Understanding Wonderwall
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 23 ม.ค. 2025
- But can one ever truly understand Wonderwall?
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A funny thing happens when you mention the 1995 Oasis hit Wonderwall. It warps whatever conversation it's brought up in, transforming it into a debate about the song's merits, its meaning, and what a "wonderwall" even is. It occupies a near-unique place in modern music culture, the poster child for the overplayed, a deeply controversial song that everyone seems to have an opinion about. Here's mine.
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Some additional thoughts/corrections:
1) Seriously, please consider supporting fire relief efforts: www.calfund.org/funds/wildfire-recovery-fund/
2) I promise I don't go looking for songs with the plagal cascade loop. They just keep happening.
3) I do try, as a rule, to not say bad things about other people's art, and I feel like this one is sort of walking that line a little bit, but given the unusual position the song holds (and the artists' contentious relationship with it) I felt like that was alright. I also do think it's important for music theorists to make clear that analysis is not a value judgment, and this seemed like a good place to do that. Apologies if it came across unnecessarily negative, though, that's never my goal.
4) On the multi-fill in the 3rd verse, it's also important that, while the lines drift out of sync, they come back together for the final F#, giving the disorienting bouncing effect a definitive close. Didn't really have a way to talk about it that fit into the script, but it's an important part of the effect.
oh cmon
@@EnheTook50Benadryl ?
"Is Wonderwall a good song?" Well, I said Maybe...
Take my like and get out
Very nice very nice
Is this comment going to be the one that saves me?
It's a great song by a great band. The proof is that 12tone made a video about it. And the other proof is these comments with fragments of the lyrics that we could do ad infinitum.
@@DonovanPresents after all, it's my wonderwall
It's incredible to me that, 30 songs later, this is their biggest song. I never would have predicted that as a kid rocking out to that CD in middle school.
i have a theory that at least half of oasis' songs are love letters from noel to liam, but despite having performed them thousands of times, neither brother consciously understands that this is the case.
Anyhow, here's Wonderwall.
I was totally expecting him to say that after nearly trailing off with his outro. Would have been chef’s kiss.
No wonder I loved it. I was an angry petulant little brat that questioned everything just to be antagonistic. This one always felt cathartic. I love your analyses!
A bar in my hometown had a "No Wonderwall" song put up for open-mic nights.
Even though many people make fun of the song for being overplayed by obnoxious guitarists, I find the song to be great regardless of time
I think it's popularity is a testament to how great of a song it is. Learning to play a song, for a musician, can be super intimate. Playing it in front of others is just as intimate. No one's picking up their guitar in public to show off that they learned Animals
This is the correct opinion
The song itself feels like how “Nice Guys”, quotation marks 100% intentional, think the world should work. The singer wants to be with someone and thinks he might have a chance now that the person is at their lowest. It’s why it sounds so dark and petulant and not really like a love song because it isn’t. The guy just wants what he thinks he deserves and it’s cathartic because you get the sense the singer isn’t going to get it.
Interesting take. I like it. I have always heard it as a call to the last person you think you can count on. Again, not a love song. In that spectrum, not what I deserve but what I need
I love seeing songwriters break the "rules" of music theory, it's legitimately impressive.
For years (until I saw the name of the song in written form), I always heard "Wonderbra".
I have never seen an image of Onion used to such perfect effect in a conversation about emotional feeling.
As a teenager I was very hostile to music that didn't fit my tastes and that included pop. While that kind of attitude sucks and makes one limited in terms of music literacy (I have since changed my approach completely) it had one upside: a lot of songs that people consider overplayed are still fresh to me and I can enjoy them. Wonderwall is one of them
It was so fresh when it came out - it was so long since we'd heard anything like it. It was something to do with pop made by people who looked like people you know, and it felt so sad that it was telling us that it wasn't real, that it was an appeal to nostalgia that advertised its own inauthenticity, knowing we were going to believe in spite of the song.
"A pensive, withdrawn quality"
: Onion
I can't decide whether that's entirely accurate or completely wrong.
