Why ‘Seven Nation Army’ was a hit, according to science
The White Stripes‘ ‘Seven Nation Army’ is a song that transcends language and music.
It’s one thing for a song to tap into the zeitgeist and capture the imagination of the world for a singular moment in time, but ‘Seven Nation Army’ has now been embedded into culture for two decades. If it were possible to bottle up the formula for the everlasting appeal of ‘Seven Nation Army’ and sell it, Jack White would be a billionaire.
It doesn’t matter where you are in the world, whether this be São-Paulo to Manila, and there’ll be a bar playing ‘Seven Nation Army’ on the jukebox at any second.
The song belongs to the people now rather than The White Stripes. It was Club Brugge supporters in Belgium who introduced it to football in 2003. Since then, it soundtracked Italy’s World Cup win in 2006, and even became an anthem in American Football, as well as darts. ‘Seven Nation Army’ taps into something deep within the human psyche, and even if somebody is unfamiliar with the English language, they connect with the energy drilled deep at the song’s beating heart.
Many artists overthink the songwriting process, and with ‘Seven Nation Army‘, it was written in a matter of minutes during soundcheck ahead of a concert. White didn’t think a great deal about the creation at the time, and little did he realise that he’d stumbled upon a scientific formula for success.
Speaking to Rick Rubin on the Broken Record podcast in 2022, White explained the scientific theory that helped ‘Seven Nation Army’ become more than a song.
He shared, “I did read an article once about why do we like music at all, from a scientist’s point of view. And it was really scientific and methodical. It was interesting that the theory in this article was the brain is trying to make patterns and make sense of patterns and that we find a thrill when we can complete the melody pattern in our head or guess what it’s going to be.”
White then used an acoustic guitar to demonstrate his point, explaining, “You know, you can guess what those last two notes are going to be and maybe, there’s a pleasantness to that and when you don’t do that (plays different last two notes), resolve it, and maybe that gets into why horror films appeal to people. On paper, why would you want to be scared? That doesn’t make any sense, but we like it. We find it a thrill.”
The singer-songwriter then said that there are “two moments” in the melodies that catch the imagination of listeners and force them to fill in the blanks themselves. White continued to play the legendary song and said it “sounds like you’re going to go up” before noting how ‘Seven Nation Army’ “quickly changes direction”, which he believes is critical to its charm.
His aim for the creation was simple: White wanted to create an anthem that could be contagious without a typical vocal chorus, which is another reason why ‘Seven Nation Army’ is an atypical song. “We didn’t spend much time on that song,” he acknowledged.
If White had set out to follow a scientific formula, there’s every chance that he’d have failed in his pursuit. White could have spent months in the studio chasing a hit record, and never come close to creating anything as catchy as ‘Seven Nation Army’.
Yet, somehow, while messing around at soundcheck, he tapped into a primal aspect of the collective human consciousness and created a song that will live on long after we have all gone.
