Some additional thoughts/corrections: 1) In the music video, the hi-hat sides are actually flipped, with the more prominent part on the right, but in the 2022 remaster they're the way they are in the stems. Which is weird, because the stems mostly seem more faithful to the video version, with the bongos much closer to the center, whereas in the remaster they're panned harder to the right. I dunno. The version on iTunes seems to also be the remaster, so not sure what to do with that. I'll defer to the music video as closer to the original mix, but the thing I described is what's in the stems, and the important thing is that they're different, not which one is which, so I'm just gonna choose to stop worrying about it. 2) In principle, you might also want to sort out separate drum parts that emphasize the off-beat 16ths, but there weren't any in this song so I didn't both mentioning that. 3) As you can see in the notation, the right-side hat actually does a triple-tap in bar 1, not a double-tap, but it's quiet enough that I decided to just treat it the same. Didn't seem worth getting into the distinction when functionally it doesn't seem to make any difference. 4) There's probably a lot more I could've said about some of the surprisingly jazzy chord voicings in this song, especially in the supporting parts, but I decided to focus on the percussion, groove, and looping aspects because they felt more central to my experience. I'm sure there's a whole second video's worth of analysis to be done from a more harmonic perspective if someone else wants to do it, though. 5) I feel like I was maybe a little unclear when I was talking about the vocals in the prechorus. I said he started a line on the downbeat, but I wasn't actually referring to the line I'd just played. That line starts on beat 3. It's the first line of the prechorus ("I just wanna…") that starts on beat 1.
Mike Stock has always written incredibly complex and interesting harmonies - I suggest checking out Whenever You Need Somebody from the same album. The "jazzy chords" are tuned up to 11 plus there's a key change in every section.
Rickrolling is the king of memes. A reminder that 2007 was SIXTEEN YEARS AGO and the meme has never gone away. Also, Rick Astley is a super awesome and wholesome guy and deserves everything in the world.
He made the best out of the situation too since he technically "retired" decades before and eventually used Never gonna give you up as a springboard to restart his carrer
I was a 6 year old kid who unironically loved that song when it came out, and I haven't stopped. Still, never realized how much depth there was in the percussion alone.
Yeah I was 7 then and I enjoyed it then and I've watched in astonishment as it's grown into the anthem of trolling and Rick is such a good dude he deserves it
The grunge era came with a huge dose of cynicism that was incompatible with 80s music, to the point where it's taken 30 years for 80s music to recover.
@@fday8432 Also the timing was great. Rather than just when he said it's origins, he specifically added it the moment "4chan" was said, where duck roll originated. I think Rick Roll wasn't exclusively 4chan to begin with
@@axiom8073 *He. Our dude is a dude. If you put so much thought into using pronouns to actively use "they", you might as well use the correct pronoun instead of a more generalized they. I can totally see where you are coming from and I'm sure it's appreciated but it's just not necessary. Have an awesome day. :)
@@ThorsShadow Nah their pronouns are explicitly "they/them", get outta here with your posturing and speaking for others on matters you don't know about.
My teen years were in the 80s, and SAW was 'the enemy': I hated this song passionately back in the day. But over the years I could put this in different perspective. If there is one good thing that this meme brought, is that put Rick Astley back in the spotlights. His music still doesn't resonate a lot with me, but I truly enjoy him talking in interviews. He's a super nice guy. His success is well deserved.
Me too! I went from hating Stock, Aiken, and Waterman because I saw them as engineers of bland corporate pop, to loving and respecting their dedication to the craft of songwriting. Having learned my lesson, I've been a fan of Max Martin since I first heard of him...
I'm clearly as old as you are, and while I agree with everything you said, part of me still thinks it's unfortunate that this is the song that we remembered. I liked Rick Astley much more once he wasn't doing SAW any more. I still love "Cry for Help", and not just because of the better haircut.
@@mikeciul8599 Amen; "Hit Me Baby" is a much better composition than most people think - take away Spear acting naughty in the video and the vocals being lamently overproduced, falling victim to the demands of the era in which it was released, and try to feel the song itself - and you start to realize that it not only "works" in so many styles and variations (Travis did a sort of stripped down version that really highlights this), but the melody is also slightly enigmatic, sounding upbeat and dancable despite being written in a C minor scale - with enough variation in the basic progression to keep you intrigued, but still repetitious enough to make you forcibly sing along, or at the very least hum a bit and tap your feet. Pure genious - and that was just a stepping stone to greater things for Max! Lennon/McCartney were equally great songwriters, but frankly they wouldn't have been without each other, and only a few others come close (nod to Prince 😅).
tbh I'm curious which Kylie, Bananarama and Dead or Alive songs they produced, I was born in the late 90s but the 80s were all I listened to during my teenage years but none of those artists really stuck honestly...
@@daliinhiscoffin2493 "You Spin Me Round" was their first hit. Note that they didn't write that one, they only produced it. For Kylie, they did her first four albums, including "The Loco-Motion", "I Should Be So Lucky", "Got to be Certain", "Hand on Your Heart", "Better the Devil You Know"... everything from that era. For Bananarama, they produced the "True Confessions" and "Wow" albums, most notably their cover of "Venus" and "Love in the First Degree". You're on UA-cam. Look up "This is the Chorus" by Morris Minor and the Majors (with a cameo from Jon Deacon of Queen). This song was a parody of SAW, and anything you recognise there was a SAW song.
SAW didn't listen to the melody and transcribed what they heard, in real time, as the stem of the song they have yet to write or perform played in the background. so it's really unlikely or impossible they wrote the song using musical analysis frameworks like"music theory"
I feel so embarrassed about having heard "Never Gonna Give You Up" so many times and never focusing on the drums. Definitely gonna fix that next time I listen.
He's actually using that song as an encore in his current retro tours, and the crowd goes mad for his completely nonironic performance. I was working for a vendor at a local auditorium, and it was magical. Seriously.
80s synthpop is one of the few genres that is often criticized for seemingly opposite reasons. Very few people who personally dislike metal music would say it's too soft and gentle for them, nor would anyone criticize Skrillex's take on second-wave dubstep for being too organic. But 80s music has been simultaneously criticized for being powerful and wimpy, harsh and inoffensively banal, emotional and emotionless, cheesy and alienating, etc. Synthesizers are a relatively recent invention, one that can't be classified into any of the four traditional sections of the orchestra (though I personally consider them to be a form of percussion instrument). The idea of a synth playing back strings that could fool a casual listener was incredibly novel at the time, though such a feat is mundane today with everyone carrying around string samples on their iPhone's garageband, whether they're interested or not. I'm someone who is a huge fan of 1980s music, who got to know it as a form of retro/oldies music that was quite tame compared to the mainstream pop of my adolescence. It's probably my favorite genre of pop. But it's interesting to think about it from the perspective of a musician who grew up in the era - it gives me a whole new appreciation for it. In 1981, a computer that could play back a string stab could cost as much as a house. In 1998, such a sound was standard on most sampling keyboards, and in 2005, if your computer randomly played a string stab, chances are something was wrong with it;)
@@NeonBeeCat I’m curious to hear it if you put it online! Even kids who shared low-end computers with their families in the 2000s were still downright spoiled with this modern technology.
