Anthem Secrets of the Pop Song

Pop music. Glitz, glamour, stars.

A global industry worth an estimated 30 billion.

But none of it would exist without this...

-# Baby love... #

-..the song.

'It all starts with the song.'

No matter if it's rock and roll, pop music or any of that stuff.

If the song doesn't have it,

all the other stuff is just child's play.

You see the occasional little jewel or hear the occasional jewel

in the pop cannon and you think OK, that's why I like pop music.

# It's not about the money... #

So, what makes a great pop song?

'Pop music has to be emotional.'

Whether it makes you angry, makes you cry, laugh,

makes you want to go and tell somebody you love them.

It's got to be the record

you play before you go out. It's got to make you feel good.

There are certain songs that... everyone loves this song.

Even if you say you don't, you do.

You usually get a song,

a real song, from just something that happens in your head.

In this series, we'll talk to some of the most successful song writers over the decades,

to find out how pop songs are written.

And for the first time, we're going inside the process,

as we follow professional song writer, Guy Chambers, write three brand new songs.

Most singles selling over a million in Britain

are written with the help of professional song writers, like Guy.

He's worked with everyone from Tina Turner to Kylie Minogue,

but he's best known for his work with Robbie Williams.

Together they've sold over 40 million albums.

In this series, Guy Chambers is collaborating on three very different types of song.

A ballad with singer songwriter Rufus Wainwright, a breakthrough single with pop maestro Mark Ronson,

and in THIS programme, it's the anthem - easy to sing, harder to write.

Guy and pop band the Noisettes attempt a crowd-pleasing sing along.

We're going to follow the song-writing process as it unfolds

from pen and paper to the very first performance.

And along the way we're going to find out some of the tricks of the trade.

HE PLAYS "LET ME ENTERTAIN YOU" BY ROBBIE WILLIAMS

# Let me... # Everybody!

# ..entertain you... #

Let Me Entertain You, by Robbie Williams and Guy Chambers.

Simple words, simple tune, great performance.

# Look me up in the yellow pages I will be your rock of ages

# See through fads and your crazy phrases yeah... #

This is Robbie's signature anthem. His mission statement.

The song that gets people on their feet, singing along and punching the air.

And a good anthem is key to any live performance.

These are the songs that ignite an audience.

Unlike a ballad, the anthem is not about you and me, it's about us.

It's sort of a mass mentality. It's like a flock of birds, you know?

They're moving along and suddenly they all turn at the same time - like, who gave the order?

And over the decades, it's come in many incarnations. CROWD CHANTS

The football anthem...

The protest anthem...

# The answer is blowing in the wind... #

# I will survive Hey hey... #

The disco anthem.

The rock anthem.

# Sing it We will we will rock you... #

-# In the name of love... #

-The stadium anthem.

-# So what... #

-The pop anthem.

# ..I got my rock moves And I don't need you... #

# People try to put us d-down Talkin' 'bout my generation... #

Rousing and uncomplicated, anthems have come to define entire generations...

# ..'bout my generation... #

# Entertain us A mulatto... #

-..and catapult a band into the pop stratosphere.

-# ..A mosquito... #

# I want to sleep with common people like you... #

But there's one thing that unites these anthems - the fans.

Anthems are not made...

I'll see what I can do.

..they're anointed.

So, how did the anthem go from a Saturday afternoon football sing-along

to compulsory signature tune for every live act?

# Ruby, Ruby, Ruby, Ruby Aaaaaa-aah

# Do you, do you, do you, do you... #

People sing it when they go for curries. Let's go for a...

-HE SINGS:

-..Ruby, Ruby, Ruby, Ruby. Ah, ah, ah, ah.

There's packs of men up and down the country singing that stuff.

# Ruby, Ruby, Ruby, Ruby Aaah-aah.. #

It's just so shouty,

and it's got that great "aaaaah-aah", that response thing.

That hook, that's a super hook, that.

I mean, it's like an uber hook.

# Aaaah-aaaah... #

All the great songs, the anthemic songs,

they morph into other things and they have other lives and the song can get rediscovered

and remixed and put in unusual situations

and it will still stand up and have this amazing power.

# Say no and no-one cares... #

# Go west Life is peaceful there... #

So, what does a song need to make it an anthem?

I suppose an anthem, in my mind, is something which brings people together

with a common thought and a common passion.

# I love rock n' roll... #

-'And what about the music?'

-# ..dance with me... #

Simple, direct, melodic...

..catchy.

# So put another dime in the jukebox, baby... #

I'm thinking of this one that goes, "I get up, I get up and I get down again,

"dah, dah, dah, dah..."

-What's that called?

-Chumbawamba.

-Well, that's an anthem, isn't it?

# I get knocked down But I get up again

# You're never going to keep me down

# I get knocked down But I get up again

# You're never going to keep me down... #

Because that's like, I get knocked down but I get up again, you know, and I will not be beaten.

# ..But I get up again You're never going to keep me down

That's what an anthem is. It's an empowering song.

Fight For Your Right To Party by the Beastie Boys, an anthem.

# You gotta fight For your right

# To party... #

It was saying a really simple thing.

Straight up and hitting you in the gut.

# Zadok the priest... #

Anthems have their roots in choral church music. Here's one.

