What is Negative Harmony and why are TikToker's obsessed?

Music edits often appear on TikTok, with sped up and slowed down versions of popular songs taking over the platform's trends - and the latest one making rounds is Negative Harmony songs.

But what is Negative Harmony?

"Negative Harmony is a theoretical concept that suggests every scale has a Negative mirror image (or Upside Down scale) from which chords and melodic notes can be substituted to equal harmonic/melodic significance," according to Opus Science Collective.

Essentially, the idea is that every note and chord has a negative equivalent when arranged in a certain way - musicians like Jacob Collier have gone into great detail about the subject and it involves switching music over specific inversion axis depending on what the key the music is in.

It all gets pretty complicated and the theory goes beyond most people's comprehension of music altogether, but most important are the results.

On TikTok, there have been many videos that have gone viral where an iconic song has been given the Negative Harmony edit - here are some examples.

Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody

This version of the classic Queen song has received more than 4.4m views, as people have taken to the comments to share how much they like it.

One person said: "Why is this so... powerful? the melody seems so much more... sorrowful."

"This finally captures the sinister tone of the lyrics," another person wrote.

Someone else added: "It sounds way darker, I like it."

"In an alternate reality, a band named 'King' would've been the one who made this song," a fourth person commented.

Britney Spears - Toxic

Toxic by Britney Spears also got the Negative Harmony treatment, which received 6.7m views.

One person quipped: "Bro this ain’t toxic… this healthy."

"Can't tell if I'm vibing or having an anxiety attack," another person said.

Someone else replied: "It sounds oddly joyful and upbeat."

"This sounds like something Pitch Perfect would cover," a fourth person commented.

Clearly these versions are having a profound impact on people as TikToker @dylans.mainspam posted a video of himself falling down in response to hearing Negative Harmony version of Bohemian Rhapsody.

"Me trying to live my life but the Negative Harmony version of 'Bohemian Rhapsody' exists," he wrote.

While @the_person0616 similarly collapsed to the ground as they wrote: "Trying to go about my life but the the Negative Harmony version of Bohemian Rhapsody starts playing."

The TikToker added in the caption: "As if the original version wasn't good enough, it puts such a unique spin on the song."

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