In the book "PWL From the Factory Floor", producer Phil Harding says Stock Aitken and Waterman would make songs by using two other songs they called "plots". One song they would model the groove on and the other the harmony. They would then write a new melody over the top. Apparently "Never Gonna Give You Up" uses the bass/drums groove from Colonel Abrams "Trapped" and the chords are based on songs by Alexander O'Neal.
@@Kylora2112 Another couple of Kylie ones - "Word is Out" uses the groove from Guy's "New Jack City" "What Do I Have to Do?" uses the groove from Together's "Hardcore Uproar"
9:25 I would guess this might be a tape pre-echo kinda thing. When magnetic tape is stored, occasionally it can bleed through the layers of the tape itself during storage, leading to pre-echoes. I believe there is a similar effect in Tools "The Pot", right at the start. It is not an uncommon occurance, though it is rarely audible, since it's usually quite low in level. However it might be accentuated here due to compression added to the drums during mixing.
This ^^^^ However I believe it's called print-through on tape. Now as to why it's on the drums' track.. is a bit puzzling. The cymbals were likely an overdub AFTER the Astley's vocal take, and the twotracks somehow overlapped in storage and caused a print through. That or the magnetic field on that first chorus of the vocal track was strong enough to print through to the track above. If so it might have printed through to the same vocal track at the same point in the song, and other tracks too maybe. That would explain why it's even more audible in the full mix.
I was thinking of print through too. It's also possible that one of the tape machines wasn't aligned quite right and the backing vocal track actually got recorded slightly overlapping the drums.
Print through is a thing, which is why a good studio will always store their tapes "tails out", so that any print through comes as a following echo, as opposed to a 'pre-echo'. Even the multi-track masters are stored tails out. This also allows for what some may call 'play winding' and getting even, smooth wraps on the reels, reducing (and hopefully eliminating) any damage to the edges of the tape, as well as any tracking/alignment issues.
theres a chance the vocal in the intro might just be tape bleed. at this time they may have still been using an analog tape machine to record, in which case adjacent tracks on the tape might bleed into each other unless their playback heads were tuned perfectly. Erasing sound on digital formats is just like deleting any other computer file, its totally gone without a trace, but with analog recording its more like erasing pencil marks on paper, it always leaves an impression behind just a spitball of course! i wasn't there and i have no clue what machine they tracked to or what their track layout looked like
Fun fact, the mismatch between Rick's appearance and voice was actually something that made him stand out to the producers of the song, and probably the reason he was chosen to sing this one.
I have unironically loved this song ever since the first time I stopped and listened to any of the lyrics. This is _my_ love song, this is how _I_ feel in a relationship, and being a meme used for trolling only adds to my personal attachment to it.
I always heard it too, but just thought it was deliberate to preemptively and subtly build up to the chorus and themes lol. Other comments say it’s probably print-through on the master tapes in which case it’d be a total accident! Though I still think it works in the way I interpreted it, even if not intentionally done!
The best Rickroll ever. Was That Time Foster's Home Rick Roll'd EVERYONE when Rick Astley himself appeared on the Thanksgiving Day parade float doing the vocals for "Never Gonna Give You Up." Foster's held an extra dimensional significance for me at the time.
I caught it live (so to speak) and I nearly fell apart laughing. Then I realized this meant the hosts had to explain Rickrolling while being there to soothe the Silent Generation with a pair of older Boomers and I laughed harder. They did not disappoint. A Millennial intern probably got told to find them 20 seconds of copy online to give the hosts something to say about it. Ah, Regis Philbin. You did "confused as fuck but the show must go on" like a pro.
16:00 Dude! Thats the key center! Db! Just cuz we don't hear it much doesn't mean it isnt there....thats what makes the chord sequence in the begining so cool...it totally wants to come back to Db but it never does!
Exactly! This thing isn't in Bbm, it's in Db! (Always has been.) The chord sequence is a soft-landing ii-V-iii-vi with the minor vi performing one of the roles it does best: hinting at, but not fully spelling out, the tonic chord. In fact, I would probably just have analyzed it as a Db6 chord because at the end of the line, the vocals AND the horn lick both end on Db.
I personally hear it in Bbm. There are also many elements that suggest Bbm as the key (like the vocal phrases always beginning on Bb, and the verse bass riff being pretty much just a Bb pedal point). But I can also hear some "Db majorness" in some parts. But to my ears, Bbm is the main tonic. That's how I hear the song. If you only listen to the chords, I can definitely see a strong argument for Db major (and the horn stabs do also create quite a strong Db sound). But still, overall, my ears are drawn towards Bbm.
@@MaggaraMarine For sure...I'm just pushing that instead of Bbm being a minor i chord...its actually just a iv chord...but played in such a way as to sound like the i chord...fascinating song innit?!
Palimpsest: "a manuscript or piece of writing material on which the original writing has been effaced to make room for later writing but of which traces remain." Or a tape with traces of a prior recording.
On the topic why Rick's voice might be in the intro: Rick Astley had a job in the SAW studio, so he didn't have to be called in. So, maybe that is why it was recorded in a different order than their usual workflow. #2cents
My theory as to why they added percussion with chorus vocals buried in them: it is on purpose. It is musical foreshadowing. In more modern electronic dance/pop music, it is quite common to take a sonic element from the drop, bury it in reverb, then reverse it and use it as a riser, building the listener up to the climax of the song. This could be an early incarnation of that. The listener hears the chorus at the beginning without knowing it, so when the chorus kicks in in an unocculted form, they are subconsciously primed to feel satisfied.
That’s how I always interpreted it too! Other comments suggest it’s likely to be “print through”, where storing the tape tightly wound rubs the magnetisation from neighbouring sections, in which case it was just a fortuitous accident. Though pre-echo anywhere else might not have worked as well! I wonder if other modern techniques are influenced by other such studio mistakes :D
I love that you really break down the music. This is the second video I've watched and I love your analytics. I love analyzing lyrics in songs and now with your videos you can take my analytics to a whole new level. Thank you for your hard work.
My sister-in-law sent me a video of her kids getting rickrolled by a circus performer just last week. (And I suppose, by extension, she rickrolled me.) It's definitely still a thing.
The songwriting craft and catchy melody have taught me the importance of simplicity and the power of a memorable hook. As a result, it influenced my own songwriting style and helped me to develop my own unique voice and sound as a musician. Overall, "Never Gonna Give You Up" has played a significant role in shaping my musical journey
Hey 12tone. I love these deconstructions. Can you do one for Viva La Vida? I would love to know all the theory that goes into that song as it's one of my favorites.
7:50 Just in case anyone else is struggling to hear this, it's in the Left channel only. I turned my desktop speakers waaaay up and couldn't hear it from my right speaker. I thought it was an editing mistake, but it's definitely there in the left!
My choir actually uses an a cappella arrangement of Never Gonna Give You Up every year as a song option for the Valentine’s Day serenades we sell. It is consistently one of our best sellers, since if you give a bunch of high schoolers the chance to rickroll their friends for a few bucks, they usually take it
Hey 12tone. I love these deconstructions. Can you do one for Take on Me? I would love to know all the theory that goes into that song as it's one of my favorites.
Okay, haven't even seen a full second of the video yet. But, I always enjoy the breakdowns of my favorite songs from back when I was a youngster and I'm looking forward to learning why there are deeper reasons why this song has stuck with me so long. Thanks 12 Tone!