Handel's Zadok The Priest.

Otherwise known as the theme tune for the UEFA Champions League.

These are bonding songs, which is why most of us have sung along to them,

stood for them and let off steam to them.

# God save the Queen

# We mean it man... #

-I put my hand up for the Sex Pistols' Pretty Vacant.

-Mm.

Or God Save The Queen. That is an anthem.

Any one of those two would do for me.

# I'm so pretty... #

-Or, er...

-Upsetting the status quo.

Anti-establishment vent can be fully expressed by just bellowing out,

and we don't care, at the top of your voice.

It's just a wonderful way to vent.

# And we don't care... #

I don't think anthems are meant to be too intellectual.

I think it's really basic stuff, you know.

It's fairly primitive and that's the appeal.

Can Guy's legendary skills as a hit maker create something that will speak to today's audiences?

If a pop writer could come up with an anthem every time, they would,

because everybody loves a great anthem.

You can't really say what it is that makes it work.

He's given himself only three days to write it, before he performs it in front of the only experts that count.

A live audience.

So, a big hand for the Noisettes.

To help him, he's working with chart-topping band, the Noisettes.

# Go baby go baby go

# Don't upset the rhythm no

# Go baby go baby go

# Don't upset the rhythm

# Go baby go baby go

# Don't upset the rhythm, don't you dare

# Go baby go baby go Don't upset the rhythm... #

Dan and Shingai of the Noisettes have made a name for themselves for their eclectic range of songs,

including this one.

# You can use my dog and bone Go baby go... #

Their reputation as a live act has turned them into crowd favourites.

-# Don't upset the rhythm... #

-'She's a fabulous singer'

and I love their energy, and I like the fact they like taking risks.

Their songs haven't just been one sound.

They've experimented with different things.

They began as a rock-influenced band.

They brought out their first album in 2005, but they're now moving into the mainstream,

so can Guy help them along?

There's no set way of doing it, really.

Just very excited we're here. It feels like it's our first day at school.

You can't hide behind anything with an anthem.

It either makes people want to put their fists up in the air and jump around, or not.

'It can't be too musical and it can't be too involved.

'It should be very easy to get straight away.

'As soon as it starts.'

-Nice to meet you. Guy.

-Hi, Guy. Pleasure to make your acquaintance.

-We're here to write an anthem!

Yeah. As you do!

I think it can be anything we want it to be.

I don't think we need to worry too much about

whether it has big rock guitars.

Oh, wow. Hey.

-Mother ship.

-This is the mother ship.

-Yes, exactly.

-It's beautiful. Wow.

I was thinking Sly And The Family Stone could be good.

-That would be cool.

-Rather than thinking big guitars and...

necessarily going down the Queen road. Doesn't...

I don't know why everyone just sort of suddenly, straight away,

-I mean...

-I suppose they're the biggest ones.

-Shall we have a listen to I Wanna Take You Higher, Rich?

-Yeah.

-# Feeling's gettin' stronger... #

-Busy drums. Busy drums.

'To get things going they listen to Sly And The Family Stone's '60s anthem, I Want To Take You Higher.

MUSIC PLAYS

# I want to, I want to, I want to take you higher

# I want to take you higher

# Baby, baby, baby, Light my fire... #

Slower than you think, isn't it?

Probably about one, ten maybe?

I mean, that's basically one chord, isn't it? With the riff.

-Oh, that's better.

-And that...

-Yeah.

-Brrrr.

-And that's all it is.

'So, where to start?

'The first thing to decide is the tempo.'

Try jamming a bit of a Sly Stone vibe. Shall we try that?

See what happens. OK.

-Sorry?

-It might be good if we start with the singing.

-Oh, yeah. Cool.

-Yeah, you can do a bit of that later.

-Yeah. Awesome. Yeah. I'm just, er...

-Messing around.

-Yeah. Exactly.

-So, feeling, feel inspired.

Hey, hey, hey.

Yeah.

'Guy and Dan try out a Sly Stone type riff, while Shingai tests out some lyrics.

'Guy's used to working fast but not this fast.'

# You say it's down I say it's down

# I go up round in this crowd

# You're saying yes And I'm saying no

# Please get your coat baby it's time to go round

# Hail me a taxi It's raining outside

# Don't want to stay here These people aren't polite

# And on my space Just want you to be with me

# Hang on now What do I have to see now... #

'It had attitude to it and kind of felt like I had to'

step to it but give it a little bit of contrast and like something feminine as well.

Sometimes when you're jamming it's sort of, I don't know, it's very tentative and...

but I think we just had an idea of what we were going to try and do and just made it up on the spot,

and made a Motown anthemy Sly And The Family Stone type of racket.

# And now I know... #

'So far, everyone seems happy with the direction they're taking, but is it the right direction?'

We Will Rock You is the pinnacle of what really makes an anthem work.

For this, Queen have their audience to thank.

And it began one memorable night in the Midlands in 1977.

In our youth, we used to play and it was sort of quite a serious thing,

a concert, and if people made a noise it got in the way.

But, by this moment in Bingley, Queen audiences sang everything.

It was really bizarre and we weren't quite ready for it,

and I think we all looked at each other and something clicked,

and we went, well, why would we not be embracing this?

