For this post, I chose Justin Beiber’s song “Holy.”
Link to official lyric video (which inexplicably has a lot of spelling errors for an official music video?)
- Introduction – 0:00
- 1 measure’s worth of subdued piano chords.
- Verse 1 – 0:07
- Bieber begins to sing on the offbeat of measure 2, which feels a bit unexpected. Each verse is about 8 measures long.
- Chorus 1 – 0:28/0:39
- The choruses of this song have two very distinct parts- the first four measures are the more subdued “hold me/holy” chorus, while the next four are the more energetic “running’ to the altar like a track star” hook. Each chorus is 8 measures long.
- Verse 2 – 0:51
- A rhythmic drum kit background begins, along with a bass guitar, contrasting to the previous verse’s contemplative piano chord accompaniment. There are a few fills of a woman shouting underneath Beiber’s vocals. (8 measures)
- Chorus 2 – 1:11
- The piano resumes, but now takes on a more energetic gospel vibe along with a subtle background of male gospel singers accompanying Bieber. (8 measures)
- Bridge – 1:35
- Bieber repeats the same line twice to make a bridge that is the same length as a regular verse. (8 measures)
- Verse 3/Rap section – 1:56
- Chance the Rapper starts by singing three lines of a new verse, but transitions to rap for the rest of the section. The whole section takes over twice as long as a regular verse’s length (around 20 measures)
- Drop Chorus/Outro- 2:57/3:25
- The majority of accompaniment drops out during the “hold me/holy” section, then resumes at full force with the “track star” hook and powerful gospel choir vocals. It adds 4 additional measures of the “track star” hook, for a total of 12 measures.
- (‘Outro’ – 3:25. The song ends immediately at 3:32 once Bieber finishes singing the last two measures of the chorus, which are once again more subdued than the previous six.)
Music Tech 2023 