2024 has been Chappell Roan’s year.
After a moment of collective discovery in the spring, it seems that everyone on the internet, people of all ages has listened to at least one of her songs every day since. Every TikTok trend seems to revolve around her music and some people even started playing her track’s instrumentals behind famous TV monologues.
Whether it’s “Supergraphic Ultramodern Girl”, “HOT TO GO,” or “Pink Pony Club,” odds are at least one of her songs is running through your head at any given moment.
It’s not up for debate, the artists create certified bops. But one TikTok creator took a little bit too deep of a dive into the Chappell Roan music universe and came out with a tortured, yet undeniably catchy mashup that has the internet torn.
Ryan came to the realization that the backing track of Smash Mouth’s 1999 hit “All Star,” fits seamlessly behind Chappell Roan’s vocals in “Pink Pony Club.”
So seamlessly, in fact, that upon first listening to his mashup, it’s hard to tell that anything is different. Leaving Ryan and his viewers questioning if it was really the same song the whole time.
Several people under Ryan’s viral video have some theories as to why the two songs gel together perfectly. But most people feel shocked, wowed, bamboozled, and a little bit lied to. Although, most of them can’t disagree that the combo makes for a certified banger.
One commenter noted that “Pink Pony Club” and “All-Star” had both fallen prey to the four-chord song. Because there are only four main chords in the backtrack, the two songs end up working together because the chord progression is likely similar or even the same.
Others just said that there are only really so many formulas to make a song anyway, arguing that Ryan could do this to a large number of pop songs and end up with the same mind-melting results.
One even patronizingly stated that they remember when they realized that tons of music shares the same tempo. They state that they were significantly younger than Ryan when they made that realization, and encouraged him to hang on to his hat until he finds out about the four major chords.
Fortunately, Musical U has an answer to this unexplained phenomenon. According to them, many pop songs end up sounding similar because they use the same chord progression, just like commenters theorized. Sure arrangements, keys, and tempos may be different, but the same basic chords are what’s tickling our ears with a large number of the pop songs that we enjoy. C, G, A, and F are popular chords in lots of rock and pop songs.
The good thing is, that the familiarity of these notes makes it easier for musicians to site read and music lovers to sing along.
It also makes weird and wonderful mashups like this one even more feasible. The next time you hear yourself complaining about all those new artists sounding the same, remember that you could be in for a very iconic, very random favorite artist crossover in the very near future.