The audience has become as big a part of the show as we are, the way it should be,

and I remember thinking, well, if you're going to embrace this, what would you do?

You would give people something to do which was easy and they could do even when crammed together.

And I thought, well, you can stamp and you can clap

and you can sing something simple.

Something that's not too rangy. Something which expresses - what would it express?

It would express some kind of desire to break out of where you are

or to make a change or something.

And I think this is all unconscious and I just found myself thinking,

Well, they could go, "we will, we will rock you".

And they could be going...

# We will, we will rock you... #

So I think I woke up the next morning with the whole song in my head,

and everything I think, you know, words and all and it was,

once you got it in your head it was just a question of realising in the studio.

It is funny because people go, oh, it's a great drum anthem, isn't it?

And I go, "Actually, there's no drums on it". Which there aren't.

Only stamps and claps. That's what we did in the studio.

We stamped on some boards which fortuitously happened to be lying around

in this disused church that we were recording in.

Much like in Bohemian Rhapsody we're multi-tracking voices,

in this case we're multi-tracking the sort of rhythmic side of it as well.

That's it. There isn't much else on there except a guitar at the end.

From the germ of an idea in a small venue in Bingley,

We Will Rock You would become the centrepiece of Live Aid in 1985.

-Sing it!

-# We will, we will rock you. #

-Yeah! Do it!

Queen's performance to a global audience of over two billion people

had set a benchmark for the new era of stadium anthems.

# ..rock you... One more time!

# We will, we will rock you! #

I mean the whole place erupted and knew what to do.

It's was amazing for us.

To realise we'd sort of permeated further than our...

what we thought was our audience.

And if you get your anthem right, it can take on a life of its own.

The musical We Will Rock You is now in its ninth year

and is showing in every major city in the world, all thanks to one very simple but effective anthem.

Guy and the band have spent the morning trying out ideas.

They've got the outline for one anthem, Nothing To Be Scared Of,

now they want to try another.

It's good to just do that and try and work quickly

and not get attached to something

because when you start writing, you're going to get attached to the sound of what you're doing.

And it's important to try and be not too attached to that to begin with

and then sort of come up with three things and out of three, find the best one.

Maybe something that isn't so fast this time.

HE PLAYS A CHORD

Mm.

It's an Elton John thing, isn't it?

And again.

And G.

Finally they pick up on another riff they think will work.

Yeah. I think maybe if we could maybe employ a little bit more dynamics cos it's all quite loud.

It is.

-Which is cool.

-No, I see what you're saying. Yeah, yeah.

# I want to grow up

# I want a chance to be so free-ee

# But you met me-e-e

# I'm gonna give you my time tonight

# I said I'm gonna give you my time tonight

# I'm gonna give you my all my time

# Cos the morning's right and it feels so nice

# I said I'm gonna give you all my time tonight

# I'm gonna give you my uh-uh time... #

-Go, yeah.

-Something, I don't know what that word is.

-All right.

# Said I'm gonna give you my precious time tonight... #

Yeah.

# Said I'm gonna give you my precious time

# Cos the moon is right and it feels so nice

# I'm gonna give you my precious time tonight... #

Yeah, could you...?

-That's great but can you try that an octave higher?

-Oh, yeah.

# I'm gonna give you my precious time tonight

# Said I'm gonna give you my precious time tonight

# I'm gonna give you my precious time

# Cos the moon is right and it feels so nice

# I'm gonna give you my precious time toni-i-ight. #

Maybe some kind of pre-chorus, you know?

-Think it should have changed there cos it's like...

-Yeah, OK.

That chorus is quite big, isn't it?

PLAYS WITH MORE INTENSITY

Something like that!

To write a rock song is sort of to negate a part of Shingai's range as a singer as well,

cos she can sing over rock really well,

but I think that there always has to be a good sort of a kind of chord change

that she can get her teeth into.

She's finding the thing that people can go, "Oh, yeah, I want to sing that,"

and sing it at the top of their lungs as well. That is an anthem.

They've worked out the song's basic structure,

so Shingai can lay down a vocal track with some but not all of the lyrics written.

# I'm gonna give you my precious time

# My precious time, precious ti-i-ime

# My precious, precious time

# My precious, precious ti-i-ime. #

That's really, really good.

-Right.

-I like that a lot.

It's the end of day one and they've come up with two very strong ideas.

-That's good.

-Third time lucky.

-Yeah. Third time lucky.

It's all about the lyric.

It drives it, it drives all the energy,

so it's a got a good...

And it's quite a cool thing to say to a crowd as well.

-"This is our precious time."

-Yeah.

Time's precious, isn't it, Elvis?

Guy thinks the lyric of the last track has real potential,

but will it have the emotional pull of some of the great anthems of the past?

# When you walk through a storm

SCREAMING

# Hold your head up high... #

In the '60s, Liverpool football fans adopted Gerry And The Pacemakers' hit, You'll Never Walk Alone.

It appealed to their strong sense of togetherness at a time when the communal singsong

was still commonplace.

CROWD SINGS "You'll Never Walk Alone"

The original You'll Never Walk Alone came from the musical Carousel, by Rodgers and Hammerstein.

At first it was associated not with Liverpool but with Manchester United,

where it was sung following the Munich air disaster in 1958.

