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You likely already know this little ditty.
In 2019, Carl Martin, a Danish musician and musicology student, sat down to compose a song and struck what he believed was musical gold. He had crafted a four-note melody that he said “felt just right” and claimed it was the “best melody anybody in music has ever written.”
It wasn’t until he began to recognize the pattern in many other songs that he then spent months researching, listening to hundreds of global tracks and reading posts about this common melody.
He eventually identified about 500 songs with a similar melody and subsequently narrowed that list down to 72 songs that were identical and contained all four of the “pillars” that make up this melody.
He named this sequence the “Gen Alpha Melody,” referring to the 2010 period during which most of the songs using it were released.
These pillars can be found in songs like “APT.” by Rose and Bruno Mars, “Reckless” by Madison Beer, “Sofia” by Clairo and even rock songs by Volbeat and YUNGBLUD, as well as tracks popular in Spain, Italy and Norway.
The melody consists of four notes divided into two phrases. These four notes serve as the “pillars” of the melody, with all other tones essentially wrapping around them.
He believes it is such a widely copied melody because it serves as the prime example of a traditionally “good melody,” meaning it is structured through a series of musical “questions and answers.”
While dissonance and consonance are the building blocks of all music, this melody uses them specifically: the first phrase poses a question, and while an answer follows, it remains inconclusive. This “inconclusive answer” isn’t quite what the listener expects, so it is followed by a second question that leads to a final, satisfying resolution.
“Ending on this tone feels nice and consonant,” Martin explained. He added that the melody possesses a bittersweet quality, often mirroring themes of heartbreak and melancholy in the lyrics.
He observed that nearly all instances of the Gen Alpha Melody are paired with lyrics concerning heartbreak and melancholy.
Martin’s 14-minute video explaining the Gen Alpha Melody has more than 3.3 million views, where he analyzes a collage of songs by artists across languages and countries. Martin noted that while the world of music is “built on inspiration”, this case is unique.
It’s not just similar chord progressions; it’s an identical, distinct melody being copied, potentially making it a victim of copyright infringement.
“I’ve never seen a specific melody come even close to being as used in popular music,” Martin explained. “It’s a bit too specific,” he said, comparing the situation to if the melody of “Seven Nation Army” were used repeatedly without any royalties being paid to the White Stripes.
He observed that nearly all instances of the Gen Alpha Melody are paired with lyrics concerning heartbreak and melancholy.
Outliers that come close to the Gen Alpha Melody include “Bad Romance” by Lady Gaga, “Night Changes” by One Direction, and “New Light” by John Mayer. Martin noted that these songs approach the style but do not follow the full four-pillar format, only hitting three out of four pillars.
He clarified that he is not looking to bash these artists or claim they lack originality, but such widespread similarity is not a coincidence.
While other artists have faced copyright issues for songs being too similar to an original, many of those cases are less blatant than the hundreds of songs using the Gen Alpha Melody, which he identifies as a case of interpolation, which is re-recording an existing work rather than sampling it.
In these instances, songwriters are effectively copying the melodic structure. In pop music, the desire to create easily listenable songs often narrows the choice of chord progressions. Most songwriters using the Gen Alpha melody likely did not intend to use interpolation; rather, they subconsciously gravitated toward what sounds naturally appealing.
Through extensive research involving hundreds of songs, Martin tracked down what he believes is the very first use of this melody. The oldest instance he could find was in a song released in 2004.
That song was “Left Outside Alone” by Anastacia. In his YouTube video, Martin suggests that, in theory, Anastacia could be owed over $100 million in royalties. He jokingly concludes that “she is therefore crowned as the best musician there ever was,” before adding that she “probably nicked it as well.”
The melody’s popularity comes from the emotions it evokes in the listener, and Martin says the melody “perfectly” fits into meloncholy chord progressions, which explains its popularity.
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