# I've heard this song before **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 28, 2026, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-heard-this-song-before/1031979 "2026-07-28T13:39:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2026, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-heard-this-song-before/1031979/1 "2026-07-28T13:39:34Z")
> **[Once you hear it, the 'Gen Alpha melody' is everywhere](https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/articles/once-you-hear-it-the-gen-alpha-melody-is-everywhere-090000081.html)** > > A graduate student went viral showing all the songs that use one circular tune. The resemblance is "pretty stunning," a musicologist said. > Over the years, he would keep hearing those four notes elsewhere. He first noticed it with “Apt.,” 2024’s hit song by Rosé and Bruno Mars. Then he heard it throughout K-pop, American pop, dance music, indie records and hits all over the world. > > “I was pretty sure at the time it was not just a chord progression. It was an exact melody being copied,” Martin said in an interview from his Denmark home. I identify as Gen X, so naturally the _best_ music was from the late-'70s through the mid-'90s. I’ve often thought that popular music today is boring and repetitive (and also lacking social commentary). I’ve put that down to ‘Eh, you’re just being crotchety.’ But now, I’m starting to wonder if everything _does_ sound alike nowadays. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2026, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-heard-this-song-before/1031979/2 "2026-07-28T13:48:24Z")
Great, someone’s discovered the concept of a chord progression. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2026, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-heard-this-song-before/1031979/3 "2026-07-28T13:51:02Z")
“I was pretty sure at the time it was not just a chord progression. It was an exact melody being copied,” Martin said in an interview from his Denmark home. ---
**Author:** ![Pork\_Rind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pork_rind/32/111_2.png) [@Pork\_Rind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pork_Rind)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2026, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-heard-this-song-before/1031979/4 "2026-07-28T13:55:51Z")
Yeah, I remember when that comedy video of a single, same chord progression fitting underneath the melodies of a couple dozen pop songs came out. It was I teresting, but if you play piano or guitar, you’re eventually going to realize that there are very few chord progressions out there. This is different though. It’s a straight rip of the melody. A few minutes in to the video I’m surprised there aren’t multiple recursive plagiarism lawsuits underway. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2026, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-heard-this-song-before/1031979/5 "2026-07-28T14:03:02Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > so naturally the _best_ music was from the late-'70s Boston’s first album! I’m a late-end baby boomer. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2026, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-heard-this-song-before/1031979/6 "2026-07-28T14:23:38Z")
Melodies are easy to unconsciously co-opt. I remember the story of how Paul McCartney, having dreamed the melody to what would eventually become ‘Yesterday’, played the melody for a lot of different people to make sure he hadn’t unconsciously picked up an existing melody before making a complete song out of it. And of course there’s the story of “My Sweet Lord” by George Harrison: > George Harrison was found guilty of “subconscious plagiarism” in 1976 because his massive 1970 solo hit “My Sweet Lord” shared identical musical phrasing with The Chiffons 1962 hit “He’s So Fine,” though the judge ruled he did not copy it on purpose. Now, with social media creating an enormous echo chamber, I imagine it’s easier than ever to accidentally (or on purpose) reuse a catchy melody you’ve hard before. Pop has eaten itself. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2026, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-heard-this-song-before/1031979/7 "2026-07-28T14:36:27Z")
Near as I can tell, though, it’s not the melodies that are the same. The melodies in question all have eight or more notes. The “same four notes” are a harmony to the melody. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2026, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-heard-this-song-before/1031979/8 "2026-07-28T14:45:57Z")
I suspect someone could compile as many examples of songs using the “Louie, Louie” melody in the mid-1960s. ---
**Author:** ![Author\_Balk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Author\_Balk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Author_Balk)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2026, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-heard-this-song-before/1031979/9 "2026-07-28T15:08:37Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > suspect someone could compile as many examples of songs using the “Louie, Louie” melody in the mid-1960s. There is a local group and part of their set is playing several “Louie Louie” type songs in a row. I assume this is what is meant by the Louie, Louie melody. Another part of the set are songs like Super Freak. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2026, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-heard-this-song-before/1031979/10 "2026-07-28T15:24:39Z")
> [@Pork\_Rind](#): > > Yeah, I remember when that comedy video of a single, same chord progression fitting underneath the melodies of a couple dozen pop songs came out. Pachelbel’s Canon, IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2026, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-heard-this-song-before/1031979/11 "2026-07-28T16:22:55Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > I suspect someone could compile as many examples of songs using the “Louie, Louie” melody in the mid-1960s. “Wild Thing”, for one.