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Why Dua Lipa's "Don't Start Now" Is a Pop Masterpiece

By keeping things catchy and interesting, "Don't Start Now" is a great song to get you through self-quarantine.

By Ben SilverPublished 4 years ago 3 min read
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Pop music is something that I can admit, at times, I am not fully versed in. There have been countless times when I’ll tune into Spotify’s hits list and I’ll be completely lost. Who are these names? Who are these features? I generally like pop oriented songwriting, but I find that a lot of pop music contains elements of songwriting that do not appeal to me. Yet, I still come back to pop music expecting at least a few great songs to come from it, and I’m always right. I generally find a good amount of songs to appreciate and maybe even add to my playlists.

Recently I have had Harry Styles’ album, “Fine Line”, on repeat, and songs like “Juice” by Lizzo, and even “Sucker” by Jonas Brothers have been playing on repeat for me for a couple of months now. I think that generally, for a pop song or a pop oriented song to appeal to me, it has to walk that fine line between being catchy but still keeping it interesting. Pop music does not have to be basic, that's a common misconception.

I remember when my piano teacher pointed out to me that P!nk’s song, “Walk Me Home”, alternates between different signatures including 7/4 and 6/4, and it blew my mind. If you can somehow manage to make a pop song in 7/4 you’re a genius in my opinion. This is because pop music should still have an easy to follow signature, but if you can complicate it just enough to the point where you can keep the beat follow-able, this is masterclass songwriting. I find that this is something, as someone who writes songs on a daily basis, that I try and implement into my songwriting.

But all of that aside, I think there’s a lot of bad pop music as well. For example, I think Lewis Capaldi’s Someone You Loved is a terribly written song. That was one of the hottest songs of last year. And Memories by Maroon 5 (a band I love) is a horrible song.

Dua Lipa is a name I really wasn’t aware of until about 3 months ago. I was listening to the radio in the car and I started to notice it. It striked me instantly as a very unique song. The pre-chorus which also kind of acts as part of the chorus, the “if you don’t wanna see me…” part, stuck in my head for days. But I wasn’t annoyed that it was sticking in my head. It was genuinely enjoyable, and it almost reminded me of how musical theater songs are written; large jumps in range in the melody. The melody line in the pre-chorus part is very unique and has many large note jumps, this is very enjoyable to the ear.

The funk/disco feel of the song is undeniably enjoyable. It hits hard and will have your speaker moving. The bass performance is great and almost acts as part of the melody. This also kind of tunes into the kind of pop that resonates with me the most, that kind of party/disco/funk music with good melodies, that’s the stuff I personally love. Give me “Get Lucky” by Daft Punk over “Someone You Loved” anyday.

The song is also incredibly well produced, everything sounds clean-cut but not to the point where it sounds fake. The song still has feel, which is something I find that many pop songs don’t have nowadays. The song tunes in to my love of Jamiroquai and early Maroon 5 as it uses songwriting techniques that made me fall in love with “Travelling Without Moving” and “Songs About Jane”, respectively.

“Don’t Start Now” is a masterclass example of keeping things interesting and catchy at the same time. Walking that fine line is not always easy, but if you do it well, you can achieve great things with pop music. “Don’t Start Now” is a perfect song for the summer of 2020, and definitely a pop masterpiece.

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About the Creator

Ben Silver

I write mainly about music and film. I love arts and music in general.

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