I was a teenager in the 80s. We HATED the hit factory of SAW. It was the antithesis of everything that we liked in music. Look up "This Is The Chorus" by Morris Minor and the Majors to see a popular parody at the time. I am glad that Rick Astley made it; whatever you think of SAW, his voice was and is incredible.
For me, in the 80s, the issue with SAW was that they ended up flogging their formula to death. (See "I'd Rather Jack" by The Reynolds Girls). It's a shame Astley couldn't pull a Kylie and reinvent himself; but then there would be no meme.
I’d love to see you cover Margaritaville by Jimmy Buffet. It’d be fascinating to analyze how a song can be so identifiable with calmness, relaxation, and the beach.
Something I'd throw in for a mention: Buffett throws in a rhythmic trick in quite a few of his songs, notably "Changes in Latitudes." Listen to the end of the chorus and track beat 1.
Wonderful video. Your point at the end about developing a really solid groove that doesn't stale is a really great one. I'm working on a video game, thinking about the music and how to make sure it's not maddening to listen to on loop. This whole video is a great lesson on how to make loops interesting. I should probably check out more SAW.
It's gonna be super interesting to see what "it" will be for the next generation. I, for one, plan to be Cool Zoomer. Too dumb to get it, but able to laugh all the same...
I was always confused about the timing of the intro toms here, until I realized it's just a truncated version of the intro toms in Whenever You Need Somebody (another song in the same album), which takes up the full 4 beats. Never Gonna Give You Up just starts on beat 2.5. Also, 7:20 caught me completely off guard. Way funnier than it should have been.
So this is the third of your videos I've watched in a row, and I'm just now realizing that the Shrek "S" signals that you're talking about layers. And I'm realizing that these little pictograms you're making aren't unique, there's a consistent pattern to them--a pattern that makes sense if you think about it enough, but sometimes requires a leap of word-association. Like how in my sheet music, when I need to remember that a part is going faster, I draw a lil' plate of spaghetti (pasta - fasta - faster!!) What a fun little connection! I'd love to see a video of you explaining your pictographic notation sometime 😁
9:25 when recording to analog multitrack tape, if a signal is too hot (loud), it may bleed to adjacent tracks. I saw an interview with Jimmy Page, who doubled as producer for Led Zeppelin, where he said this happened to Robert Plant's vocals. It sounds like this could have happened here, given the power of Rick's vocals in the chorus. The intro was probably a chorus take with the vocals deleted, copy-pasted via tape splice.
This video is absolutely amazing to watch. Every spin is so smooth and effortless, and it's clear that this chip has been spinning for years to achieve such a level of skill. The spins are so fluent and elegant, and every spin is executed with such perfect form. The song makes the spinning experience even more amazing, and it perfectly compliments the choreography. This chip is clearly an expert and a master of his craft, and he should be admired by all. He's truly an inspiring performance, and I'm so impressed and grateful for this content. It's truly spectacular to watch, my friend. Every spin is so beautifully executed and perfect, and it's clear that this chip has been practicing for many years to achieve such a level of skill. His spins are so effortless and graceful, and the music goes perfectly with the choreography. This chip is truly a maestro, and his skill should be admired by all. I'm so blown away by this
The thing that's always amused me with this song is that the backing vocals constantly contradict Rick Astley. He's singing "never going to give you up" and the backing vocals sing "give you up!". Never going let you down ("let you down!"). Indeed, even with Rick's vocals, the rhythmic emphasis is on the negative. The "never" is de-emphasised in "never going run around and desert you". This lead me to come up with a parody version of the song called "Always going to give you up". Swap every "never" for "always". That's it. (Well, I also like to negate it all, for additional amusement. So, in fact, "we're strangers to love... you would get this from any other guy". Just flip the meaning with a choice word drop or "not" thrown in there.) But suddenly it stops contradicting itself and is weirdly more cohesive, despite being comically negative and preaching the completely wrong moral message. Go on. Put the song on, and sing along, doing the "never -> always" switcheroo. You'll see what I mean. The song weirdly becomes lyrically consistent, as if it's really supposed to be a happy ode to betrayal and infidelity. Sing it, ladies: "give you up! Let you down!" Emphasis on "run around and desert you". Make you cry. Say goodbye. (And I do believe this underlying contradiction also helps with the meme - as you are being let down, and made to cry. Subconsciously, I feel your brain is picking up the contradiction and juxtaposition. So while superficially sounding happy and positive, there's a betrayal going on. You've been let down by being meme'd. Also reminds me of that Charles and Eddy song. You know, "would I lie to you, baby? Would I lie to you?"... and then he enthusiastically says "oh, yeah!". What? Are you guys openly admitting that you're lying all along? That you are going to lie to her? That some songs, due to the rhythmic structure, end up putting the emphasis on exactly the wrong lyrics at the wrong time, creating this underlying "wrongness" to it all.)
I love that your drawing for the word "distracting" is a squirrel. 😂 It's worth it to check out Reeve Carney singing a cover version of this song -- which, I agree, rules.
I love music from '70 & '80, when writers and producers were real pro taking pride of their creations. That's why each detail among so many finds itself in the right place, all together building arhitectural harmony and character of the song.
I go to music school and I’m a multi-instrumentalist focused on bass and piano. We were going to play this song for a concert and i got the bass but it was almost impossible to play on a normal electric bass. Mind you i’m a very experienced bassist and can play very well. When i got the sheet music for the bassline on this song it was one of the hardest basslines i’ve ever played. Took a few days to learn which is quite unusual for me.
At this point, I don't think rickrolling can die. Kid in my grade 12 AP calc class would end every week by connecting his ipad to the teacher's speakers and starting the video - it was fabulous. If aliens are monitering our communications, I wonder what they think is going on
Thank you for this wonderful analysis. I loved the song when it came out and only saw the video much later on, but saw the media reaction to his appearance vs voice. Still the song was and is still amazing
So something that happens on tape machines is adjacent tracks can bleed into each other, resulting in a quiet "ghost" of an adjacent track to be audible.
I've always loved the song since when it was released. When somebody "rick-rolls" me, I interrupt my spontaneous boogie to thank them for their service to share the groove.
12:03 I wouldn't call them clearly synthesized. I'm neither a producer nor an audio engineer but gated reverb and chorus on real toms sound at least somewhat similar in my head.
I still can't unhear this song as a synth-pop "Smells Like Teen Spirit" thanks to the Foo Fighters and the internet. It has irrevocably changed the song for me.
Im someone who loved this song when it came out (we had the original EP vinyl). The rickrolling phenomenon was something that came later. Never hated it. Rick is a cool guy, who left the industry, but the social phenomenon around the song brought him back.
By the way, I was instantly hyped when this popped up in my feed. As fun as the meme is, I've always admired this song, the production and Rick Astley's vocal performance are so amazing
I'm old enough to have experienced the SAW wave in the 80s and 90s. I actually liked most of their songs - including this one - but they tended to repeat the same chords, arrangements and rhythms over and over again until it wasn't fun any more. Back in the day I sampled two parts of different SAW-produced songs from Kylie and Bananarama on my trusty Atari ST and created "I should be so lucky of love in the first degree" which seamlessly fit together without any changes. But - if you look closely at the songs from Kylie and Rick that SAW wrote, most of them have really sophisticated chord progressions and melodies. Much more sophisticated actually than 90% of the chart hits of the 2020s. Strange enough that makes me look much more respectfully now at the songs that I regarded as plastic pop back in the 1980s.
