M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes" got a huge boost to its mainstream, international profile when it was used in Slumdog Millionaire, but the song had a pretty good thing going already beforehand. It charted in 2008 before the movie was released, not least because of some strong hooks.
The song's first and most pervasive hook is the staccato guitar/descending high-pitched trio of notes (D-C#-G or D-A-G) that forms the foundation of the song. Here it is at the start of the song. Listen for it in the background:
Hear the hook: MIA Paper Planes MP3, background trio Copyright info
This combination repeats from the very beginning to the very end of the song (just a short pause in the breakdown). Somehow I didn't notice until someone else pointed it out: this is actually a sample from "Straight to Hell" by The Clash.
Hear the Clash version of the M.I.A. hook: Straight to Hell MP3 Copyright info
On the Clash track, it works to give the song a war-in-Japan feel -- sort of Asian, sort of unsettling. It does the same here, both by the music's own virtue, and (if you know the reference) by the connection to the Clash song. (The chorus of the Clash song is "Go straight to hell, boys..." and is obviously about young men in combat.) And sampling, as I've written, is hook-y because it's familiar -- if you knew a hook already, it's easier to remember a new song that incorporates that hook.
The other super-distinctive hook has got to be the non-instrument sounds of gunfire and a cash register in the chorus.
Hear the hook: M.I.A. Paper Planes MP3, gunfire and cash registers Copyright info
Non-musical samples like this are always hook-y when they're incorporated right into the song (as opposed to just an ambient embellishment). Think of the ping-pong ball sound in Depeche Mode's "Pipeline," the hammer-on-anvil percussion in "Tainted Love," the cash register (just like this one) in Pink Floyd's "Money" -- all super hook-y.
M.I.A.as a Gangsta: Shock Value Hook
I've argued before that novelty and shock are hook-y devices, because they're memorable (and better yet, because people will talk about them and spread the word of your song).
Though "gangsta" music (usually rap) has been around since the early '80s, it still carries shock value for most of the non-rap-listening community. I'm pretty sure people introduced to "Paper Planes" via Slumdog Millionaire aren't, for the most part, a gangsta crowd, so the shock value would be easy to come by. In "Paper Planes," you get lyrics like "some I murder / some I let go," and the song is all about stealing people's money, so I think it qualifies thematically as gangsta-ism.
The shock hook is boosted by M.I.A.'s delivery, which at times sounds like she's singing a nursery rhyme. In those instances, the shock hook combines with a novelty hook, too. The Indian/Sri Lankan feel also add to the novelty, given that we haven't yet had a huge influence from Indian music in North American pop.
Structurally, the song is also set up for hook-y success: every verse is repeated a second time right after it's first introduced.
Curious footnote: "Paper Planes" has now itself been sampled and referenced lyrically by various artists including Kanye West. Is being sampled the biggest form of musical flattery?
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