Music is subjective, that’s a fact. No two people will ever truly experience art the same way, and so any matters of taste or opinion, enjoyment or hatred, are unique and singular.
That being said, though, there’s a reason why you go to a gig or a party and a whole room starts moving when certain songs come down. There’s opinion and then there’s science, and this classic rock band seemed to operate expertly on the level of the latter.
Because while music does come down to each person’s own experience, there is a formula. It’s the realm of music experts and songwriters who know these little tricks that have been tried and tested over time. They’ve studied it, listening to all the biggest and best-known songs of all time and trying to figure out a pattern of what they have in common. From there, with a criterion that a lot of big hits share, they can boil it down even further, trying to pinpoint key elements that make it work.
You don’t have to be an expert to guess some of them, like songs that have an easy-to-grasp, repetitive element, like a clap to go along with it, or a call-and-response section. Or, think about things like bridges that have repeated lines or elements, choruses with simple central lyrics that come back around again and again.
Really, ‘catchiness’ is somewhat simple when you start to consider human behaviours and patterns. Just like a delicious food or an addictive game, the trick to making a catchy song is making it something the listener just can’t quit, something they’ll want more of, or, specifically, something they’ll be thinking about and hearing in their head long after it’s done.
There are many examples, and you’ve heard them so many times in your own life, getting swept up in their catchy hysteria each time you’ve sung along to ‘Hey Jude’ or ‘Sweet Caroline’. But of all the scientific research that’s gone into figuring out the catchiest songs ever made, one band comes up several times in the ranking.
So, what is the catchiest band?
If anyone ever needed advice on writing an earworm hit, they should’ve turned to Queen – a band that appears three times in the list of the top ten catchiest songs ever made, verified by science.
‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ comes in at number six as their epic, avant-garde production is an unlikely hook that has had music fans singing along for decades. ‘We Are The Champions’ landed at number three, providing a perfect example of a huge, singalong catchy chorus.
But at number one, as the most catchy song ever made, according to science, it’s ‘We Will Rock You’; a song that feels like the blueprint for all those hooking tricks. There are claps, stomps, repeated phrases, call and response moments, and a chant to get involved in – it has it al,l and it would be tough to find anyone in this world that can’t sing it, or wouldn’t be able to join in with a singalong after even just a chorus or so.
Creeping into the ranking not once, not twice, but three times, clearly Queen had nailed that elusive formula that so many have tried with no breakthrough.