Finally, proof that a lot of songs sound a lot like other songs

It’s no secret that popular music is filled with similar-sounding chord progressions, riffs, and beats; a finite number of notes extended over an infinite number of songs is bound to result in some doubling, especially when certain combinations sound so much better than others. But that knowledge doesn’t necessarily change the weird sense of déjà vu that comes with recognizing the shared genetic material between two songs. (Or, even worse, recognizing a familiar element in a song but not being able to place what it sounds like.) Now, thanks to the website That Song Sounds Like, you can have that experience over and over and over again: Curated by Keith Hopkin, the site pairs up audio clips of similar-sounding (but not sampled) songs, like Steely Dan’s “Barrytown” and XTC’s “Standing In For Joe,” or Kid Rock’s “Born Free” and The White Stripes’ “As Ugly As I Seem,” or, uh, Whitney Houston’s “I’m Your Baby Tonight” and the theme from X-Men. (There’s also a whole sub-category of sound-alikes that have resulted in legal action.) As of right now, there are nearly 200 pairings just waiting to help you waste a good chunk of your workday; kick it off with this video that traces the progression of a familiar melody from Cat Stevens to Joe Satriani to Coldplay: