Oasis: What makes “Wonderwall” the song of choice for buskers and karaoke singers?

• It’s the weekend, meaning if you’re out and about you’re no doubt going to bump into a busker or two on the high street.
• No doubt, said busker will perform at some stage Oasis’ iconic song, “Wonderwall” at some stage.
• So why is the song such a beloved favourite to perform from a music theory standpoint?

It’s “the” Oasis song that many people go to when at a karaoke bar, or the one Oasis song you’ll no doubt hear from buskers on a night out at any given point over the weekend.

But what makes “Wonderwall” such an iconic track that leads many aspiring musicians or weekend vocalists to have it as part of their repertoire? 

By virtue of Simply Business, who’s latest advert takes advantage of such earworms as “Wonderwall,” they allowed me to ask Dr. Jacob Downs, a lecturer of music and one of the BBC’s New Generation Thinkers, explains why the song resonates so much with musicians from a music theory perspective. 

“I think there are a host of compositional reasons for Oasis’s continuing success: catchy melodies, both in the lead vocal lines and in the arrangements more broadly; memorable, sometimes quite poetic lyrics, often about heartache or life’s other difficulties; and a real era-defining ‘sound’ to their record production.” 

“But ultimately, what makes an artist or band stand the test of time comes down to more than just the structural properties of the music: it’s the personae the artists adopt, the clothes they wear, the rivalries they have – even among themselves!”

“[Wonderwall] carries emotional weight as well as playing with how we hear tension and release as listeners, I think. The psychology of expectation is, after all, so important to how we experience emotion in response to music. I know it’s become a bit of a busker’s cliché, but I won’t have a bad word said about ‘Wonderwall’.

Do you agree with Dr. Jacob Downs’ assessment why “Wonderwall” is constantly being played by buskers? Are you a busker or a cover musician that agrees with the reasons why “Wonderwall” is so popular to play? Let us know by leaving a comment down below.