chip n dale rescue rangers: a harmonic analysis

unless you're taking some severe steps to avoid it, cheese is a significant part of your musical diet.  not the sappy, maudlin sort of cheese; the generic, overused kind.  a cheesy song is a song that's already been written dozens or even hundreds of times before.  there's a reason why it's so ubiquitous in the world of modern music: it sounds good.  it's a lot easier to enjoy a song when it already sounds familiar on the first listen.

this fact puts the modern songwriter in an awkward position.  you need originality to sustain your artistic integrity, but you need cheese to sustain accessibility.  well-rounded songwriting means finding a balance somewhere in the middle, which can sometimes be a lot more difficult than it sounds. (...)