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

= 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 threefour 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 agrees that many of them are parodies of classics or folk songs. Card Zero  (talk) 09:54, 14 July 2022 (UTC)