The video is over and I'm still laughing with the joke analysis from 20:04 to 20:50 i think it's the first time someone manages to explain a joke in a way that a funnier than the joke itself
I spent the whole video waiting for you to talk about the baffling decision to make the "so" in "and SO do I..." About 5 octaves higher than the rest of the song, despite nothing of the sort appearing anywhere else. And you never even got to that line.
For some reason I remember what George Carlin said about Rick Astley when he hosted Friday Night Videos: "The kid's haircut isn't even from the 50s. It's from the 40s!"
Approaching Never Gonna Give You Up as an actual song is a fun exercise. Though I've heard it described as "the most '80s' song ever written," what makes it awesome is the 70s disco influences - that's the reason I unironically really like the song
At the 20 minute mark when talking about the incongruity of Astley's looks and voice, I don't recall who it was but there was a comedian back in the day who really hit the mark: "A big, Black voice in the body of Howdy Doody." Like I say, I don't remember the comedian but I DO remember the joke.
@12tone Great video! I was hoping you would go into the horn section more, I know its only a small part in the middle the verse but I feel like its perfect in the way it sets up the listener for the chorus. I really had it strike me how much of a difference it makes to the overall feel of the song when i was playing around with the midi track and found without the horns the verse dragged on a bit. I even brought the levels up on it and it just feels so good. G#4, G#5 F4, F5 D#4, D#5 C#4, C#5 A#3, A#4
Wow I've never noticed the vocals in the chorus during the intro until now. I'd guess the reason they were there is when they used the samples they did record them physically, or maybe did something similar, and when they did it astley started singing. A similar thing is with buddy holy if you listen to the isolated drum stem, you can hear rivers coumo singing, as I guess he was singing while the drums were being recorded
I remember loving the song when I first came across it via Rick Rolling. I ended up finding the vinyl of the album in a charity shop for £1 and it slaps. There's a lot of very similar sounds which i chalk up to that linn drum machine but it's s solid pop record
I'm only 0:54 into this video and I'm already liking it[Pause while I actually click the like button]. I never understood how this became the thing that it seemingly is. GenX'er here, I never really had an opinion one way or the other about this Song other than to notice that other people were noticing it/paying attention to it, or using it for some other purpose. I guess my opinion would be that it is a Mediocre song performed and produced well enough, but not really worth all the attention that it has gotten. Never really got it as it's not; at least to me, _bad_ enough to be deserving of hating on, or _good_ enough to even be talking about. Although, I DO like that it is a good/recognizable example of using the 'Royal Road' Chord Progession. It's Fine #itsfine
I haven't taken a close look at the melody at 22:45 before, and i thought it was the way he's notating it before, but it's actually different: The 2nd and 4th notes in each five-note phrase are the same, NOT the 1st and 4th. The first and second notes are actually one note lower than what's notated. [5 6 1 6 3], not [6 7 1 6 3] It's like "Livin' On The Edge" all over again, where i ALWAYS thought that the title lyrics were sung using the notes [5 4 3 2 2~3], but if you listen to it, it's actually [5 3 2 1 2~3]
He stated in an interview that the reason that he looks so awkward in the music video is because he was afraid the dancers he hired were showing him up, with their flips and what not.
The issue with Never Gonna Give You Up is that for so many people, there are so many reasons why they want to hate the song, but the song is so good they can't. Being rickrolled is my favorite way that I get tricked into something. I can't even dislike being fooled.
Some additional thoughts/corrections:
1) In the music video, the hi-hat sides are actually flipped, with the more prominent part on the right, but in the 2022 remaster they're the way they are in the stems. Which is weird, because the stems mostly seem more faithful to the video version, with the bongos much closer to the center, whereas in the remaster they're panned harder to the right. I dunno. The version on iTunes seems to also be the remaster, so not sure what to do with that. I'll defer to the music video as closer to the original mix, but the thing I described is what's in the stems, and the important thing is that they're different, not which one is which, so I'm just gonna choose to stop worrying about it.
2) In principle, you might also want to sort out separate drum parts that emphasize the off-beat 16ths, but there weren't any in this song so I didn't both mentioning that.
3) As you can see in the notation, the right-side hat actually does a triple-tap in bar 1, not a double-tap, but it's quiet enough that I decided to just treat it the same. Didn't seem worth getting into the distinction when functionally it doesn't seem to make any difference.
4) There's probably a lot more I could've said about some of the surprisingly jazzy chord voicings in this song, especially in the supporting parts, but I decided to focus on the percussion, groove, and looping aspects because they felt more central to my experience. I'm sure there's a whole second video's worth of analysis to be done from a more harmonic perspective if someone else wants to do it, though.
5) I feel like I was maybe a little unclear when I was talking about the vocals in the prechorus. I said he started a line on the downbeat, but I wasn't actually referring to the line I'd just played. That line starts on beat 3. It's the first line of the prechorus ("I just wanna…") that starts on beat 1.
you forgot the link to the doctor mix video!
After I put on my pink wavy illuminated stars headband, I can totally relate to that, especially to point 5. 💖
9:20 ish I think what you're hearing is the reverb tails of those synth guide tracks, which were probably accidentally bounced to the main mix
Mike Stock has always written incredibly complex and interesting harmonies - I suggest checking out Whenever You Need Somebody from the same album. The "jazzy chords" are tuned up to 11 plus there's a key change in every section.
Rickrolling is the king of memes. A reminder that 2007 was SIXTEEN YEARS AGO and the meme has never gone away. Also, Rick Astley is a super awesome and wholesome guy and deserves everything in the world.
Rickroll can now be drunk by European standard
He made the best out of the situation too since he technically "retired" decades before and eventually used Never gonna give you up as a springboard to restart his carrer
Rick rolling is never gonna giv- get old
I can remember being RickRolled in the '90s. Of course I also remember when this song first came out.
For me it's a reminder that 1987 was 36 years ago
I was a 6 year old kid who unironically loved that song when it came out, and I haven't stopped. Still, never realized how much depth there was in the percussion alone.
Same, I first heard it in Roblox in like 2007 or 2008, and I could only think this song is awesome!
Despite it's meme status, the song IS a solid banger!
Yeah I was 7 then and I enjoyed it then and I've watched in astonishment as it's grown into the anthem of trolling and Rick is such a good dude he deserves it
The grunge era came with a huge dose of cynicism that was incompatible with 80s music, to the point where it's taken 30 years for 80s music to recover.
I think I first heard it on the radio in the car, but as far as I know, I came out of the womb singing never gonna give you up.
0:35 I love how when he talks about the origin of the meme, he draws the Duckroll duck
It definitely adds legitimacy to the claim that he was there when the deep magic was written.
@@fday8432 Also the timing was great. Rather than just when he said it's origins, he specifically added it the moment "4chan" was said, where duck roll originated. I think Rick Roll wasn't exclusively 4chan to begin with
and they draw loss when they say meme
@@axiom8073 *He. Our dude is a dude. If you put so much thought into using pronouns to actively use "they", you might as well use the correct pronoun instead of a more generalized they. I can totally see where you are coming from and I'm sure it's appreciated but it's just not necessary.