There was a stage production of it locally,

and the singers in this production,

I think it was probably the first match after the Munich air disaster,

they went on the terraces at Old Trafford

and sang You'll Never Walk Alone in tribute to the Busby Babes who died.

# At the end of the storm

# Is a golden sky

# And the sweet silver song of a lark... #

It never kind of caught on at Old Trafford but in 1963 it was a hit for Gerry And The Pacemakers,

Gerry Marsden being famously a Scouser.

At the end...

Before the matches at Liverpool, they always used to play a rundown of the top ten,

before the players came out, ending with the number one.

You'll Never Walk Alone was number one for three weeks

and the crowds sang along when they played it,

but they carried on singing it when the players ran out on the pitch.

It's that sense of community, We're with you. Whatever happens, we're behind you all the way.

I think Liverpool still represent that better than most teams.

Gerry Marsden's trick was to give a show tune a poppy edge

by adding a regular beat and a rising and falling piano melody.

The song's hymn-like build to a rousing climax has a timeless appeal

that has spread to other football clubs,

but it will always be part of what it is to be a Scouser.

# ..in your heart And you'll never walk alone... #

This is what a great anthem can do.

# You'll never walk alone. #

CROWD CHEERS

For a song to become an anthem, it still has to be sing-a-longable.

So for something to be sing-a-longable, you have to make sure that it's fairly simple

and you're not going to get any song

that's very, very straightforward like We Will Rock You,

but you don't want something like Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights.

Where it's key changes all over the place,

you're singing in the stratosphere,

you've got semi-quavers all over the place.

You want something very, very straightforward and that's what works.

# Oh-oh, living on a prayer

# Living on a prayer... #

So something like Bon Jovi's Livin' On A Prayer, you've got that... # Oh-oh. #

And you held that note and, you know, you keep your fist in the air

and you're doing all your gestural participation.

# We're halfway there. #

Again, there's a descending scale so that's much easier to sing.

# Oh-oh, we're halfway there

# Oh-oh! #

Then you're going to go up, but you shout it, it doesn't matter.

Do what the football crowd do, shout it out.

# Oh-oh, living on a prayer... #

And this is what anthems sounded like in the '80s.

# Halfway there Oh-oh, living on a prayer... #

Big hair. Big arenas. Big anthems.

# In the name of love... #

Stadium rock has arrived and the bands milk it.

# In the name of love... #

-AUDIENCE:

-# I like it I like it, I like it, I like it

# I la, la-la, like it

# La, la-la, la

# Here we go

# Rockin' all over the world... #

In fact any powerful and catchy chorus found a ready and willing crowd.

# I la, la-la, like it La, la-la, la, here we go... #

And it was all very blokey.

Except for this one.

# Yeah, me

# And I could tell it wouldn't be long till he was with me

# Yeah, me, singin'

# I love rock n' roll... #

Enter the rock chick.

Thanks to Joan Jett,

a minor hit from the '70s becomes a major genre-busting '80s anthem.

# Ow! #

We would play this song live and you'd just notice a reaction,

singing along and it was just sort of, um...

You know, you knew you had something special.

# And I could tell it wouldn't be long

# Till she was with me Yeah, me... #

Its route to stardom was an unlikely one.

It was first sung by English glam rockers The Arrows in 1975.

# I love rock n' roll

# So put another dime in the jukebox, baby, I love... #

Joan Jett caught them performing it on their children's TV show

when touring in the UK. She made it her own.

An element of it, at the time,

you have to remember it was a whole different time,

was the fact that a girl was singing it.

And a girl was playing guitar.

And I could be totally wrong, but I think part of it

was that because you were singing lyrics like,

"I saw him standing there by the record machine",

or, "dancing there by the record machine", you know,

instead of her. And it just really, maybe gave girls the thought that,

"Oh, you know that sounds good to go..."

You know, I'll be able to go pick up the guy

instead of waiting for him to say something.

# Where we can be alone

# An' next we were movin' on

# He was with me, yeah, me... #

And the guys were like, "Oh, that sounds great,"

you know, having a girl coming up and hitting on me and, you know...

So I think it kind of turned the tables a little bit.

# I love rock n' roll

# So come an' take your time an' dance with me... #

It was saying a really simple thing.

Just three chords and they're powerful, just the way they don't...

What I call pedal, you know? They don't move. It's not like going...

PLAYS ONE CHORD CONTINUOUSLY

It's... You know, they're like strong hits and there's nothing in-between.

So it's like guitar, space, guitar, space. Guitar, drums, guitar, drums.

AUDIENCE: # Put another dime in the jukebox... #

It's just a statement of pure joy,

of I love rock and roll, whatever that is to you.

# I love rock n' roll

# So put another dime in the jukebox, baby

# I love rock n' roll

# So come an' take your time an' dance with me

# I love rock n' roll

# So put another dime in the jukebox, baby... #

Loud guitars being so loud it doubles you over.

Even if it is sort of our right to riot and sort of, you know...

We're the underdogs, damn it.

It's day two in the studio with Guy and the Noisettes.

In a surprise move, Guy has decided to ditch their last effort.

Listening to it again just now, I'm not sure...

if it's going to be anthemic enough and it's very old fashioned as well.