At the absolute peak of the "anyway here's Wonderwall" meme i walked past a bar near my apartment and they had a live guitarist who was at that very moment playing Wonderwall
Today, is gonna be the day... that I'll see an analysis on this track
To me the opening gives the feeling of attempting to move but being stuck in the same place with the combination of the drone and the plagal cascade. The singer seems to be obsessed with someone and wants to bring them down to their level, but can’t. It’s like the anthem for bucket crabs, feeling edgy but at the same time poignant because you realize the singer wants to move on but is stuck.
Shoutout to Alan White, drummer of Oasis, for that incredible drum part. I encourage you to check the isolated drum track on TH-cam.
wasnt it tony mccarroll?
Champagne supernova when?
I thought "petulant" a beat before you said it. Great lead in that took us right where you wanted us to go. Nailed it.
The problem with Wonderwall isn't that it's a bad song. It's that people have just heard it too much. In 30 years I don't think I've ever heard anyone criticize it on the basis of quality. It was just SUCH a hit in the 90s that it became inescapable, and it didn't help that it was such an easy choice for karaoke, or anyone with a guitar at a beachside bar anywhere in the world. And you know what? People at those bars sing along when it comes up. It's cringe BECAUSE it's popular. It's the musical equivalence of the old aphorism that "No one goes there anymore, it's too crowded."
glad you're safe buddy
"... And right off the bat we've got a very familiar chord loop." You don't say 😂
genuinely jolted in my seat at the pathologic reference
I’m glad you’re safe from the fires. Thanks for the links, I’ll check them out. Love your work.
Wonderwall is the name of the Supporter's Section at Allianz Field. After every Minnesota United FC (MLS) home win the entire stadium, all ~20,000 people, sing Wonderwall. Why? Because it was a former coach's favorite and it became the teams victory song in the locker room. When the fans found out we started singing it after wins. All the way back in 2011. Now a MLS (not the biggest futbol league) team in Minnesota (not the biggest market) leans all the way in to it this Oasis classic.
"it's the go to song for every guitarist who bothered to learn one song". that's your answer. people love it. it is good. who cares what the snobs say
This is in the category of "probably great songs I've heard too often". Nevertheless I enjoyed the video! Congrats and thanks.
"Annoyed To Be Here, Now," was the original title.
10:03 now I want a cover of this, which is done entirely on the drums. At first, it’s just someone’s naked voice, and then the drums arrive.
Great breakdown. It's so cool to learn why something resonates with us especially when it's a song a dude sat down with a capo and played familiar chords but heard different voicings and added textures based on that new outlook. Of particular interest to me is hearing that little run on two different guitars at the end of the chorus that is very similar to Simon & Garfunkle's "Mr. Robinson" and adds a little folk to the feel. Keep up the amazing work!
Every guitarstore's dreamsong. Campfires love it too.
1:48 Anyway, here's Wonderwall.
in the 90s when i made mix tapes for people, i would always stick it on the end of a side when there were less than a few minutes of tape left, so that it would get cut off. because i hated myself for how much i loved the song. i also picked up a cd of george harrison's album entitled wonderwall in an effort to better understand the song.
That was a waste of money. ;-)
Thank you for using your audiences power to do good for your community
For the intro, I believe the chords change on the end of 3 and the end of 1 the next measure and everything else is on the beat. Nothing is sooner than expected.
And I would consider the drums loud or aggressive. Listening to the snare with its tap and rolls, it’s pretty tame compared to most any other rock song.
I heard this song when I had no idea of its popularity and I immediately liked it and found it intriguing. I don’t know anything about music theory but something they did was just odd enough but still familiar that I can easily see why it became popular
I have to take issue with you about the end of section one: it's NOT a fermata on F#m7 - Liam comes off the 'L' of "Wonderwall" in time for one lone measure of 2/4 on A, then the F#m7 is the start of a 4/4. I've counted it over and over; ain't no 7.8, the drums start in again on the second quaver of a bar of 4/4.
Couple more things about Liam's voice - it's absolutely, characteristically Mancunian, and nasopharyngeal more than strictly nasal (ie there's pharyngeal as well as nasal resonance); compare with Davy Jones of The Monkees, another scion of Manchester, on, eg, "Daydream Believer." What's great about his tone is that it adds a really aggressive element into this ballad; but also pay attention to his timing - he always comes off notes in _exact_ time, as precise as a sequencer and as vicious as a switchblade. For this reason I have always compared him to that other great proponent of exact-note-length singing, Karen Carpenter.
