Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2022 July 12

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July 12

Two songs with a similar beat

I've noticed that Yakko's song from the Animaniacs reboot segment A Brief History of History and the instrumental theme song of Amphibia have a similar beat, so I wondered if they both derived their beat from an older song, probably a historic composition I might have heard at least once in the past but can't identify it or don't know what it's called. It's either that, or Yakko took notes from Amphibia. (pun intended) – MrPersonHumanGuy (talk) 20:50, 12 July 2022 (UTC)

So Yakko's song (I'm looking at a video titled Animaniacs 2021 Yakko's History of Earth Song) seems to be in sextuple metre, which I will crudely express here as a rhythm that goes _{one two three}^{four five six}. The Amphibia end credits tune just seems to be generic 4/4 jangly guitar and not the same thing at all. Have I got the right tune there? If so, I think this is just, like, your perception, maybe prompted by the jangliness of the Amphibia tune.

Oh! But I haven't thought about the chord progression at all (because you said "beat"). That might be similar. OK, what you have here is a sequence of four chords where the root note of the chord descends by a semitone each time. (Followed, perhaps, by a similar sequence shifted a bit, like a fifth higher.) I recognise this from classic rock: compare Led Zeppelin's Dazed and Confused, but I wouldn't be surprised if it has featured in musical theater a lot as well. It has an endless quality reminiscent of the Shepard scale, which makes it good for an interminable song, or an extensive outro.  Card Zero  (talk) 14:55, 13 July 2022 (UTC)

To clarify, by "theme song of Amphibia", I'm referring to Welcome to Amphibia, which is played during the show's opening title sequence. – MrPersonHumanGuy (talk) 20:08, 13 July 2022 (UTC)

Right, right. In that case I don't know. I think they're moderately similar, not in rhythm but in pace, possibly in the same key with a lot of the same chords. You're particular interested in figuring out what they both remind you of, I take it. Some hint about the possible genre of that third tune would help. I don't think either tune is very distinctive or original, though.  Card Zero  (talk) 21:53, 13 July 2022 (UTC)

I was open to the possibility that there may have never been such a prior song after all. (at least not as far as either of us are aware) I entertained the presumption that an older tune may have served as the basis for both songs because a few Animaniacs songs — notably The Presidents, Yakko's Nations of the World, and Wakko's America — have been sung over recognizable musical scores. With that said, I just thought I'd point out a similarity I perceived. – MrPersonHumanGuy (talk) 22:52, 13 July 2022 (UTC)

P.S. It's the faster-paced part including the line "we send Phoenix to Mars" that reminded me of Amphibia's theme song. Now that I think about it, I could've said the exact same thing about The Catch-Up Song from the reboot's very first episode, where Dot sang "We send humans to Mars, all the food comes in bars". – MrPersonHumanGuy (talk) 02:01, 14 July 2022 (UTC)

Yes, they both (Yakko's song and the Amphibia theme) have harmonic turnarounds. Which, again, are not identical, but similar. And Animaniacs#Songs agrees that many of them are parodies of classics or folk songs.  Card Zero  (talk) 09:54, 14 July 2022 (UTC)