And I think if you're going to try and do anthems now, for 2011,

the challenge is to try and write something that's still contemporary,

but using the cliches of the past,

but without it actually sounding like something from 1972.

Instead, he's gone back to the first song they tried -

Nothing To Be Scared Of.

'Needs a proper chorus,'

which would hopefully be the anthemic bit, or try something else.

Do it all again.

Do three more ideas, cos that's...

What's there to lose? You know, then we've got six to choose from as opposed to just three.

This is news to Dan and Shingai.

How will they react to this change of direction?

-Good morning.

-Hello.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Just listened through to the three things

and I'm really feeling this first one we did.

-Oh, right.

-Oh. Great!

-And I just...

-Pull up another chair?

-Yeah.

And I...

just tried writing another section to it

that may or may not work. Just so...

Cos it was... Do you remember it was the one that went...

# Is there nothing to be

# Dah, dah, dah-dah, dah-dah Dah, dah-dah... #

# Nothing to be

# Nothing to be scared oh-oh, oh-of

# There's nothing to be

# Nothing to be, nothing to be

# Nothing to be scared oh-oh, oh-of... #

# Dah, dah-dah, dah Dah, dah-dah... #

I can't remember it at all.

What's... Yeah.

So I've just written another bit.

See what you think anyway.

# Just want you to be with me

# Hang on now What do I have to see now?

# Dah, dah, dah, dah-dah Dah-da-dah, dah, dah-da-dah, dum. #

The music's a little bit too soft and polite for the, kind of...

-Those melodies are quite sort of, er...

-Strident.

Yeah. # Dah-dah, dah, dah, Dah dah, dah. #

Almost quite sort of majestic or anthemic, and I think like,

the chord changes are nice, but the way the music's played is not really matching it, maybe?

Maybe the music should be simpler.

If the vocal's going... # Dah-dah, dah-dah. #

Then the music should just be doing one thing.

-# Dah-dah, dah-dah, dah, dah. # Then the music carries on, maybe?

-OK.

-Do you know what I mean?

-So you could, literally, zone in and tune into it and...

# Dah-dah, dah-dah. #

For me, yeah, I think....

-Yeah, maybe. Stops, yeah.

-Yeah. Yeah.

Cos I think for me, like, anthems should just have that break where you can sing along.

And the guitar player can just do a little bit of a stupid dance move.

Not that I'm saying like a stupid dance move is very important.

-Like a posing move.

-Just, yeah, maybe a little bit more sort of strutting.

A little bit more attitude, I think.

Shingai's not sure about Guy's new chorus.

She thinks her ideas might be more crowd pleasing.

What would take the nah-nah-nahs to the next level on the last chorus

is if we had those, instead of the nothing-to-bes going on, doing a little breakdown,

there should be an answer, say...

# Something, something

# Nothing Dah-dah, dah, dah, dah-dah, dah

# Dah-dah, dah-dah. #

So you're using all the vocalists as well on that last chorus.

# Dah-dah, dah, dah Dah-dah, dah... #

It's like an extension, a solo.

-Yeah, yeah.

-You want to keep going up.

Yeah, keep going up. Yeah.

Shingai's got her way with the chorus.

It's now up to Guy and Dan to give the song a richer sound.

Tell you what would sound good on this is vibraphone. I've got it on my mellotron.

-You've got some on your mellotron?

-Oh, lovely.

# Nah, nah-nah, nah, nah Nah, nah-nah

# Oh, oh-oh, oh-oh, ah-ah, ah-ah, ah

# Nah, nah-nah, nah, ah, oh, oh, oh Oh-oh, oh, oh... #

With the song's building blocks in place,

they play it through to check the lyrics,

ready to fine tune tomorrow.

This is work. This is what I do at school.

-It's raining, isn't it?

-Well, it's already been used.

# Nah, nah-nah... #

But what they really need is a catchy title,

so that it's instantly memorable

when they play it to the public in a week's time.

# Nah-nah, nah, oh, oh, oh, oh

# There's nothing to be scared of... #

And the public are notoriously difficult to second guess about what will become an anthem.

# At first I was afraid I was petrified

# Kept thinking I could never live without you by my side

# But then I spent so many nights thinking how you did me wrong

# And I grew strong And I learned how to get along

# And so you're back... #

Some of the key components of anthems include having catchy slogans.

Something, a small phrase, that means something that,

you know, builds you up to feel good about yourself.

So something like...

# Oh, no, not I

# I will survive

# Oh, as long as I know how to love

# I know I'll stay alive

# I've got all my life to live I've got all my love to give

# I'll survive

# I will survive... #

Gloria Gaynor's I Will Survive -

fantastic number-one gay anthem, but there you have that sense

of everybody joining in because they want to feel the same thing.

They all have a similar way of thinking and so I Will Survive, in fact, emphasises the collective I.

It's no longer very selfish,

but it's looking again at a group, so they still work in very similar ways.

# Hey, hey! #

In 1978, I Will Survive was originally released as a B side.

Seemingly going nowhere, it was discovered by a trend-setting DJ at New York's Studio 54.

It instantly drew the club's glamorous party goers and drag queens onto the dance floor.

# Not to fall apart... #

And the buzz was picked up by the radio stations.

