# Two pop melodies which can serve as counterpoint for each other.



## Justakid (Dec 7, 2019)

Hi everyone, I'm working on an interesting project right now and I really need your help, because i'm a cultural plebeian and I don't really listen to many pop or rock songs (Bucket list 2020 right there)

I'd appreciate suggestions for any two melodies from popular pop songs which can act as reasonably good counterpoint to each other. More recent songs would be better.

Any ideas? Thanks for your help!


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## Oxygen (Jun 11, 2019)

At Seventeen - Janis Ian 
Piano Man - Billy Joel


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## Dorsetmike (Sep 26, 2018)

Going back a bit I recall hearing Yesterday and Yesterdays performed together can't remember who did it but I thought they went together very well


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

Probably no help, but the first thing that comes to mind is Irving Berlin's "You're Just in Love." Second is Stephen Sondheim's You're Going to Love Tomorrow/Love Will See Us Through which counterpoints two duets. (If that interests anyone DON'T listen to it on the Original Broadway Cast album, as the counterpoint section is edited.) The third thing I think of is Moulin Rouge.


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## Duncan (Feb 8, 2019)

Justakid said:


> Hi everyone, I'm working on an interesting project right now and I really need your help, because i'm a cultural plebeian and I don't really listen to many pop or rock songs (Bucket list 2020 right there)
> 
> I'd appreciate suggestions for any two melodies from popular pop songs which can act as reasonably good counterpoint to each other. More recent songs would be better.
> 
> Any ideas? Thanks for your help!


So basically you're just a kid who's asking us to do his homework for him? :lol:


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## Justakid (Dec 7, 2019)

Aw come on, don't view it like that 

Besides, how else on earth are you supposed to search for this kind of thing? Googling "pop melodies counterpoint" really doesn't yield a whole lot of results. I was hoping to tap into on the experience of pop music lovers, who may immediately think of suggestions after seeing the question?


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## Justakid (Dec 7, 2019)

Aw come on, don't view it like that 

Besides, how else on earth are you supposed to search for this kind of thing? Googling "pop melodies counterpoint" really doesn't yield a whole lot of results. I was hoping to tap into on the experience of pop music lovers, who may immediately think of suggestions after seeing the question?


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## Justakid (Dec 7, 2019)

thanks for the suggestion!


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## Duncan (Feb 8, 2019)

Justakid said:


> Aw come on, don't view it like that
> 
> Besides, how else on earth are you supposed to search for this kind of thing? Googling "pop melodies counterpoint" really doesn't yield a whole lot of results. I was hoping to tap into on the experience of pop music lovers, who may immediately think of suggestions after seeing the question?


Try actually googling "popular music with counterpoint" and work your way through the first dozen or so of the 12,300,000 results...

Notice how many respond with "are we doing your homework for you?"


__
https://www.reddit.com/r/Music/comments/24kuum

and here's the response that's invariably received when asked that very question -

"No, you are not doing my listening homework for me, but I do have a paper due next week! "

JustAKid - tell us more about the project - what is it about and what makes it so interesting?


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## Room2201974 (Jan 23, 2018)

Justakid said:


> Hi everyone, I'm working on an interesting project right now and I really need your help, because i'm a cultural plebeian and I don't really listen to many pop or rock songs (Bucket list 2020 right there)
> 
> I'd appreciate suggestions for any two melodies from popular pop songs which can act as reasonably good counterpoint to each other. More recent songs would be better.
> 
> Any ideas? Thanks for your help!


Pssst.......I'll let you in on a secret: add a touch of hemiola and some Brahmsian displacement of melody against the beat.......and almost any two melodies will do. Shhhhhh, don't let this secret out. You may be the only one who gets an "A" on this assignment.


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## Room2201974 (Jan 23, 2018)

Just thought of a real world example that was actually the process of creating what a lot of folks think is a truly classic rock and roll song. All that was required were two tape recorders, a voice, and guitar. The process went thusly:

On one tape recorder a basic track of voice and guitar in unison singing "Do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do" was recorded. (Don't worry some of you will actually hear the right melody for that in a minute.)

Playback recorder one while recorder two is recording adding harmony vocal and harmony guitar to the same melody line. What you have on recorder two now is a mini wall of sound.....okay, maybe just a hedge, but enough of a rhythm and harmony to sing against.

So when his band mates came to the practice session, our songwriter turned on tape recorder two's hedge of sound and sang a melody with a rhythm pattern different than what was being played on that recorder. 

He sang this line, the vocal lead that he had worked out with a friend:

"There's a woman
That you ought to know
And she's coming
Singing soft and low"


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## Justakid (Dec 7, 2019)

Wow. I'm quite surprised that worked out at all. What was the melody in Recorder One?


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## Justakid (Dec 7, 2019)

The project involves explaining a musical topic to a layman audience (so it's actually an essay). I picked counterpoint, but since most examples of good counterpoint are in classical music (and the word itself isn't even all that common outside of that) and most people listen to pop, I wanted to get two pop melodies instead, stuff which people could easily recognise on a daily basis.


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