9:18 the mellotron is an early type of a rompler, a sampler with read-only memory (in this case represented by analog recordings on tape), with its samples being recorded sometime before synths took off in the late 60s, so I would say that it's a lot more likely to be a real cello, just sampled for the mellotron
I was in sixth grade when this song came out, and at that time my friends and I were all listening to Pantera and Metallica. I loved this song, but couldn’t tell my friends out of fear they would make fun of me. Years later, I found out we all felt that way. This is the only song that I can remember, that had that effect on us.
Every time I had access to speakers taller than me in college I took the time to open the show and grab the mic and say “anyways here’s wonderwall”. I regret nothing.
The drawing of hornet when he says, "waiting for literal years" 😂😂😂
"It tends to feel like the band has run out of ideas but can't figure out how to just wrap things up."
A minute later: "I didn't really plan an ending for this, so I guess I'm done."
I see what you did there!
"I'm not sure what it's supposed to be about", draws the pennyfarthing bicycle from The Prisoner. I see you 12tone.
Saw Oasis live at the sunday knebworth show in 96, this was a bit of a highlight, of an otherwise very drunk and drug blurred day in a field in Hertfordshire. The sun had mostly set, and I was up on a hill enjoying the music. Suddenly this song started up, and ALL THE LIGHTERS IN THE WORLD seemed to cast this wonderful spooky light on the scene. It was, to my high as a kite mind, the most beautiful thing in the world. They did a good rendition from what I remember, and I don't think they ever quite recaptured that moment since. In some senses, perhaps that was my peak as well, a crazy 20 something with the world at my feet. Ah, different times.
6:21 this week alone i've had 3 tantrums from the kids i work with at school for 1. having to put his coat on (it was 8 degrees outside), 2. someone kicking the ball (they were playing soccer, different than 1st kid), and 3. the coat again (same kid as 1st)
Been waiting for this song for long time
0:30 first song i ever learned on guitar was actually "Hey Ya!"
Tooooday
Me going to Guitar Center to play Wonderwall for 2 hours without buying anything: 🎸💪🗿🔥🔥🔥
If you listen to the version of it at the beginning of Hello you more easily hear a buried guitar most likely also droning B and E on the last 3 chords of the loop giving F# min A add9 E B add4. You can actually see Arthurs playing this a few times in the video 🤷♂(edited to remove accidental hashtag)
that grating nasal condescending tone is pretty common in great rock singer innit
4:03 WHOOOOHOOOOOO!!!!!
At 23:10, when he says "while it quickly becomes repetitive, it never quite makes it all the way to boring", the hand-drawn symbols are the looping arrow (repetitive) and what is very clearly the O from the Halo logo. Which.... what the shit?
its a beautiful song
I feel like that success of this song (which I love btw) is solely based on the fact that there is not one person on the planet that at some point couldn't believe that anybody felt they way they did about some one else.
I always assumed the 'you' was pop music... it's a WEIRD song if 'you' is a person.
Wonderwall is one of those songs that I loathe and despise with all my heart but couldn’t tell you why. I’ll see if a deep dive changes my mind
that lead line is very pretty
Love the Steven Universe shout outs!
5:30 there was a lot of "whiny" going on in 90s vocals. Taken on its own it's not really my favorite feature, but I'm a big fan of grunge and alt in general, and somehow it doesn't really bother me in context.
“I didn’t really plan an ending for this, so… I guess I’m done.” I see what you did there 😉
19:18 not too difficult to count along to, its just barely under one measure, starting after the first beat. Still 4/4.
In fact, it perfectly fits the established tempo in the song. If you keep counting beats during the pause, you'll notice that it falls in tempo, but not measure.
Today is gonna be the day that you’re gonna cover wonderwall
By now you should’ve somehow realized you gotta do em all
I don’t believe that anybody suffers the way you do right about now
That Silksong ref felt aimed right at me ^^;
As the band Travis said: "and what's a Wonderwall anyway?"