The more they played it, the more people wanted it.

B side became A side and over time the record has generated over 100 million.

# You see me, somebody new... #

What started as the favourite of New York's beautiful people

became the empowerment anthem of the century.

# You're not welcome anymore! #

It's now the unofficial hen-night anthem

and the most popular karaoke song in Britain.

# Oh, no, not I I will survive... #

And I Will Survive's optimism is repeated in many other successful anthems.

# I've got all my life to live... #

They're about the future, don't stop thinking about tomorrow,

things can only get better, they're about the future.

They're always aspiring to a future.

Go West is aspiring to a future.

'And maybe expresses some hope.'

# Go west!

# Life is peaceful there... #

And anthems can take the most incredible journeys too.

Go West started out as a piece of disco camp, and has ended up in the most unlikely place.

The thing that attracted us to Go West... It was Chris's choice.

When he played me the Village People's version, I didn't like it.

And if you listen to the Village People's version,

I don't think it's that anthemic actually. It's more of a disco stomper.

# Go west

# Life is peaceful there, go west

# Lots of open air, go west

# To begin anew

# Go west

# This is what we'll do... #

It didn't have a middle bit, Go West,

it just had verse-chorus, verse-chorus, verse-chorus,

and we put the bit which is the inspirational bit,

the aspirational bit.

# There where the air is clear We'll be, we'll be

# What we want to be... #

Um, cos it didn't have that

and it sort of needed to go on a bit more of a journey then come back

to get that very strong anthemic feel.

# There where the air is free

# We'll be what we want to be

# Now if we make a stand

# We'll find our promised land... #

The Pet Shop Boys' Go West is a good example of an anthem,

as it has that repetition element to it.

The go west, go west.

# Go West, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah

# Go West Dah, dah, dah, dah, dah. #

And it's all based on this repetitive bass line and chord progression.

So when you hear it, it might sound very familiar

as it's based on Pachelbel's Canon. So the chord progression...

SHE PLAYS CHORD PROGRESSION

And that base line keeps going.

And we can put it over the top.

SHE ADDS GO WEST MELODY

And if you're singing, "go west, go west," all the time,

everyone's going to join in, you're going to know what to sing.

-# Where the skies are blue

-Go west

# This is what we're gonna do... #

But it wasn't just the song's structure that packed a punch.

Events that shook the world had given it a new emotional force

when the Pet Shop Boys released their version in the early '90s.

We thought about what Go West was when it was written.

Go West was written before AIDS, and it was about the gay utopia

of San Francisco and California, in the era of YMCA

and gay liberation.

You know, the era of Harvey Milk and all the rest of it.

In-between the song being written and our version being released,

you'd had the entire AIDS crisis and we'd all known people

who had died or at that point were still dying.

Um... And so we were aware that this song now had a kind of pathos.

It was a memory of the dream of gay liberation.

So that gave it a kind of pathos and the pathos reinforces its anthemic quality.

And here's where Go West went next.

Its repetitive melody has made it an unlikely hit on the football terraces.

THEY SING THE FOOTBALL SCORE TO THE TUNE OF GO WEST

And it's extraordinary that, you know, football,

with its history of kind of a very male macho environment

have adopted what is essentially a gay anthem.

I don't think they care or think about it and that can cut across pop music,

it can cut across classical music,

it can cut across religious music, anything really.

OPERATIC MUSIC PLAYS

THEY SING INDISTINCT LYRICS ALONG TO LAND OF HOPE AND GLORY

TO TUNE OF GO WEST: # It's 3-nil And no-one cares, 3-nil

# And no-one cares, 3-nil And no-one cares, 3-nil

# And no-one cares. #

THEY CHANT INDISTINCTLY

Yeah, that's amazing.

It's the final day.

Guy, Dan and Shingai

have spent two days cooped up inside the studio writing their anthem.

They still haven't found the right lyrics.

I think we should try and write a lyric for that line.

What, the nah-nah, nah-nah, nah?

# Everything a nah-nah, nah-nah, nah

# Nothing to be scared of except me. #

OK. I feel you.

I think you need to put the "except me", first chorus.

I kind feel like it's the chorus that's getting a little bit long.

-The next two lines you'll want to hear something that repeats, I think.

-OK, all right.

I think it's too much lines to be anthemic cos you have to hear it.

-OK.

-I think it shouldn't be too complicated.

-I just think it's got to be really simple.

-Mm.

Really easy, like a kid can sing it.

-Mm.

-"Care in the whole world," as long as it has that rhythm.

Like, just not too many words.

-Yeah. Yeah.

-Yeah.

-OK.

-Throw away.

# We ain't got a care. #

So you could even sing it Cockney in a pub.

# We ain't got a care in the

# We ain't got a care in the whole world. #

Too many words?

Yeah. I can see that it's got the internal rhymes.

But we could still have a little tag at the end though.

I like having a small tag. Yeah.

# I'm tired

# Get yourself here Let's go, let's go

# Now let's play, we ain't... #

Maybe it could be let's go...

-and play, couldn't it?

-OK.

# So get yourself here and let's go, let's go and play

# We ain't... #

And play, yeah, yeah.

It's not as strong cos it's like a vowelly sort of sound.

