Science has proven that pop songs have been losing diversity over the past 50 years – but the “Millennial Whoop” formula, which has been taking everyone for a ride since around the 80s, has been used somewhat sparingly in years gone by.

However, in recent years, hundreds of pop songs have featured the same chord progression.

This was parodied by the Australian musical comedy group “the Axis of Awesome” in 2009.

But the latest phenomenon is a little more awful, as it’s a little more specific.

Introducing the “Millennial Whoop”.

It was recently highlighted by musician Patrick Metzger. In his blog, he explained the pattern:

It’s a sequence of notes that alternates between the fifth and third notes of a major scale, typically starting on the fifth. 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.

And it is in so many pop songs it’s criminal.

It’s pretty much in every chart-topping song – and there you thought hip hop all sounded the same. Shame on you.

Quartz did a great little mashup of examples, to illustrate how one of the reasons you might like a song is because you have actually heard it before:

Wa-oh-wa-oh, Wa-oh-wa-oh, Wa-oh-wa-oh, love me, oh baby baby.

[source: theguardian&qz]