What Is That Sound? The Millennial WHOOP You Say?

If you hear the melody in the below video, you’ve probably heard that similar “sound” before… and science is calling it the “Millennial Whoop” right now. Technically, according to “research”, not only is it something that is being used as the current recipe to create a hit maker, it looks like it is going to be sticking around for awhile.

The millennial whoop is “a sequence of notes that alternates between the fifth and third notes of a major scale.”, and is something that repeats successive times. It becomes an Ear Worm. It gets stuck in your head. The term was coined by Patrick Metzger, who notes Katy Perry’s ‘California Gurls’ as the real culprit behind this virulent melodic trend. But that, is also doing two other things, creating the need for you to hear the song again, and also creating a sense of familiarity, which Scientists have opined is something Millennials tend to fall back on. (Don’t we all?) On the other hand, once you become wise to what it is, and really start to get repetitive bits of a song stuck in your head, it can also get a little… (fill in the blank?)

Nonetheless, the Millennial Whoop is, for the time being, a combination of notes that seems to be here (hear) to stay. I’ve pulled a short list of other songs that have that familiar sound, but can you name any others you’ve heard? Let me know! This is where there is that wonderful conjunction between music and science (like getting goosebumps when you hear certain songs (but I’ll save that for another day)), and it looks like for right now, it’s what the music industry is using to get us hooked and stay hooked on pop music.

Kings Of Leon – ‘Use Somebody’

twenty one pilots – ‘Ride’

Owl City & Carly Rae Jepsen – ‘Good Time’