together. And I think here there's actually a reference to the pantheon of sexual seduction. Marvin Gay's Let's Get It On. Oh, yeah. That is the apogee right there, the zenith. the apex the apotheosis do you have another one

the climax so I think that the weekend with his I feel like coming might actually be a reference to then come on come on let's get it on huh okay

I'm I can be persuaded of this what other references are you hearing in this song that suggests seduction oh interesting

well I'll start with the references I hear whether these are related to seduction, you can be the judge. But the number one with a bullet, the specter looming over this song, as so much of the weekend's material, is an artist named Michael Jackson. Yes, definitely. So I hear the syncopated, sexy, high vocals of Michael Jackson. There's a couple of tracks that we could reference.

I think that rock with you would be a great one. That is a great choice. That is always a great choice. that is never not a great choice Do you hear what you really like Maybe I can take my time We don't never have to fight Do you hear another similarity

Between the Michael Jackson And the weekend That wouldn't just be the obvious vocal reference Another similarity between the weekend And Michael Jackson Beyond the obvious vocal reference That's the sound of my brain Waring

Like, the sonic palette has some similarities, like, especially in the use of these vintage-sounding synthesizers, I guess, in these, like, pads and these very active drum and bass lines. But you're looking at me a scant as though I haven't correctly identified it. So tell me what you're thinking. It is that funk guitar. Oh, yeah, I was getting to that. You were just seducing me into the funk guitar. Exactly, exactly. The slow build.

So that funk guitar is the sound of sexy music, and it was made famous by Nile Rogers from the band Sheik. I think a great reference point would be their song, Good Times. We know this sexy sound in Daft Punk's music, because all over their last album was Nile Rogers from Sheik, playing on Random Axe. memories and you can hear a modern version of the exact same thing on their song, Get Lucky. Whoa. Interesting. Okay. So you're saying the weekend featuring Daff Punk referencing 70s era sexy funk guitar via the modern resurrection of it in Daff Punk's own random access memories. Yes. Okay, this is a complex genealogy, but I'm with you.

Yes. The last element that I think makes this just the most seductive song is, you kind of hinted at it, but it's the syncopated bass line. In some cases, synthesized here. It's actually a real bass player. And I wanted to bring in one last reference that I'm hearing, which is doing it. Whoa. That was a nice face you made by Ike and Tina Turner. Nice.

It's just. Monin and Baseline. Wow, I really, I'm so curious what that song is about. Okay, so where's the link there, though? Funky bass. Oh, funky bass, great. Funky bass. Okay, so I am saying that this song is an amalgamation of all these references that we know that feels sexy, right?

We've got that Michael Jackson holler with that funky guitar and that smooth sync Pated baseline. Yeah, that sounds like the right brew to me. Right. Yeah. Okay. So the weekend is referencing the canon of sexy music to build a sonic landscape, which immediately puts us in the mood, if you will.

Oh, I will. Oh, boy. Oh, boy. I love making Gentiles uncomfortable. But you can't seduce someone by doing somebody else's dance. You got to have your own little dance moves, right? You got to stand out from the crowd. Go stand up from the flock.

And in order to do this, the weekend does some very tricky things with his song to make it his own thing. And we're going to go into that right after the break. Very nice. Attention Spotify. Has arrived on the new Good Girl Jasmine Absolute of Carolina Herrera. A fragrance intense with character gourmet and addictive. Imagine a jasmine emvolventy, caramelized and tonka toasted. A combination that seduce from the first instant and he has a wella.

Good Girl Jasmine Absolute. irresistible. Discover it and let's emolver for your sensual. Conviety. Conviertes your passion in a new business with Shopify and bathe records of ventas with the form of

the pay with a better conversion of the world. You've heard of the best. The best version of the world. The incredible system of the Shopify

facilita the website on your website, in the social and in in any place. That is music for your ears.

