Structure: Bounce by Calvin Harris featuring Kelis

Spectogram of Bounce (produced using Sonic Visualiser)*

Related articles

• Bounce: Mix review by Mike Senior Mike Senior has a regular feature in Sound on Sound magazine, where he analyses the mixes of current pop tunes. Here he sings the praises of Bounce. It's worth taking the time to listen to the songs he reviews with the articles in hand - very informative. More mix reviews here.
• Here a fascinating article about applying the rule of three to music composition. You might like to try applying it to your own compositions, especially when you're feeling a bit stuck. While you're there, you might like to check out some of the other free tutorials (not all are free) on the site: synthesis  Reason  mixing
• Here's a demonstration of how an electro-house track is structured, from the excellent book Secrets of House Music Production. Click on the link to download some free pdf excerpts.
• Stepping away from dance music, this songwriting teacher has a lot of great articles on his site, including analyses of pop songs, for example, here's his take on why the Adele's Rollin' in the Deep works for example.

Tutorial Videos

• Tutorial on making the Calvin Harris sounds using Logic synths - pretty involved, so not for the faint of heart!
• Dance music producer D Ramirez builds up an arrangement with his assistant, filmed by Future Music.  This is the third and final part - they're all worth watching, but be warned, they're long and at times rambling.
• Producers Dodge and Fuski on typical dubstep structure are rather more succinct! Check out their other tutorials if you're interested in dubstep, or dance music in general. They use Cubase and the plugin synth NI Massive.
• Trifonic - who made the Malstrom tutorial linked previously has also done an interesting video about harmony without chords, or counterpoint, in a remix he did of a Hecq tune. Nothing that amazing, but relevant to Calvin Harris's approach in Bounce I think.

Tools

• It's worth downloading Sonic Visualiser - a free, er, sonic visualiser. You can open an mp3 or wav file of a song and view a detailed spectogram and waveform.
• Although Izotope RX is primarily designed as an audio restoration tool, the demo version makes a great free visualiser - the spectogram is great.