Have an awesome day. :)
@@ThorsShadow Nah their pronouns are explicitly "they/them", get outta here with your posturing and speaking for others on matters you don't know about.
"... I was a little too contrarian to have my own Myspace page" is such a specific and relatable phrase about a moment in time.
My teen years were in the 80s, and SAW was 'the enemy': I hated this song passionately back in the day. But over the years I could put this in different perspective. If there is one good thing that this meme brought, is that put Rick Astley back in the spotlights. His music still doesn't resonate a lot with me, but I truly enjoy him talking in interviews. He's a super nice guy. His success is well deserved.
Me too! I went from hating Stock, Aiken, and Waterman because I saw them as engineers of bland corporate pop, to loving and respecting their dedication to the craft of songwriting. Having learned my lesson, I've been a fan of Max Martin since I first heard of him...
I'm clearly as old as you are, and while I agree with everything you said, part of me still thinks it's unfortunate that this is the song that we remembered. I liked Rick Astley much more once he wasn't doing SAW any more. I still love "Cry for Help", and not just because of the better haircut.
@@mikeciul8599 Amen; "Hit Me Baby" is a much better composition than most people think - take away Spear acting naughty in the video and the vocals being lamently overproduced, falling victim to the demands of the era in which it was released, and try to feel the song itself - and you start to realize that it not only "works" in so many styles and variations (Travis did a sort of stripped down version that really highlights this), but the melody is also slightly enigmatic, sounding upbeat and dancable despite being written in a C minor scale - with enough variation in the basic progression to keep you intrigued, but still repetitious enough to make you forcibly sing along, or at the very least hum a bit and tap your feet. Pure genious - and that was just a stepping stone to greater things for Max! Lennon/McCartney were equally great songwriters, but frankly they wouldn't have been without each other, and only a few others come close (nod to Prince 😅).
tbh I'm curious which Kylie, Bananarama and Dead or Alive songs they produced, I was born in the late 90s but the 80s were all I listened to during my teenage years but none of those artists really stuck honestly...
@@daliinhiscoffin2493 "You Spin Me Round" was their first hit. Note that they didn't write that one, they only produced it.
For Kylie, they did her first four albums, including "The Loco-Motion", "I Should Be So Lucky", "Got to be Certain", "Hand on Your Heart", "Better the Devil You Know"... everything from that era.
For Bananarama, they produced the "True Confessions" and "Wow" albums, most notably their cover of "Venus" and "Love in the First Degree".
You're on UA-cam. Look up "This is the Chorus" by Morris Minor and the Majors (with a cameo from Jon Deacon of Queen). This song was a parody of SAW, and anything you recognise there was a SAW song.
I appreciate that you are analyzing this song the same way SAW wrote it; building the analysis from bottom up rather than digging in from the top.
SAW didn't listen to the melody and transcribed what they heard, in real time, as the stem of the song they have yet to write or perform played in the background. so it's really unlikely or impossible they wrote the song using musical analysis frameworks like"music theory"
@@jordanwardan7588 that doesn't make any sense. they wrote the melody, how can they transcribe a melody that didn't exist until they wrote it?
I feel so embarrassed about having heard "Never Gonna Give You Up" so many times and never focusing on the drums. Definitely gonna fix that next time I listen.
He's actually using that song as an encore in his current retro tours, and the crowd goes mad for his completely nonironic performance. I was working for a vendor at a local auditorium, and it was magical. Seriously.
This is the song I play in my head to clear out LITERALLY any other song stuck in my head. I'll always love this song. Works like a charm too.
"One Vision" by Queen does it for me.
For my dad, it’s Pearl Jam’s “Black”. I use “Paint it, Black” by The Rolling Stones.
The Top Predator of Earworms.
My friend uses ‘500 Miles’ by The Proclaimers
80s synthpop is one of the few genres that is often criticized for seemingly opposite reasons. Very few people who personally dislike metal music would say it's too soft and gentle for them, nor would anyone criticize Skrillex's take on second-wave dubstep for being too organic. But 80s music has been simultaneously criticized for being powerful and wimpy, harsh and inoffensively banal, emotional and emotionless, cheesy and alienating, etc. Synthesizers are a relatively recent invention, one that can't be classified into any of the four traditional sections of the orchestra (though I personally consider them to be a form of percussion instrument). The idea of a synth playing back strings that could fool a casual listener was incredibly novel at the time, though such a feat is mundane today with everyone carrying around string samples on their iPhone's garageband, whether they're interested or not. I'm someone who is a huge fan of 1980s music, who got to know it as a form of retro/oldies music that was quite tame compared to the mainstream pop of my adolescence. It's probably my favorite genre of pop. But it's interesting to think about it from the perspective of a musician who grew up in the era - it gives me a whole new appreciation for it.
In 1981, a computer that could play back a string stab could cost as much as a house. In 1998, such a sound was standard on most sampling keyboards, and in 2005, if your computer randomly played a string stab, chances are something was wrong with it;)
Bump
@@irgendwieanders2121 thank you
@@NegativeReferral You're welcome
Now I want to make a rave song with the Windows XP error sound. Thanks!
@@NeonBeeCat I’m curious to hear it if you put it online!
Even kids who shared low-end computers with their families in the 2000s were still downright spoiled with this modern technology.
In the book "PWL From the Factory Floor", producer Phil Harding says Stock Aitken and Waterman would make songs by using two other songs they called "plots".
One song they would model the groove on and the other the harmony. They would then write a new melody over the top.
Apparently "Never Gonna Give You Up" uses the bass/drums groove from Colonel Abrams "Trapped" and the chords are based on songs by Alexander O'Neal.
Kylie Minogue's "Look My Way" is basically a karaoke version of The Whispers' "Rock Steady." So That checks out.
@@Kylora2112 Another couple of Kylie ones -
"Word is Out" uses the groove from Guy's "New Jack City"
"What Do I Have to Do?" uses the groove from Together's "Hardcore Uproar"
Holy shit it is Trapped. The boards of Canada remix of that song rules btw.
Could that explain the weird echoey vocals?
Never clicked on a 12tone video so fast
SAME
Ong this was what i was waiting for
@@Genesis_Hana this is the quality content I subscribed for 🤌
🎵Never clicked on one-that-fast
Never gonna let-you-down🎵
@JARED BARATTA AYYY
😎
👉👉
9:25 I would guess this might be a tape pre-echo kinda thing. When magnetic tape is stored, occasionally it can bleed through the layers of the tape itself during storage, leading to pre-echoes. I believe there is a similar effect in Tools "The Pot", right at the start. It is not an uncommon occurance, though it is rarely audible, since it's usually quite low in level. However it might be accentuated here due to compression added to the drums during mixing.
This ^^^^ However I believe it's called print-through on tape. Now as to why it's on the drums' track.. is a bit puzzling. The cymbals were likely an overdub AFTER the Astley's vocal take, and the twotracks somehow overlapped in storage and caused a print through. That or the magnetic field on that first chorus of the vocal track was strong enough to print through to the track above. If so it might have printed through to the same vocal track at the same point in the song, and other tracks too maybe. That would explain why it's even more audible in the full mix.
