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Music

Writing a Chainsmokers Song is Super Easy and Some Guy Online Proved It

"You wanna find lyrics that talk about how hard it is being white and in love."
Lauren O'Neill
London, GB

The Chainsmokers own music now. That's just how it is – "Closer" is ubiquitous. Their debut album Memories… Do Not Open has become a shining example of what two sentient, vaguely but unsettlingly misogynistic dating app profiles can do when they've got both a basic knowledge of production software and nostalgic songs about the time they got naked with Instagram models last year in their hearts.

But the thing is, it's actually pretty easy to be the Chainsmokers. Their songs are uncomplicated affairs (a major part of their 'haven't I heard this melody before' appeal), and now some guy on the internet – real name John Fassold – has cracked their code. And he's done so in a series of Snapchats collected on YouTube for posterity (with a considerate apology for posting the vertical video too):

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Having identified the group's simple three-chord songwriting structure, Fassold busts out a bunch of different Chainsmokers-esque songs about literally everything (champagne, oak trees, Febreeze and laundry detergent) in mere seconds. Thankfully, he has also provided a finished version of one of the tracks he started in the Snapchat videos, presumably as the last part of an instructional series on how you too can become an EDM god by having a child's grasp on the piano:

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(Image via YouTube)