Adele's Tearjerker, Analyzed, Newtered

It's all Adele, all the time, since she took home those six Grammys on Sunday.

One of the songs that won a Grammy was her sad breakup song, "Someone Like You." The song's been the subject to a lot of analysis lately, because everyone who hears it says it makes them cry. (And here I thought I was the only one who reacted to that great tune like that)

Adele struggles to hold on to all six of the
Grammys she won Sunday.

The Wall Street Journal got all scientific on us, saying there was a musical method called appoggiaturas that naturally inspires us to cry. Hmmm. "appoggiaturas" sounds like the technical name of some nasty STD, but it's not.

According to the WSJ article by Michaeleen Doucleff, appoggiaturas is "an ornamental note that clashes with the melody just enough to create a dissonant sound."

That sounds awful, like an off-key orchestra to me, but it's a lot more subtle than that, apparently.

Appoggiaturas is hard to explain but if you listen to the song, Adele sings, "...someone like you..ooo"

The way she breaks up the "you" as she's singing is supposed to trigger our brains to get all emotional on us.

But Dan Wilson, who co-wrote "Someone Like You" with Adele, told NPR Monday the first he heard of appogiaturas was when he read the Wall Street Journal article. 

Wilson, sensibly enough, doesn't approach songwriting in a scientific way. Neither does Adele, apparently. Wilson said a good song that people can relate to will make people emotional. It's that simple.

 With Adele, we wrote this song that was about a desperately heartbreaking end of a relationship, and she was really, really feeling it at the time, and we were imaginatively creating," Wilson says. "That walked her back through that experience. And when you and l listen to that song, we walk through her shoes through that heartbreaking experience — but it's in our imagination. And so instead of being devastating, we're like children play-acting. We get to have an imaginative experience."

Hell, it even looks as if dogs get into the emotional act, as you can see in the vid within this blog of the sad French bulldog getting over the breakup of a romance to Adele's "Someone Like You." The vid also gives you a chance to hear parts of the song for yourself, to see if you can detect the "appogiaturas."



Whatever the reasoning behind the song, there's bound to be parodies of something this popular. The funniest one was a video I found that takes footage of Adele at the Grammys and does a reworked voice over of "Someone Like You" as a slam on Newt Gingrich.

This is a nonpartisan blog, so the opinions expressed in the video are not necessarily my own. And of course, dear readers, if you find great parodies of any of the other presidential candidates, let me know and I can feature them.

Meanwhile, enjoy (or curse) the opus: "Someone Like Newt" by the fake Adele.