I was thinking of print through too.
It's also possible that one of the tape machines wasn't aligned quite right and the backing vocal track actually got recorded slightly overlapping the drums.
Maybe this happens at the start of Television Rules The Nation by Daft Punk where you can hear the riff when it's just the isolated drums???
@@CoingamerFL Likely. The album was recorded on an eight-track tape machine so print-through could definitely have occurred!
Print through is a thing, which is why a good studio will always store their tapes "tails out", so that any print through comes as a following echo, as opposed to a 'pre-echo'. Even the multi-track masters are stored tails out. This also allows for what some may call 'play winding' and getting even, smooth wraps on the reels, reducing (and hopefully eliminating) any damage to the edges of the tape, as well as any tracking/alignment issues.
theres a chance the vocal in the intro might just be tape bleed. at this time they may have still been using an analog tape machine to record, in which case adjacent tracks on the tape might bleed into each other unless their playback heads were tuned perfectly. Erasing sound on digital formats is just like deleting any other computer file, its totally gone without a trace, but with analog recording its more like erasing pencil marks on paper, it always leaves an impression behind
just a spitball of course! i wasn't there and i have no clue what machine they tracked to or what their track layout looked like
Fun fact, the mismatch between Rick's appearance and voice was actually something that made him stand out to the producers of the song, and probably the reason he was chosen to sing this one.
I always loved his look of a high school sophomore awkwardly dancing in ill-fitting clothes while having a smooth, rich voice
I have unironically loved this song ever since the first time I stopped and listened to any of the lyrics. This is _my_ love song, this is how _I_ feel in a relationship, and being a meme used for trolling only adds to my personal attachment to it.
I've had this song on my wedding playlist before, and requested it at others. Memes aside, it's a bop and has a powerful message. I'm with ya there!
Astley's other top hit, "Together Forever," has some very similar themes as this one: the verse of each sounds like the chorus of the other!
I propose we all start sending "Together Forever" to each other as a fresh take on the Rick Roll.
He also has a song that's the complete opposite: "Giving Up on Love".
If Cory analyzed that, it would probably make for an interesting video, because what else would he need to analyze?
That makes them easier to do a medley and mashup!
@@matthewcox7985 Such a medley exists (but with the latter transposed down half a step, as it's in D by default) and sounds great!
8:38 I’ve always heard that part, but I just thought I was imagining it. Fascinating.
I always heard it, but never thought anything of it lmao.
...earphone bleed in the studio?
@@Ve55el probably tape bleed, I'm betting the boosted up the levels of the drums in the final mix to the point where you can just hear it
Yeah, in hindsight, I was definitely aware of that the whole time. I just never clocked that it was, like, an actual part of the production.
I always heard it too, but just thought it was deliberate to preemptively and subtly build up to the chorus and themes lol.
Other comments say it’s probably print-through on the master tapes in which case it’d be a total accident! Though I still think it works in the way I interpreted it, even if not intentionally done!
The best Rickroll ever.
Was That Time Foster's Home Rick Roll'd EVERYONE when Rick Astley himself appeared on the Thanksgiving Day parade float doing the vocals for "Never Gonna Give You Up."
Foster's held an extra dimensional significance for me at the time.
I caught it live (so to speak) and I nearly fell apart laughing. Then I realized this meant the hosts had to explain Rickrolling while being there to soothe the Silent Generation with a pair of older Boomers and I laughed harder. They did not disappoint. A Millennial intern probably got told to find them 20 seconds of copy online to give the hosts something to say about it. Ah, Regis Philbin. You did "confused as fuck but the show must go on" like a pro.
16:00 Dude! Thats the key center! Db! Just cuz we don't hear it much doesn't mean it isnt there....thats what makes the chord sequence in the begining so cool...it totally wants to come back to Db but it never does!
Yep! Get Lucky is another example that does this.
Exactly! This thing isn't in Bbm, it's in Db! (Always has been.) The chord sequence is a soft-landing ii-V-iii-vi with the minor vi performing one of the roles it does best: hinting at, but not fully spelling out, the tonic chord. In fact, I would probably just have analyzed it as a Db6 chord because at the end of the line, the vocals AND the horn lick both end on Db.
I personally hear it in Bbm. There are also many elements that suggest Bbm as the key (like the vocal phrases always beginning on Bb, and the verse bass riff being pretty much just a Bb pedal point).
But I can also hear some "Db majorness" in some parts. But to my ears, Bbm is the main tonic. That's how I hear the song.
If you only listen to the chords, I can definitely see a strong argument for Db major (and the horn stabs do also create quite a strong Db sound). But still, overall, my ears are drawn towards Bbm.
@@MaggaraMarine For sure...I'm just pushing that instead of Bbm being a minor i chord...its actually just a iv chord...but played in such a way as to sound like the i chord...fascinating song innit?!
@@Ve55elbut wouldnt that make it the 1 chord? If it sounds like the 1 chord it should be the 1 chord right?
Hearing that opening drum fill still makes me clench up. The internet has irreparably damaged me
I’ve never been happier to be RickRolled
Palimpsest: "a manuscript or piece of writing material on which the original writing has been effaced to make room for later writing but of which traces remain." Or a tape with traces of a prior recording.
On the topic why Rick's voice might be in the intro: Rick Astley had a job in the SAW studio, so he didn't have to be called in. So, maybe that is why it was recorded in a different order than their usual workflow. #2cents
My theory as to why they added percussion with chorus vocals buried in them: it is on purpose. It is musical foreshadowing. In more modern electronic dance/pop music, it is quite common to take a sonic element from the drop, bury it in reverb, then reverse it and use it as a riser, building the listener up to the climax of the song. This could be an early incarnation of that. The listener hears the chorus at the beginning without knowing it, so when the chorus kicks in in an unocculted form, they are subconsciously primed to feel satisfied.
That’s how I always interpreted it too! Other comments suggest it’s likely to be “print through”, where storing the tape tightly wound rubs the magnetisation from neighbouring sections, in which case it was just a fortuitous accident. Though pre-echo anywhere else might not have worked as well! I wonder if other modern techniques are influenced by other such studio mistakes :D
I love that you really break down the music. This is the second video I've watched and I love your analytics. I love analyzing lyrics in songs and now with your videos you can take my analytics to a whole new level. Thank you for your hard work.
Unironically love this song.
I was not under the impression that Rick rolling ever stopped being a thing
My sister-in-law sent me a video of her kids getting rickrolled by a circus performer just last week. (And I suppose, by extension, she rickrolled me.) It's definitely still a thing.
The songwriting craft and catchy melody have taught me the importance of simplicity and the power of a memorable hook. As a result, it influenced my own songwriting style and helped me to develop my own unique voice and sound as a musician. Overall, "Never Gonna Give You Up" has played a significant role in shaping my musical journey
0:57 The PTSD flashbacks this gave me is insane
"At this point it's been so much of a meme-" *draws Loss*
Well played, sir, well played.
Hey 12tone. I love these deconstructions. Can you do one for Viva La Vida? I would love to know all the theory that goes into that song as it's one of my favorites.
great suggestion, I love the strings on that song!
7:50 Just in case anyone else is struggling to hear this, it's in the Left channel only. I turned my desktop speakers waaaay up and couldn't hear it from my right speaker. I thought it was an editing mistake, but it's definitely there in the left!
