Because we can’t get Annalise’s Mon Amour out of our heads.

When it comes to learning music, there is a dichotomy that can be found at the beginner level: older is happy, younger is sad. In this Manichaean way, we are trying to explain the emotional value that we conditionally ascribe to this or that sequence of notes. But minor doesn’t necessarily mean sad, especially when we’re talking about pop music. An uncompromisingly “minor” song that would be hard to define as “sad” is Annalisa’s Mon Amour, a success that has been at the top of the charts for 4 months and is still very popular on Spotify and YouTube. But why doesn’t Mon Amour give up? Why does it stand up to the competition of summer hits while continuing to define this vintage of Italian pop? What makes us happy, in short?

A songwriter’s first tool for shaping his song is the chord loop., and it is from here that the first subconscious infection often passes. Those from Mon Amour, for example, you may have heard (a semitone up) in a very famous song: Ed Sheeran’s Shape of You. But if an Englishman draws a ruthlessly repetitive two-bar loop, reduced to the minimum pop terms, then Annalisa, so to speak, writes with a different, more classical syntax: distributing chords into sections of eight bars (the standard unit, from blues to rap), the singer-songwriter asks us linger with her, because she has something to tell us, and this will not always be pleasant, but it will be intriguing. It’s the promise of dance songs in the minor key, a tradition that’s now so ingrained (from ABBA to Lady Gaga through the Pet Shop Boys) that it’s flooded the pop charts, according to a 2017 analysis that revealed the rise of songs in the minor key. minor. And in this vein, Annalise found something more than her space: a perfect historical convergence.

You may not have noticed, but we are experiencing a dance-pop renaissance. In big markets – and not from today – light music requires heavy bass and a straight kick. But the last 4-5 years have given a new signal: perhaps because of the commercial success of such records as Future Nostalgia or After Hours, perhaps because of the fatigue from self-isolation, perhaps because of the physiological decline in popularity on the one hand. rap, and on the other hand, EDM, new opportunities opened up, and new professionals came to pop music. Thus, it is not about the emergence of a single dance genre, but about the use of dance as a general, stratified, evolving vocabulary from which to refer to sources without fear: so much so that even Beyoncé and Drake participated in a club party. This time Italy did not follow this trend from afar, thanks also to the historical experience of mixing song and disco, from Moroder to Eiffel Tower 65. This was also heard at the largest exhibition of Italian song in San Remo from the couple. years more track than stage. Faced with this wave, Annalize seemed to be born ready: in September 2022, Bellissima, with her icy 80s synth-pop colors, highlighted a natural shadowy timbre, while a steady tempo strengthened her control over the mid-low register a mezzo-soprano is therefore suitable to tell a story, often more paradoxical than tragic, about a broken heart. Mon Amour, with a mixture of house, electro-funk and disco, invented by producers Davide d.whale Simonetta and Zef, confirms its belonging to the present moment by the power of not only numbers.

Every success needs at least one hook, a musical element that grabs the listener’s attention: there are at least three hooks in Annalise’s song. The first is between the verse and the chorus, where “uh” and “ah” emphasize the weight of the first beat, giving the passage a militancy. Perhaps an ancient memory of disco and old funk, this metric boulder is asking us to pay attention to the tempo: we may even be in the very common 4/4 time signature, but soon a second hook will project us forward. And this happens just before the chorus, in the midst of the pre-chorus: as in the ambush scene before the assault, the base falls silent, the reverb that flooded the verse dries up, two shots of the bell are accompanied by a voice in which he says: “I have a counterpart.” Timekeeping at certain moments is especially effective not only for the group (when there were groups), but also for the involvement of the listener: but if the “1-2-3-4” of the Ramones is a hungry howl of vigilance, then here, after these two percussion strikes, a bass slide as if the predator is too pleased with its strength.

And it’s good to be content: try watching any Mon Amour choreography on TikTok and you’ll notice that any dancer will hit the fourth beat on their own. And, as catchphrase theorists and neuroscientists teach, there is no greater impulse than the one that makes the listener feel involved in the creation of the song. As if that weren’t enough, Annalisa and her producers use this rhythmic call to arms to throw the conversation partner off a moment’s notice. This kind of “offensive” – ​​one could call it an anacrusis, but that doesn’t matter – there is another proven trick: it consists precisely in start the melody on the bar before the actual chorus, with the aim of linking before and after, like an enjambement of a poem. The effect is propulsive: you feel it when you sing “Vo-laaare” or “che-fai-ru-mooore”. What does all this tell us? That it is Annalize who dictates the pace: “on the dance floor” unforeseen erotic geometries will also be drawn, but she will keep the rhythm of the experience and tell you how and where to move. And this means that the only vertex of this triangle that matters is her, her point of view as an observer-narrator-actress of the event. And now he tells us to dive into the chorus, where the climactic scene is about to take place.

Introducing this single Annalize explained that she wanted to describe the “uncertainty” that comes with breaking up., and perhaps the secret of Mon Amour lies in the fact that this moment is described not only by words, but also by music. Let’s return to the Shape Of You mentioned earlier: Sheeran writes the most effective melody on this dense ring of chords, on that minor pentatonic scale, on which every guitarist, even an amateur, stumbles sooner or later: it is so simplified. the scale that underlies half of the world’s popular music, five notes to bring them all together and bind them in the dark. Minimum cost, maximum return. Annalise makes a different choice: she doesn’t choose the more comfortable stairs of the same minor family because she wants to tread one by one on the slippery steps of Mon Amour.

Again precedents: Despacito, the supreme catchphrase, was often repeated in the same notes., for the hundredth time denying the association of minor-sorrow. In any case, the minor key conveys bewilderment, uncertainty, the same feeling that you experience when listening to the “demo” version published at the end of June: “At least I am left alone,” she tells Sky Tg24 disappointedly. notes that irreversibly turn it into a minor. And yet, it is this unfortunate insight that convinces her to “stay there,” pushes her to a new challenge. And while pursuing “that crazy idea of ​​revenge that makes you feel strong again, if only for a moment,” he discovers that the feeling of control (over time, over the body) for even just three minutes can turn into loneliness. Annalise, “desperate and at the same time carefree”, can finally show her strength: who knows if her next single will finally be able to “outshine everyone”.