'The Millennial Whoop' – the melody that's been infiltrating pop music

Katy Perry (Reuters)
Katy Perry (Reuters)

Have you heard the Millennial Whoop? Chances are, you have.

A US musician has noticed the same vocal pattern is being emulated in pop songs from the past five years.

Patrick Metzger, a composer and singer-songwriter, posted on his blog about what he has named 'the Millennial Whoop'; an alternating, melodic sequence of notes sung in the same pattern.

"It's a sequence of notes that alternates between the fifth and third notes of a major scale, typically starting on the fifth," wrote Mr Metzger on his blog.

"The rhythm is usually straight 8th-notes, but it may start on the downbeat or on the upbeat in different songs.

"A singer usually belts these notes with an 'Oh' phoneme, often in a 'Wa-oh-wa-oh' pattern."

Mr Metzger cited Katy Perry's 2010 hit 'California Girls' as an example, with the whoop coming in first at 0:51.

The whoop is also distinctly obvious in the first five seconds of Owl City and Carly Rae Jepsen's 2012 song, 'Good Time'.

Mr Metzger said the benefit of such a short, melodic hook is the ease at which it can be emulated without the risk of copyright issues.

Jepsen and Adam Young (Owl City) were sued in 2012 by Ally Burnett, who said the track copied her 2010 tune, 'Ah, It's a Love Song', but Young fought the lawsuit and won when 'Good Time' was deemed an original work.

Mr Metzger and commenters on his blog identified more songs on which the whoop was present;

Newshub.