This would have been the best April Fools Day video.
I strongly approve of abstract loss being a logograph for the concept of a meme!
Hello ” 12tone ”! Thank you for showing us such a wonderful video! I feel so happy! I'm looking forward to your next work! Have a nice day!
My choir actually uses an a cappella arrangement of Never Gonna Give You Up every year as a song option for the Valentine’s Day serenades we sell. It is consistently one of our best sellers, since if you give a bunch of high schoolers the chance to rickroll their friends for a few bucks, they usually take it
Hey 12tone. I love these deconstructions. Can you do one for Take on Me? I would love to know all the theory that goes into that song as it's one of my favorites.
Okay, haven't even seen a full second of the video yet. But, I always enjoy the breakdowns of my favorite songs from back when I was a youngster and I'm looking forward to learning why there are deeper reasons why this song has stuck with me so long. Thanks 12 Tone!
I was a teenager in the 80s. We HATED the hit factory of SAW. It was the antithesis of everything that we liked in music. Look up "This Is The Chorus" by Morris Minor and the Majors to see a popular parody at the time.
I am glad that Rick Astley made it; whatever you think of SAW, his voice was and is incredible.
Most elaborate Rickroll I've seen in a while. Well done sir.
I still love that song.
I’d love to see you analyse a joy division or new order song where Peter Hook plays the Bass guitar as the lead instrument.
I second this entirely! Now that you mention it, I'm surprised 12tone HASN'T done any Joy Division or New Order.
@@zbr76 especially Blue Monday, i feel like there’s a lot of interesting instrumental bits that 12tone would have a joyous time dissecting
9:14 I love that "mixed real low" = Lea from CrossCode
For me, in the 80s, the issue with SAW was that they ended up flogging their formula to death. (See "I'd Rather Jack" by The Reynolds Girls). It's a shame Astley couldn't pull a Kylie and reinvent himself; but then there would be no meme.
I’d love to see you cover Margaritaville by Jimmy Buffet. It’d be fascinating to analyze how a song can be so identifiable with calmness, relaxation, and the beach.
Something I'd throw in for a mention: Buffett throws in a rhythmic trick in quite a few of his songs, notably "Changes in Latitudes." Listen to the end of the chorus and track beat 1.
Wonderful video. Your point at the end about developing a really solid groove that doesn't stale is a really great one. I'm working on a video game, thinking about the music and how to make sure it's not maddening to listen to on loop. This whole video is a great lesson on how to make loops interesting. I should probably check out more SAW.
“For those of you too old to understand or…too young to remember”😭 That line hit different. Our generation is the best of both worlds
It's gonna be super interesting to see what "it" will be for the next generation. I, for one, plan to be Cool Zoomer. Too dumb to get it, but able to laugh all the same...
@@maitele Yes!! I went back to college to finish my dreams of being an educator and that’s also my goal!
I want to give this comment all of the likes. Born 1980!
I was always confused about the timing of the intro toms here, until I realized it's just a truncated version of the intro toms in Whenever You Need Somebody (another song in the same album), which takes up the full 4 beats. Never Gonna Give You Up just starts on beat 2.5.
Also, 7:20 caught me completely off guard. Way funnier than it should have been.
Is that THE Warren Huart? Really cool to see that he‘s supporting you!
This song was so ubiquitous, my local TV affiliate used the opening bars for its interstitial station IDs between shows.
What station was this?
Love your channel. Just found it- the algorithm kindly recommended your analysis of London Calling and I am hooked.
So this is the third of your videos I've watched in a row, and I'm just now realizing that the Shrek "S" signals that you're talking about layers. And I'm realizing that these little pictograms you're making aren't unique, there's a consistent pattern to them--a pattern that makes sense if you think about it enough, but sometimes requires a leap of word-association.
Like how in my sheet music, when I need to remember that a part is going faster, I draw a lil' plate of spaghetti (pasta - fasta - faster!!)
What a fun little connection! I'd love to see a video of you explaining your pictographic notation sometime 😁
I used this song as my wife and my walkout introduction to our wedding reception last year!
12Tone drawing loss is a fucking flashbang
9:25 when recording to analog multitrack tape, if a signal is too hot (loud), it may bleed to adjacent tracks. I saw an interview with Jimmy Page, who doubled as producer for Led Zeppelin, where he said this happened to Robert Plant's vocals. It sounds like this could have happened here, given the power of Rick's vocals in the chorus. The intro was probably a chorus take with the vocals deleted, copy-pasted via tape splice.
This video is absolutely amazing to watch. Every spin is so smooth and effortless, and it's clear that this chip has been spinning for years to achieve such a level of skill. The spins are so fluent and elegant, and every spin is executed with such perfect form. The song makes the spinning experience even more amazing, and it perfectly compliments the choreography. This chip is clearly an expert and a master of his craft, and he should be admired by all. He's truly an inspiring performance, and I'm so impressed and grateful for this content. It's truly spectacular to watch, my friend. Every spin is so beautifully executed and perfect, and it's clear that this chip has been practicing for many years to achieve such a level of skill. His spins are so effortless and graceful, and the music goes perfectly with the choreography. This chip is truly a maestro, and his skill should be admired by all. I'm so blown away by this
I have been waiting for this day and its finally here
Im am so happy
I always loved the strings and horns. Didn’t realize the beat was going hard all this time.
The thing that's always amused me with this song is that the backing vocals constantly contradict Rick Astley.
He's singing "never going to give you up" and the backing vocals sing "give you up!". Never going let you down ("let you down!").
Indeed, even with Rick's vocals, the rhythmic emphasis is on the negative. The "never" is de-emphasised in "never going run around and desert you".
This lead me to come up with a parody version of the song called "Always going to give you up". Swap every "never" for "always". That's it.
(Well, I also like to negate it all, for additional amusement. So, in fact, "we're strangers to love... you would get this from any other guy". Just flip the meaning with a choice word drop or "not" thrown in there.)
But suddenly it stops contradicting itself and is weirdly more cohesive, despite being comically negative and preaching the completely wrong moral message.
Go on. Put the song on, and sing along, doing the "never -> always" switcheroo. You'll see what I mean. The song weirdly becomes lyrically consistent, as if it's really supposed to be a happy ode to betrayal and infidelity.
Sing it, ladies: "give you up! Let you down!" Emphasis on "run around and desert you". Make you cry. Say goodbye.
(And I do believe this underlying contradiction also helps with the meme - as you are being let down, and made to cry. Subconsciously, I feel your brain is picking up the contradiction and juxtaposition. So while superficially sounding happy and positive, there's a betrayal going on. You've been let down by being meme'd.
Also reminds me of that Charles and Eddy song. You know, "would I lie to you, baby? Would I lie to you?"... and then he enthusiastically says "oh, yeah!". What? Are you guys openly admitting that you're lying all along? That you are going to lie to her?
That some songs, due to the rhythmic structure, end up putting the emphasis on exactly the wrong lyrics at the wrong time, creating this underlying "wrongness" to it all.)
Now we get Rick Rolled... With an analysis
I love that your drawing for the word "distracting" is a squirrel. 😂
It's worth it to check out Reeve Carney singing a cover version of this song -- which, I agree, rules.