-Let's play is...

-Three is good. Let's go, let's go, let's play.

-I think that's cool.

-You were mentioning that less words is good.

-Can be good.

-Maybe the repetition is good, I don't know.

# I'm tired of this place Look at my face

# Hey, boy, hey, boy

# I'm tired of here

# So get yourself here And let's go, let's go

# Let's play We ain't got a care in the world

# There's nothing to be scared of

# Cos we ain't got a care in the world

# There's nothing to be scared of Come with me. #

-It's chase.

-Chase, ah.

-I'm tired of the chase.

-Tired of this chase.

-I like, yeah.

-Look at my face.

-Tired of disgrace.

-Oh.

-Tired of this chase is better.

-Tired of being chased.

-I don't think that's going to fly, that.

Tired of toothpaste! Cos it's...

-Tired of toothpaste!

-Cos it's got fluoride in it.

OK, this is a waste. I think tired of this chase is perfect.

We're on a roll here.

-Tired of this chase, yeah.

-Yeah, it's better.

-OK, good.

Glad we got that sorted out!

Who needs a thesaurus when you've got a park.

All right, cool.

An English park, I feel a Britpop anthem coming on.

Tired of the bombastic stadium rock of the '80s,

Britpop bands looked at the world around them.

# Parklife

# And morning soup can be avoided

# If you take a route straight through what is known as... #

And what better way to celebrate 1990s cool Britannia

than with a good old mockney sing a long. All right?

# So many people They all go hand in hand

# Hand in hand through their parklife... #

# She told me that her dad was loaded

# I said, "In that case I'll have rum and coca-cola"

# She said, "Fine"

But it was a former art student from Sheffield

who gave Britpop the real deal with Common People.

# I want to live like common people... #

Jarvis Cocker's satire on the British class system.

# I want to sleep with common people... #

Suddenly anthems became clever.

# ..like you

# Oh what else could I do

Here you have descriptions of very specific things so, you know,

he meets this girl at St Martin's College, the art college in London.

She's a Greek girl.

You find out that she's rich and she wants to be with the common people.

There you have the most brilliant example

of a tale of slumming it, which is also anthemic and celebratory.

# I said, "Pretend you've got no money"

# But she just laughed and said, "Oh you're so funny"

# I said, "Yeah?

# "Well I can't see anyone else smiling in here"

# Are you sure you want to live like common people?

# You want to see whatever common people see

# You want to sleep with common people

# You want to sleep with common people like me

# But she didn't understand

# She just smiled and held my hand

# Rent a flat above a shop Cut your hair... #

It's not the lowest common denominator.

It's actually quite a smart song and it's totally an anthem

because it's got a very, very simple tune in it. # Do-do-do-do. #

It's not formulaic but it's totally relatable.

# You'll never do what ever common people do

# You'll never fail like common people

# You'll never watch your life slide out of view

# And then dance, and drink, and screw

#Because there's nothing else to do... #

I think Common People is a folk song.

It's a folk song which will be sung

in, you know, a couple of hundred years' time.

After three days of intensive work, they're ready to record the song.

-I'm liking this better.

-Better, it's good that.

# Whoa I'm tired of this chase

# Look at my face Hey boy, hey boy

# I'm tired of here

# So get yourself here and let's go, let's go

# We ain't got a care in the world... #

Sounds very tired.

I'm missing the "scared", you know the way you did that, in the chorus?

Oh, I think I missed one out, yeah.

Yeah. It's...

# Cos we ain't got a care in the world

# There's nothing to be scared of

# We ain't got a care in this whole world. #

-That's very pronounced.

-It's gone a bit quiet.

-OK. All right.

-It lacks a bit of energy.

-OK.

Perhaps you need to be standing on your feet to be able to project.

-Do you know what I mean?

-That's a really... That's an idea.

# Nah, nah, nah, nah-ah-ah-ah

# Nah, nah, nah, nah-ah-ah-ah. #

I'm going to do it lower.

It's too Bee Gees!

Love 'em, but...

# Scared of

# Nah, nah, nah, nah-ah-ah-ah

# Nah, nah, nah, nah-ah-ah-ah

# Nah, nah, nah, nah-ah-ah-ah

# Nah, nah, nah, nah-ah-ah-ah

# I'm tired of chains... #

-First half.

-Yeah. That's great. Good, yeah.

# Nah, nah, nah, nah-ah-ah-ah

# Let's play Nah, nah, nah, nah-ah-ah-ah... #

The anthem is in the bag.

It's called Let's Play, but will it convince the experts, the public?

# Nah, nah, nah, nah... #

Because without the public, there is no anthem.

# We come... #

Through the '90s and into the Noughties,

a new kind of music arrived, the dance anthem.

No fancy guitar solos, just a short keyboard riff and a finger.

# We come... #

Even though it was sort of relatively simple

it was a very crafted piece of music.

It took about seventeen different incarnations

before we kind of found the right one

and the lucky thing is that I'm a DJ

and I played that record in its kind of various forms out in the clubs,

and so I had that direct affirmation.

It wasn't that we thought, "Yeah, we've hit on it. Here's anthem."

We actually had to have the affirmation from the crowd itself

which is the brilliant thing about dance music.

