How FEEL IT STILL Became A Hit

9:30 · 1,783 words of transcript · watch on YouTube

1. The song topped six Billboard charts, and since 2003 only twelve songs have managed six or more.
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2. Only one other track has topped the same six, and that one added a seventh airplay chart, making the two the only hits to top the alternative chart plus five others.
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3. The analysis comes from audio engineer David Tough, who broke down close to a thousand Hot 100 tracks from 2014 and 2015 into components.
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4. Intros have collapsed, with over 80 percent under 20 seconds and an average of 12, partly because Spotify only counts a play after 30 seconds.
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5. The three-minute single is a physical inheritance, since a 45 rpm record held about three minutes a side, and the current average sits at three minutes 44 seconds.
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6. Tempo correlates with chart longevity, with the average around 116 beats per minute, and this hit breaks the pattern by sitting near 79.
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7. Subject matter clusters hard: 62 percent of charting songs use the lover archetype, while this one uses the outlaw, a category covering about six percent.
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8. Male vocalists led 67 percent of charting tracks, women 22 percent and duets the rest, and only five percent of songs had a single credited writer.
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9. Only four percent of charting songs leave the title out of the words, with about twelve repetitions as the average, and this one uses its hook line nine times.
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10. The conclusion undercuts the whole exercise: the song was written in under an hour during a mixing break, from an improvised bassline and a line the singer already had in his head.
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