I am partial for the slightly deep cut of She-Ra's Entrapta for "put it apart and pull it back together", myself.
12:49 - This bass is so similar to Trapped by Colonel Abrams, and according to Stock, Trapped was a direct influence on this song!
I love music from '70 & '80, when writers and producers were real pro taking pride of their creations. That's why each detail among so many finds itself in the right place, all together building arhitectural harmony and character of the song.
24:49 You know the rules, and so do I.
I just wrote an essay about the lyrics of this song as an example for my class. Can't wait to incorporate some if this into it
I go to music school and I’m a multi-instrumentalist focused on bass and piano. We were going to play this song for a concert and i got the bass but it was almost impossible to play on a normal electric bass. Mind you i’m a very experienced bassist and can play very well. When i got the sheet music for the bassline on this song it was one of the hardest basslines i’ve ever played. Took a few days to learn which is quite unusual for me.
At this point, I don't think rickrolling can die. Kid in my grade 12 AP calc class would end every week by connecting his ipad to the teacher's speakers and starting the video - it was fabulous. If aliens are monitering our communications, I wonder what they think is going on
Thank you for this wonderful analysis. I loved the song when it came out and only saw the video much later on, but saw the media reaction to his appearance vs voice. Still the song was and is still amazing
So something that happens on tape machines is adjacent tracks can bleed into each other, resulting in a quiet "ghost" of an adjacent track to be audible.
I've always loved the song since when it was released. When somebody "rick-rolls" me, I interrupt my spontaneous boogie to thank them for their service to share the groove.
Brilliant video, thank you! ❤
The Jack-Black-as-Bowser song Peaches uses the same chord progression. This *must* be deliberate!
12:03 I wouldn't call them clearly synthesized. I'm neither a producer nor an audio engineer but gated reverb and chorus on real toms sound at least somewhat similar in my head.
I still can't unhear this song as a synth-pop "Smells Like Teen Spirit" thanks to the Foo Fighters and the internet. It has irrevocably changed the song for me.
Im someone who loved this song when it came out (we had the original EP vinyl). The rickrolling phenomenon was something that came later. Never hated it. Rick is a cool guy, who left the industry, but the social phenomenon around the song brought him back.
0:57 I knew what video I clicked, it is clearly labeled what it is, yet somehow my subconsciousness felt like I had been tricked.
It's a Pavlovian response at this point.
By the way, I was instantly hyped when this popped up in my feed. As fun as the meme is, I've always admired this song, the production and Rick Astley's vocal performance are so amazing
9:17 A Crosscode reference? In MY 12tone video?! It's more likely than you think! Excellent taste, my good man.
I'm old enough to have experienced the SAW wave in the 80s and 90s. I actually liked most of their songs - including this one - but they tended to repeat the same chords, arrangements and rhythms over and over again until it wasn't fun any more. Back in the day I sampled two parts of different SAW-produced songs from Kylie and Bananarama on my trusty Atari ST and created "I should be so lucky of love in the first degree" which seamlessly fit together without any changes.
But - if you look closely at the songs from Kylie and Rick that SAW wrote, most of them have really sophisticated chord progressions and melodies. Much more sophisticated actually than 90% of the chart hits of the 2020s. Strange enough that makes me look much more respectfully now at the songs that I regarded as plastic pop back in the 1980s.
The video is over and I'm still laughing with the joke analysis from 20:04 to 20:50 i think it's the first time someone manages to explain a joke in a way that a funnier than the joke itself
I spent the whole video waiting for you to talk about the baffling decision to make the "so" in "and SO do I..." About 5 octaves higher than the rest of the song, despite nothing of the sort appearing anywhere else.
And you never even got to that line.
For some reason I remember what George Carlin said about Rick Astley when he hosted Friday Night Videos: "The kid's haircut isn't even from the 50s. It's from the 40s!"
You haven't heard reverb until you've listened to the Moody Blues. Now there's something to analyze!
Approaching Never Gonna Give You Up as an actual song is a fun exercise. Though I've heard it described as "the most '80s' song ever written," what makes it awesome is the 70s disco influences - that's the reason I unironically really like the song
At the 20 minute mark when talking about the incongruity of Astley's looks and voice, I don't recall who it was but there was a comedian back in the day who really hit the mark: "A big, Black voice in the body of Howdy Doody." Like I say, I don't remember the comedian but I DO remember the joke.
I appreciate the Lea drawing in 9:17 . Crosscode really needs more exposure, it is awesome
your videos always make me want to listen to the song that you talk about, so damn you, you have made me WANT to get rickrolled
@12tone Great video! I was hoping you would go into the horn section more, I know its only a small part in the middle the verse but I feel like its perfect in the way it sets up the listener for the chorus. I really had it strike me how much of a difference it makes to the overall feel of the song when i was playing around with the midi track and found without the horns the verse dragged on a bit. I even brought the levels up on it and it just feels so good.
G#4, G#5
F4, F5
D#4, D#5
C#4, C#5
A#3, A#4
This is the most elaborate Rick roll I have ever seen
Wow I've never noticed the vocals in the chorus during the intro until now. I'd guess the reason they were there is when they used the samples they did record them physically, or maybe did something similar, and when they did it astley started singing. A similar thing is with buddy holy if you listen to the isolated drum stem, you can hear rivers coumo singing, as I guess he was singing while the drums were being recorded
I nearly always forget to thumbs up, but after seeing the Meanie, I had to instantly. 20:24
I remember loving the song when I first came across it via Rick Rolling. I ended up finding the vinyl of the album in a charity shop for £1 and it slaps. There's a lot of very similar sounds which i chalk up to that linn drum machine but it's s solid pop record
I'm only 0:54 into this video and I'm already liking it[Pause while I actually click the like button]. I never understood how this became the thing that it seemingly is. GenX'er here, I never really had an opinion one way or the other about this Song other than to notice that other people were noticing it/paying attention to it, or using it for some other purpose. I guess my opinion would be that it is a Mediocre song performed and produced well enough, but not really worth all the attention that it has gotten. Never really got it as it's not; at least to me, _bad_ enough to be deserving of hating on, or _good_ enough to even be talking about. Although, I DO like that it is a good/recognizable example of using the 'Royal Road' Chord Progession. It's Fine #itsfine
I actually like this song a lot. It's catchy, and Rick Astley, from what I've heard, is nothing but a gentleman.
I haven't taken a close look at the melody at 22:45 before, and i thought it was the way he's notating it before, but it's actually different: The 2nd and 4th notes in each five-note phrase are the same, NOT the 1st and 4th. The first and second notes are actually one note lower than what's notated. [5 6 1 6 3], not [6 7 1 6 3]
It's like "Livin' On The Edge" all over again, where i ALWAYS thought that the title lyrics were sung using the notes [5 4 3 2 2~3], but if you listen to it, it's actually [5 3 2 1 2~3]
This is the type of song tat is not heard today epic solid song of the 80s. Love it man
He stated in an interview that the reason that he looks so awkward in the music video is because he was afraid the dancers he hired were showing him up, with their flips and what not.
The issue with Never Gonna Give You Up is that for so many people, there are so many reasons why they want to hate the song, but the song is so good they can't. Being rickrolled is my favorite way that I get tricked into something. I can't even dislike being fooled.