I can't understand why the vocals were mixed so damn loud
Okay so this analysis is wonderful so far, but I'll have you know that I'm at 7:48 and I have to pause to see if The Beat Goes On had a video on Oasis to play after this, because that metaphors thing had me 👀👀👀👀
EDIT POST SEARCH: Dang, Matt does not have a video, but youtube searching The Beat Goes On Oasis brought up a Liam Gallagher song, so here we are I gues. LETS CONTINUE~♡
The Silksong reference hurts. It's been so long..
I know it will never happen, but I would really love to see you break down the Neil Cicierega track Wndrwll because of how well it takes all of these ideas and just blows them into weird balloon animal shapes.
"Blurry" is crazy 💀 4:04
Which one do you prefer, Oasis, or Blooor?
@@hobbified I only know 1 song from each, wanna guess which ones? 💀
You forgot to put the capo on the 2nd fret
I have been playing drums for 3 years and struggling to learn this song the whole time. ❤
10:46 I really like this approach to art criticism! Assume there's a good reason and seek to understand it.
Idk, maybe it's just because I don't frequent the kinds of dive bars and parties where this song might become "overplayed" but... I don't feel like I've heard it overmuch. I've always found it to be an interesting song, for reasons I couldn't quite pin down, and which this video explains very well. Intentional or not, there's a lot of interesting motion and contradiction happening, and that's what I like in music.
I like Wonderwall, and I mean... I can't be the only one, as you said yourself, a song doesn't become overplayed because no one likes it. lmfao
i can't hear this song without it being replaced with wndrwll in my head thanks to neil cicierega
It's an alright song IMO.
Could you do an analysis of Kashmir by Led Zeppelin?
Alan White is a top drummer, completely changed the band’s sound for What’s the Story, and I think the missing snare hit at the start of the fill is deliberate, he does similar on Don’t Look Back In Anger. Whether he’s the best drummer in the White family is another debate…
Writing to Reach You by Travis was recorded at the same time in the same studio complex. It has the same chords and features the line "And what's a Wonderwall anyway?"
One of my favorite songs ever.
Interesting that that song is from the perspective of the someone at their lowest. Someone that wants nothing to do with some over eager suitor pining for them, calling them a wonderwall. Like, I just got out of a relationship, bro? Back off just a bit.
Ahnnn... WTH you're talking about? Wonderwall was recorded in 1994, Writing To Reach You was recorded in 1999......
Can you do "just one yesterday "?
Petulent, immature and demanding attention - are you sure you weren't talking about the brothers as a whole, rather than Liam's voice? But yeah, I do think that the song is more elaborate than it first appears, and although I'm not a brit-pop fan, I suspect that that's a common occurence amongst the genre.
1 minute ago... weird, the comments feel empty
I loved this band but It was always kind of my least favorite of the hits at the time. This should be an interesting video.
But the memes are what killed it for so many people.
I’m not a number! I’m a free man!
I'm newer to music theory. Can someone explain to me how the song is in the key of F# major when F# is only used as a minor chord?
I just want to know it won't happen again
As a Manc, I must answer “yes”.
14:11 someone fell for the cake lie
Not the Silk Song reference!! TnT
As someone whose first language isn't english, Wonderwall having a weird name and lyrics is such a non-issue. And I think that's pretty normal! Most people don't know the translation to Gangnam Style or Dragostea Din Tei but they enjoy it anyway. As for me, I certainly don't hate it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
(The Silksong reference hurt me physically LOL)
hello
Question: You played just the drums, or just the guitar or bass or vocal parts, how did you get these audio-data?
Now do Neil Cicierega's Wndrwll
It is good, but people who hate it is because it IS overplayed. It is a staple of 90s Brit-Pop in its absolute heyday
Is wouderwall a good song? Yes?
I have always, from the time the song was released (yes I'm that old) i have always heard this song as an ode to that person thats their for you. Not necessarily romantic or familiar
Why is Wonderwall? Well today is gonna be the day that they're gonna throw it back to you
By now, you should've somehow realised what you gotta do
Before even scrolling down I knew the comments were going to be a wasteland of corny references to the lyrics.
didnt tony mccarroll record wonderwall?
Classic