No, you more than your business will be a super-exitit with Shopify. So Nate, I promised you that the weekend was going to get us in the mood. He was going to seduce us.

He was going to do it by referencing all these other great songs, but he was also going to do it in his own unique way. And I want to get into that. I want to get into it. Yeah, you made a lot of promises over here. And I want to get into how does he string us along through the actual compositional structure of his song? What are the secret little things that he does? to boost this sense of seduction.

Cool. Okay. So, first thing, to create seduction, you must have anticipation. Yes. So how does the weekend create anticipation through the composition of I Feel Like Coming? Okay, that's a great question. How do you portray that sort of delayed gratification in musical terms? Yes.

Do you have any ideas? You want me to just jump right into it? Well, when you say anticipation, The first thing that comes to my mind is literal musical anticipation. That's correct. Yeah. And his lyric is constantly anticipating the downbeat of the song. Right.

Oh, like the chorus is a great example of this. Exactly. Oh, interesting. So can you explain what's going on? Right, right, right. Because he doesn't say, he says, okay, how do I, how do you illustrate this? He says, I feel it come in. And that, and you can actually, even in just the way I'm saying it now, where he's kind of mispronouncing the word coming, actually.

Yeah. I feel it. It almost sounds like two words, like come in. Yeah. But he says, I feel it come in. And even you can hear in the way he sort of like compresses that word coming and speeds it up. Right. Like he's actually anticipating where that word would naturally fall.

Right. Does that, did that make any sense? Kind of, yeah. Yeah. Why not? And he says it. an anticipation of the beginning of the chordal progression. Yes.

It doesn't happen on like one, I feel it coming. Right. It's, I feel it coming, one. Yes. Right. Okay. And that's good. So if you think about it, maybe if we like reharmonize this, so to speak, it would

sound very different. You could do it something like, I feel it coming. Not very interesting. No, certainly not. Yeah. You know, in terms of rhythmic anticipation, the weekend seems very much directly borrowing from Marvin and Michael because in Let's Get It On, we have a very similar kind of rhythmic anticipation where the bass goes,

bum, bum, bum, right? Instead of bum, bum, bum. Oh, yeah. Boom, bum, bum. Right. It goes, bum, bum. Right. So that's that, ooh.

And the same thing in rock with you. to rock with you all night. Yeah. And then the all night goes all night. Right. Not all night. Right. And we can hear the same thing in the baseline to I Feel Like Humming.

Yeah, exactly. I think he's like totally using that sexual playbook, so to speak. Okay. So he quite literally anticipates the beat in this song. I would say that he builds anticipation also. actually right from the very start. Yeah. The song fades in

with this sort of low, washy filter. It opens up and we hear this kind of something in the background slowly fading into the foreground to sort of double down on the sort of active anticipation.

The chord progression that he's playing all throughout is all about where we're going because it doesn't open on the home key. This chord progression goes through these four different chords and it is,

ends on the home key, but then it sort of goes back to this other place. This actually very ambiguous chord, this minor chord, that eventually kind of leads us back through, and every time the chord cycle repeats, you keep wanting to go back home. Right. Oh, interesting. So there are four chords repeating throughout this whole composition. Right. And every time that percussion restarts, you're waiting, you're anticipating the return.

Yeah. To the home. Exactly. Can we hear those chords for a second? Yeah. So there's our first chord, kind of minor, slightly dark. Second chord also minor, dark, yeah. Ah.

Ah, okay. Now we're moving to a major chord. Is this going to take us somewhere? Yes, it is. It's going to take us to our happy place. Back home. Happy ending, nice. And then as soon as you get back home, you return back to this beginning, ambiguous place.

Oh, yeah, that bums me out. I want to get back to. to that happy ending. You keep cycling, wanting to go back. Yeah, interesting. He doesn't just do it with his chords, he does it with his melody. Whoa, okay, what's that?