It's got this really DIY feel that you can make a track on Thursday,

play it out on the Friday and it can be,

you know, a demand for it by Saturday

when people have obviously recovered from Friday.

# Flapping like a humming-bird

# I'm nervous cos I'm the left eye

# You're the right

# Would it not be madness to fight? We come one... #

Max's lyrics have this kind of universality about it.

"We come one." I don't know why, it just pinged into my head.

I have sort of one good idea every five years

but luckily it came on that day.

But "we come one" is like we've become one,

or we become one thing if you like, but it's a bit more Jamaican.

And Maxi just went, "I like that", and off we went. It flew.

Funnily enough, as you said that the exact same words came into my head.

-Did? What? On that day?

-On that day.

I remember where you were sitting exactly

cos I was about to say it

and you came out with it, it came out of your mouth

and I was like, "Wow! That's odd."

Well, maybe that explains our telepathic song writing powers.

This finger used to mean me, me, me, and now it means unity.

It actually took on a new life as well

in places where you know, conflict has been quite recent.

You know, places like Serbia and Croatia, etc,

and it was always incredibly moving to me to see

a whole bunch of the youngsters to that song in particular,

would come hurtling down to the front

and their want would be so fervent

because their recent experience has been very far from peace.

It's, you know, it becomes more than a song

that was just destined for a club dancefloor.

It has that extra sort of level of potency.

Guy and the Noisettes' new song

is ready for its first ever public performance.

Has it got the right ingredients for an anthem?

Shingai was continually saying, now let's make it really simple.

I tried to make it a little bit more complicated

but luckily she resisted and kept it super simple.

I think the melody and the chorus is anthemic.

I don't know if it's anthemic in the same way as the great rock anthems.

They'll find out when they play it live and see how people react to it.

# You say it's love I say it's now

# I keep on dancing around and about

# If you leave your friends Cos I can't pretend

# I saw you in the crowd with the back of my eye

# Won't you hail me a taxi

# It's raining outside

# Take me to a place where hearts collide

# Cos I'm tired of this chase Look at my face

# Hey boy, playboy

# I'm tired of here I just want you near

# So let's go Let's go

# Let's play Cos we ain't got a care in the world

# There's nothing to be scared of

# We ain't got a care in the world Nothing to be scared of

# And I swallow my pride I'm taking my time, honey

# You don't want to know what's going on in my mind

# Well, ain't it bizarre I'm gonna make you feel like a star

# And heaven won't be too far Stop! Wait a minute just for me

# Tell me lover what's it gonna be?

# Cos I'm tired of this chase Look at my face

# Hey boy, playboy

# I'm tired of here

# I just want you near So let's go, let's go

# Hey, we ain't got a care in the world

# There's nothing to be scared of

# Cos we ain't got a care in the world

# Nothing to be scared of

# Nah-nah-nah-nah-ah-ah-ah

# Nah-nah-nah-nah-ah-ah-ah

# Nah-nah-nah-nah-ah-ah-ah

# Wow, let's play

# Baby I'm tired of this chase Look in my face

# Hey boy, playboy

# I'm tired of here I just want you near

# So let's go, let's go I wanna play

# Cos we ain't got a care in the world

# There's nothing to be scared of

Let's play

# We ain't got a care in the world Nothing to be scared of

# I can't seem to find a way out A way out

# So give me your number and let's go

# It's high time you were mine

# Let's play

# Let's play

# High time you were mine. #

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yeah, that was my favourite song actually. Yeah.

Like, definitely the chorus was really good.

She really got the crowd going

and you could really feel like what she felt while she was singing.

Everyone was dancing.

Everybody sang along after the first time

so, you know, that's the sign of a great anthem, I think.

A lot of people were signing it back. That's a good sign.

It's a great sign for it and I think it's got a very, it's up tempo.

It's got a very positive feel. But you can never really tell.

Nothing To Be Scared Of is good,

it's a good message for her, I think.

-Yeah, it's great.

-Cos she might intimidate some people.

-Some blokes!

So I think it's a good, it's very good for her.

It's like a child, you can't plan what you want it to look like

before it comes out.

You've just got to make good love

and hope for the most beautiful sonic baby.

Cos to me a pop song's like a rocket

-and you want to get to the moon as quickly as possible.

-Yeah.

And you can tell I've had a couple of drinks!

-But, er...

-No, carry on with the analogy. I like it, I like it.

-Well, it's good when you have a really sharp ramp...

-Yeah.

-Is that the right word?

No, it's great when you have a sharp ramp. You start with a bit of teasing. Er, a sort of slow...

-Not too much teasing.

-Not too much teasing.

You don't want people to fall asleep but when it does take off, it's...

The foreplay can't be tedious.

No, it can't be tedious.

This audience love it.

So where does Let's Play go from here?

A great anthem is measured not on one performance but over years.

# You'll Never Walk Alone... #

Will it become their signature anthem?

A key part of their repertoire?

That decision is now in the hands of the public.

Which is why there's never been a magic formula for writing an anthem.

And why they will always be

one of the hardest things for any songwriter to crack.

What do you think? Try something else?

# We are the champions

# My friends

# And we'll keep on fighting

# Till the end

# We are the champions

# We are the champions

# No time for losers

# Cos we are the champions... #