Creepy Doll Musical Analysis

 In the spirit of the first week of October and Halloween being my favorite holiday, I decided to analyze a song I listen to every October. Creepy Doll was written and sung by Jonathan Coulton was released in 2006. This is a fun song to play at a Halloween party. I always know I jam out when I listen to this in my car. When the beat drops it always makes my head start bobbing up in down aggressively. 

Beat

To the best of my ability, I attempted to count out how many beats per minute this song had and I counted roughly 108 bpm. I tried to confirm this online, however, I couldn't find a definitive answer. I found a website called Song BPM that I tried to use to find it, but it gave me a range from 70 bpm to 140 bpm so I didn't trust it. 

Meter

The meter I believe is in two. I think this is done intentionally to mimic the heartbeat that we hear at the beginning of the song. The two beat meter also causes what I would call almost a seesaw effect with the lyrics that add to the creepy aesthetic. 

Lyrics 

This song doesn't seem to have some deep profound meaning behind it. It seems to be just telling a story about a creepy doll. It can be stretched into something deeper if you really try. An individual on songmeaning.com stated that "The doll could resemble his conscience. It always follows him, nagging at him until it annoys the crap outta him. He tries to get rid of it (box in the fireplace), but he can't, because it's him." Another individual same sight, however, quotes the singer/songwriter himself, stating "Per Coulton: 'I don’t know what’s going on with this one, I just decided earlier this week that it was time to write a song about a creepy doll. I was thinking about various 70s horror movies that scared the hell out of me when I was a kid. Back then you didn’t need to torture people with chainsaws and drills to make a scary movie, it was enough just to have a doll that kept showing up. Or maybe a clown. I couldn’t keep a straight face though, somewhere in the middle of the song the doll just becomes not so much creepy as annoying.' So, yeah. No deep meaning. Just some wacky fun. Take what you want from it."

Form

The intro starts with a rhythmic beating sound like a heart. There are three verses before the chorus. The song follows this pattern again until after the second Chorus. There is a bridge that is followed by a guitar solo. There is two more verse before the last chorus. In the end, the guitar holds the last note before being abruptly cut off.  

Dynamics/Timbre

The song starts off fairly softly the heartbeat is quite followed by soft singing and what sounds like small bells or a glockenspiel. All of the verses have this soft quiet feel to them. It has a slower melody to it. His voice is smooth and clear. In contrast, the chorus always starts with a sudden start in playing the guitar and drums and his voice becomes more raspy and loud. It is also faster. The bridge is a bit of a combination of both. The music doesn't lose its faster tempo but his voice smooths out and becomes richer. 

Bibliography

“BPM and Key for Creepy Doll.” Song BPM, 2011. https://songbpm.com/searches/4b5ea8df-a897-4548-8c94-8426fca24e4d.

“Grammarly.” www.grammarly.com. Accessed October 4, 2021. https://app.grammarly.com/ddocs/1313358730.

“MyBib – a New FREE APA, Harvard, & MLA Citation Generator.” MyBib. Accessed October 4, 2021. https://www.mybib.com/#/projects/WNwVde/citations/new.

SongMeanings. “Jonathan Coulton - Creepy Doll Lyrics.” SongMeanings. Accessed October 4, 2021. https://songmeanings.com/songs/view/3530822107858687676/.