So the melody is quite simple. It's just basically three notes. It's a very simple melody, just a few notes. And it has a sort of repeating quality to it, right? Yeah. So the third time that he plays this sort of repeated segment, it lands over a chord which doesn't fit. The things don't sound good.

And when this happens, he's literally saying, I can make your body shake. There's this uneasiness. Right when he says shake, he plays this note. Yeah. You can't hear it over this chord. Yeah. And they are actually in tension with each other. And there is this shaking dissonance that happens.

Whoa. Like the vibrations of that dissonance are physically shaking. Your body maybe. Exactly. Cool. Isn't that cool? That is really cool. He continues this by moving into the pre-course and we get a real shift where things which had been syncopated and anticipated all of a sudden become very straight.

He says you've been scared of love and what it did to you. But he says it very straight. you've been scared of love and right so rhythmically it becomes much more straight ahead right none of the syncopation sort of almost speaking directly to the person and and here the melody is rising up

rising building anticipation but he's also at this point kind of being comforting in a way That's right. Being very straight up, very honest. Yeah, yeah. You don't have to rush. It's okay. We're going to take it slow.

It's a very comforting moment. But he's raising the stakes by building this melody up, taking us into a higher place. And then? And then we get to the chorus. We get to the chorus. Yes. Okay. Right, right.

Don't bore us. Get to the chorus. And the song builds up to the chorus and we get to the highest note in the song. Big surprise. The chorus, the, would seem like a climax. Yeah. Maybe not an apt metaphor for this song because what we're arguing is that this is not about climactic moment. It's actually about continual anticipation. Yeah. And so what we get is the

response to this rising pre-chorus. We get this high note and then a descending back down melody. Yes. And yet what's interesting about the song is that as you say, it does. It never really peaks, so to speak. It really just kind of hums along on this slow burn. It's just like getting really nice and crispy and toasty and just not really, not ever, you know, lighting your hair on fire, but just kind of, it's very interesting like that. Well, it never land. It never has some giant moment because the whole point is to build up.

and build up and build up. And then even at the chorus, when you think it's going to go real high and crazy, he actually sort of descends back down and sort of sends us back into this really simple, nice melody that resolves beautifully and eventually throws us back into the verse and the chords keep on repeating and keep on repeating.

These chords, which want to constantly resolve, play throughout the entire song. They never change. So there is this sense that it's just constant build. Yeah. Yeah, the actual coupling in this song takes place at some uncertain point in the future. That's right. Like, we don't hear it, actually.

It fades out and... That's the most disappointing of the song. This song just fades out. Well, disappointing to you, perhaps, but for we listeners, I think that's kind of the point of it is to put you in this state of sort of suspended animation. That's a delicate balance to strike. It's impressive. So, yes, unfortunately, the song does fade out, and we are left to our imagination to wonder,

did they get together? We'll never know, because it's actually the end of the album. Oh, dang. Yeah, I know. So that's the weekends. I feel it coming. I think it is a brilliant piece in the art of seduction. It references the history of popular music

that has done just this while building in its own really beautiful compositional techniques to string us along. Do you feel seduced? I'm definitely hot and bothered. Well, I guess we'll have to turn the microphones off then. This episode of Switchdown Pop was produced by me, Charlie Harding.

And me, Nate Sloan. We have a awesome Spotify playlist where some of our listeners suggested their favorite songs of seduction. You can find that on our website. Yes, it may or may not be NSFW. You can find that playlist and listen to more episodes of Switchdown Pop at www.w.Switchdonpop.com. You can also talk to us on Twitter or on Facebook at Switchdon Pop. If you love our show, please go to iTunes and rate us. It really helps other people find the show. Switch on Pop is part of the Panoply Network. Home to awesome shows like Malcolm Gladwell's revisionist history. They do a great episode about the song

Hallelujah, actually. That's really good episode. Which we've talked about. We'll be back with more episodes in two weeks. And until then, thanks for listening.